Donald Trump’s Threat to Yank Broadcast Television Licenses is Stupid, Counterproductive, and, Oh Yes, Unconstitutional

I was 10 years old and at home with my family in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of Washington DC, just after dinner one night when we got a call from the White House. It was President John F. Kennedy calling for my dad, Newton Minow, then then 35-year-old Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, the federal agency that licenses the broadcast networks and regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable. President Kennedy…