Republican members of the Federal Communications Commission initially remained silent about President Trump's call to challenge and possibly revoke licenses that allow NBC and other networks to remain on the air.

But Republican Commissioner Michael O'Rielly has now said that "politics" should not interfere with FCC decision-making and that the agency should remain independent. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai today also said that licenses can't be revoked because of news coverage.

Still, O'Rielly defended Trump's attacks on the media, saying the president has been treated poorly by journalists.

On Wednesday last week, Trump said on Twitter that an NBC news report about his nuclear ambitions was "pure fiction" and that NBC and other networks should have their licenses challenged. "Network news has become so partisan, distorted and fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked. Not fair to public!" Trump tweeted.

O’Rielly: Trump is “rightfully venting”

FCC Democrats rebuked Trump within hours, saying that challenging licenses because the president dislikes news coverage would violate the First Amendment. But Chairman Pai initially said nothing despite pressure from Democratic lawmakers and former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler.

O'Rielly was asked about Trump's tweets during an appearance at a conference on spectrum management on Friday.

"I'm pretty consistent on licensing and would not want politics to influence our decision-making," O'Rielly said, according to a report in TR Daily. "I believe in the independence of the agency."

But O'Rielly also said that Trump is "rightfully venting" about the media.

"I think that the president is rightfully venting his experiences and disappointment with how the coverage has been occurring regarding his administration. I've been surprised how vitriolic that the coverage has been," O'Rielly said. "I think that President Clinton got better coverage during the middle of impeachment than President Trump is getting these days."

When contacted by Ars, O'Rielly's office confirmed that the quotes in TR Daily are accurate.

Chairman Pai speaks

At a conference today, Pai said that he is a strong defender of the First Amendment and that "broadcast licenses can't be revoked due to news content or political speech," according to former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, who is attending the conference. (McDowell tweeted the quote from Pai, and we are trying to get more details.)

Previously, telecom experts said that the FCC is unlikely to help Trump punish networks but that Pai may have been reluctant to say so publicly because Trump could demote him from the chairmanship, a Politico article said.

The FCC doesn't issue broadcast licenses to networks, but it does issue licenses to individual stations. The Comcast-owned NBC owns and operates numerous stations in major markets, but NBC content also airs on many affiliate stations that are not owned by NBC.

Although the president nominates FCC commissioners and selects the chair, the commission by statute is supposed to operate independently of the White House.

Even if the FCC doesn't act in response to Trump's wishes, Democratic members of Congress had urged Pai to respond to the president publicly because Trump's "threat alone may already be chilling free speech across the country."

Press freedom advocacy groups wrote a letter to Pai last week, saying that Trump's "threats are what you would expect to hear in a dictatorship, not a democracy, and they must be condemned in the strongest possible terms." Pai should "publicly refuse to entertain any broadcast-license challenges on the basis of the president’s disapproval of a network’s news coverage," the letter said.