President Trump lashed out on social media late Sunday against ABC and NBC, putting the nation's top broadcast regulator once more at the center of his culture wars.

License revocations are a lot more complicated than Trump makes them sound. The FCC doesn't issue licenses directly to networks such as CBS, NBC, or ABC. The FCC's licensing authority is over broadcast stations, although many of those stations are owned and operated by a big network.

What’s a broadcast license? Who needs one? Anyone who wants to run a TV station in the US must request and secure a license from the Federal Communications Commission, the regul