President Donald Trump’s attack dog atop the FCC, Brendan Carr, garnered lots of attention on Saturday for threatening the licenses of local broadcasters over news coverage he deemed to be “fake.”

Carr has very little power to follow through. Television stations are not at serious risk of being banned from the airwaves because of Carr’s crusade.

However, his comments still carry weight since Carr represents the US government and advances Trump’s policy agenda. The administration keeps taking extraordinary actions and applying extreme pressure to crack down on news content and entertainment that the president dislikes.

Thus, critics called Carr’s latest threat “authoritarian” and “unconstitutional,” and some suggested that he did it for attention, to publicly pressure local stations licensed by the FCC.

On Saturday, Carr followed up on one of Trump’s Truth Social posts complaining about news coverage of the Iran war by posting a warning on X.

“Broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions — also known as the fake news — have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up,” Carr wrote.

“The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not.”