President Donald Trump, who has made no secret of his distaste for CNN, tweeted Tuesday, “They should clean up and strengthen CNN and get back to honest reporting!” | Evan Vucci/AP Photo Trump ‘shithole’ coverage prompted more than 160 indecency complaints Many directed their ire at CNN, which the FCC has no authority over, according to documents POLITICO received following an open records request.

At least 162 people filed indecency complaints with the Federal Communications Commission about news coverage of President Donald Trump's reported remarks denouncing immigrants from “shithole countries,” according to documents obtained by POLITICO.

Trump later denied using that specific language, although the White House waffled on the issue and witnesses such as Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) insisted he used those words in January to refer to Haiti and several unspecified African countries.


Either way, the resulting news stories ruffled the sensibilities of dozens of television viewers after several networks and news programs opted not to censor the word, according to the documents, which the FCC provided under the Freedom of Information Act.

Many of the viewer complaints over the controversy implored the FCC to take action against one of Trump's favorite targets: CNN, which as a cable network does not fall under the FCC’s indecency rules. Only the agency's power to keep obscenity — that is, hardcore pornography — off the air applies to cable and satellite stations.

“They intentionally broadcast the word over 30 times to paint the President as a bigoted racist,” one person from Portland, Ore., complained two days after The Washington Post first reported that Trump said the word in a private meeting with lawmakers. “CNN is out of control and is attempting to completely undermine the President of the United States. CNN has overstepped their 1st Amendment rights and needs to be punished.”

A Pennsylvania individual said CNN's coverage of Trump had transformed it into "simply, a trashy channel." The person asked the FCC to fine CNN, which it lacks the authority to do.

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Trump has made no secret of his own distaste for CNN, which he slammed in multiple tweets just Tuesday. “They should clean up and strengthen CNN and get back to honest reporting!” Trump, who frequently dismisses the network's programming as fake news, wrote Tuesday morning.

CNN was mentioned 249 times across the 162 pages of response that the FCC supplied to POLITICO. Some cited specific CNN journalists, such as Don Lemon and Jim Acosta, and called the network fake news. One suggested most members of the media hate Trump and his voters and said the use of such indecent language is “responsible for the growing animosity that leads to riots and other crimes and is in fact tearing our country apart.”

Several commenters mentioned their children and said they saw the news broadcast in a public area such as a restaurant, with the word "shithole" featured prominently on screen. One mentioned a TV tuned to CNN that was visible from a McDonald’s playground area, designed for children.

“My 9 year old daughter keeps hearing and seeing the word Shithole all over CNN,” one parent from Fountain Hills, Ariz., wrote the FCC on Jan. 14. “CNN needs an R rating or NC-17 rating displaying and saying this type of vulgarity.”

“i don't care what the president said behind closed doors, he didn't say it on my tv while kids were watching,” added another parent from Escondido, Calif. “The networks and news channels all did and should be fined.”

Others made it clear that Trump saying the word did not make it newsworthy enough to air. As one put it: “I do not care if Jesus Himself dropped an F bomb in a CLOSED MEETING.”

Although CNN received the lion’s share of complaints stemming from coverage of Trump's comments, other outlets were mentioned as well, including NBC News, NPR and MSNBC. Like CNN, MSNBC is a cable network outside the FCC's jurisdiction for policing indecency and profanity.

The volume of complaints pales in comparison to the hundreds of thousands the agency received in 2004 following the “wardrobe malfunction” of singer Janet Jackson during the Super Bowl halftime show aired on CBS.

But it's high for news coverage, even in the Trump era. Coverage of the "Access Hollywood" tape from the 2016 election, in which Trump could be heard boasting about groping women, prompted fewer than two dozen FCC complaints, according to reports at the time. Airings of Madonna's repeated use of the word "f---" during a Women's March speech the day after Trump's inauguration reportedly drew just over 100 complaints.

The FCC may be unlikely to take action on any of the complaints, even against the broadcast networks. The agency has generally been loath to test its power to police broadcast content after the Supreme Court in 2012 knocked down a number of FCC profanity fines and declined to overturn a lower court's decision to kill a $550,000 fine over the Super Bowl incident.

Still, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, a Republican, has said he hasn't relinquished the agency's broadcast watchdog authority.

"If we are presented with some complaints, we are duty-bound to enforce the law, and the law that is on the books today requires broadcast TV to keep it clean,” Pai told Fox Business last year. “We take that obligation seriously."

A spokesman for Pai declined to comment Tuesday on the complaints involving Trump’s alleged remark.

Multiple people suggested the president himself should be fined for his role in starting the news spectacle. Another, based out of Cincinnati, offered a simpler solution.

"This is [an] expletive and shouldn't be broadcast over federal airwaves,” the individual told the FCC. “To solve this problem, the President shouldn't say shit like this."