Feud over 1st Amendment

President Trump continued his jihad against the news media this week, taking special aim at NBC News.

It was the network that reported on a July meeting at which Trump allegedly told senior White House aides he wanted to vastly increase the nation’s nuclear arsenal. It was that same meeting, which, according to the network, prompted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to call Trump a “moron.”

All of which has prompted the president to lash out repeatedly, including during an Oval Office meeting Wednesday with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, saying, “It’s frankly disgusting the way the press is able to write whatever they want to write. And people should look into it.”

It was unclear at the time what “people” he had in mind when it came to investigating the press.

But in a later Twitter message he added, “Network news has become so partisan, distorted and fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked. Not fair to public!”

Perhaps someone will enlighten the president that it’s not the networks that are licensed, but individual stations in communities around the country — but why interrupt a good rant with a few salient facts.

In fact, FCC member Jessica Rosenworcel responded on Twitter, “Not how it works,” and linked to an FCC guide to how stations are regulated.

But the fact that the threat is meaningless isn’t really the point.

It was U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, a Republican, who in a statement issued Wednesday night said it best:

“Mr. President: Words spoken by the President of the United States matter. Are you tonight recanting of the oath you took on January 20th to preserve, protect, and defend the First Amendment?”

Nothing gives the president the right to pick and choose what parts of the Constitution he’ll defend — no matter how much he despises the press. The media are the first target of tyrants and autocrats around the globe, a club no U.S. president should seek to join.