To air or not to air? Nation's TV networks struggle to find the right
balance for Trump speech
[July 17, 2026]
By JOCELYN NOVECK
As President Donald Trump threatened sanctions for those who didn’t
cover his address live Thursday night, the nation’s broadcast and cable
news operations wrestled with the thorniest of questions: To air or not
to air?
Networks and their news operations, broadcast and cable alike, spent the
hours leading up to Trump’s address debating how to cover it — and
struggling to balance delivering the news with handing over their
airwaves to potential falsehoods about the 2020 elections.
In the end, a patchwork quilt of coverage was largely united by one
common strategy: real-time fact-checking as much as was possible even
while the president was still speaking.
The dilemma took place against a backdrop of deep tension between the
media and a president working to exert control over it by whatever means
he can. Even in his speech itself, Trump excoriated networks that chose
not to carry it live, saying that “NBC and ABC fake news” avoided it
because they “don't like the topic.” He also threatened them with
consequences, using the presidential pulpit to suggest they should be
sanctioned for their editorial decisions.
"They and others in the media are part of a plot," Trump said, offering
no evidence for his assertion. There is also no evidence of fraud in the
2020 elections.
“They want to continue this fraud for whatever reason. They want to keep
it going," he said. "Fraud like this should mean a revocation of their
licenses. They use our public multibillion-dollar-in-value airwaves for
absolutely no money. They pay nothing. All we want is honesty in our
elections and honesty in reporting.”
The tension between Trump and the news media during his second term has
taken many forms, from sanctions against members of the White House
press corps to regulatory actions through the Federal Communications
Commission to outright lawsuits.
There were a variety of approaches to coverage
The media outlets' decision-making — seemingly last-minute, for many,
with networks divulging their plans minutes beforehand — produced a
variety of coverage scenarios for the 24 minutes of Trump’s address.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins anchored her nightly program. “We aren’t taking it
live,” she said of the speech, given the president’s “well-documented
history” of falsehoods. Panelists were on hand for analysis and
fact-checking. “Sadly, we have no choice to be skeptical when this
president talks elections,” said the network’s veteran correspondent
John King.
Fox News and Fox Broadcasting aired the president’s speech live. But ABC
and NBC did not, sticking with regular programming — “Press Your Luck,”
in ABC's case, and an animal show featuring alligators in NBC's. But
they were ready to cut in as they deemed newsworthy, as well as offering
special reports afterwards.
Both ABC and NBC, however, provided live coverage on their streaming
channels — NBC News NOW and ABC News Live — as well as ABC News Radio.
In the still-young era of streaming, that is increasingly a decision
that allows network news to play it both ways.
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A reporter prepares to film a stand-up as President Donald Trump
speaks from the East Room of the White House, Thursday, July 16,
2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
 As for CBS, the network did preempt
regular programming — a summer rerun of “Georgie & Mandy’s First
Marriage” — to air a special report anchored by Tony Dokoupil. The
report joined the live speech a few minutes in, at 9:06, and left it
before the end, at 9:23.
MS NOW started airing the speech, then cut away for analysis and
commentary after 17 minutes on host Jen Psaki’s show. Psaki used the
split screen for a bit, with her speaking on the right and a muted
Trump appearing on the left.
By the end, of the top networks, the speech was continuing live only
on Fox News.
Robert Thompson, director of Syracuse University’s Bleier Center for
Television and Popular Culture, said coverage of the 24- minute
address made for “a weird evening, where the reporters quote and
describe the speech but show little of what they’re quoting."
Thompson said full coverage was the way to go even — and perhaps
especially — if the speech was believed to contain falsehoods.
“When the president of the United States makes an announcement that
there is going to be a major speech with major information, however
cynical we are … I think that is, by definition, important civic
news significant to the citizenry,” he said. “It’s the president
making the speech, and if the president does what everybody’s
worried about him doing, that is a real reason to be covering it, to
bear witness on exactly what gets said."
Networks had been urged beforehand to carry it live
Earlier Thursday, at the White House briefing, press secretary
Karoline Leavitt had urged TV networks to carry the speech live. And
Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity said on his show that major networks
not going live was “pretty unheard of for a primetime address for a
president.”
Broadcast networks, though, have previously declined primetime
coverage to President Barack Obama for a 2014 speech on immigration,
and President Joe Biden for his speech on democracy, “Battle for the
Soul of the Nation,” in 2022.
The backdrop of Thursday’s speech was an ever-increasing tension
between the media and the administration. Broadcast networks have
been under close scrutiny by the Trump-appointed chair of the FCC,
Brendan Carr, who has launched early reviews of licenses of some
ABC-owned stations and threatened to revoke the long-held exemption
from equal time rules for the popular talk show “The View.”
Trump’s animosity toward news outlets whose agenda runs counter to
his own isn’t new. But in his second presidential term, he has
launched an escalation, often harnessing the levers of the federal
government or attempting to do so. The efforts have taken place both
in actual courtrooms and in the court of public opinion.
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