"When Donald Trump delivered the first White House address of his second presidency Wednesday night, all major U.S. networks beamed his image and voice onto their airwaves, cable feeds and online platforms. Americans ended up watching the Republican president stand in the Diplomatic Reception Room and deliver 18 minutes of aggressive, politically motivated arguments that misstated facts, blamed the nation's ills on his predecessor, exaggerated the results of his nearly 11 months in office and amplified his characteristically gargantuan, immeasurable promises about what's to come."
""It's not that the Oval Office and the White House haven't been used for political speeches before," said former NBC executive Mark Lukasiewicz, who is dean of Hofstra University's communications school after more than a decade leading NBC's special broadcasts, including presidential addresses. "But, as with a great deal of what Donald Trump does as president, this was outside the norm," Lukasiewicz said, adding that news executives are reluctant to flout the historical standard that "when the president feels he needs to speak to the nation, you need to let him speak.""
"The uneasy dynamics were further intensified because Trump spoke the same day that the Federal Communications Commission chairman, Brendan Carr, told members of Congress that his agency, which has regulatory authority over media companies, is not in fact an independent agency as has been understood through generations of Republican and Democratic administrations."
Major U.S. networks aired the first White House address of Donald Trump's second presidency live across television, cable and online platforms. He delivered 18 minutes of aggressive, politically motivated rhetoric that misstated facts, blamed the nation's problems on his predecessor, exaggerated the results of nearly 11 months in office and amplified oversized promises. The speech functioned as political messaging rather than a commander-in-chief announcement. Network executives faced a judgment call about providing prime airtime for a political address. The event coincided with an FCC chairman's statement questioning the agency's independence, heightening concerns about regulatory pressure on broadcasters.
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