Top media networks put on notice after refusing to air Trump's primetime address: 'Serious concerns'

Three broadcast networks decided a primetime address from a sitting president wasn't worth interrupting their schedule for, and now a congressman wants the FCC to ask why. That's the whole story, stripped of the noise. It's worth sitting with that plain fact before anyone starts shouting about censorship or free speech either direction.

Networks have aired these addresses from presidents of both parties for decades, often without much fuss, because there's a long-standing understanding that the country deserves to hear directly from its president on matters of consequence. ABC, NBC and CBS passing this time isn't illegal, and nobody's pretending it is. But it's fair to ask why the rules of the road suddenly changed, and whether the answer has more to do with who's speaking than what's being said. If Barack Obama or Joe Biden had been denied the same slot, the outrage from these same networks would have been instant and loud.

That said, we'd be lying if we said running to the FCC feels like the clean answer here. Programming decisions, even bad ones, even transparently partisan ones, are still the kind of editorial call broadcasters are supposed to make without a government regulator hovering over the choice. Networks should be embarrassed by their own selectiveness, not investigated for it. The better response to biased coverage has always been public pressure and viewers taking their eyeballs elsewhere, not a letter from Capitol Hill asking a federal agency to look into it.

Still, don't mistake this for the networks taking some principled stand. They made a call that says plenty about how they view their obligations to the public, and pretending otherwise insults everyone watching.