Theodore Who?

Theodore Roosevelt (courtesy of Underwood Archives)

I have no idea how American history is being taught these days. However, my own high school teacher seems to have had a soft spot for President Theodore Roosevelt. These days, that president is best know for saying “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”

It goes without saying that no one would accuse President Donald Trump from speaking softly! That may be just as well, because the ABC television network decided this morning to challenge him. This was not a direct challenge, of course. Rather the target was the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). According to a New York Times article by Jim Rutenberg and John Koblin, ABC has asked as federal court to stop FCC from “pursuing aggressive regulatory moves that the network said posed an “existential threat” to its operations.” Put another way, ABC is claiming that its First Amendment rights have been infringed; and the authors described this as “a rare example of a major media organization suing the Trump administration over its unrelenting campaign to punish the national press through regulation and lawsuits.”

As of this writing, the FCC has not yet responded; but, as the Times puts it, this is a “developing story!”