Post 9/11 changesPresident George W. Bush signed several standing orders following the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and D.C. that endowed the presidency with massive power in the event of a future national emergency. These orders created the Northern Command for National Defense, the military's first-ever command explicitly directed at "threats" on American soil. In an actual emergency, Northern Command, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency would largely become the functional executive branch of federal government, assuming direct responsibility for anything related to that now-familiar rubric, "national security."
One of these orders also reportedly makes possible the seizure of "radio and television stations and networks." If true, it is unprecedented, as well as somewhat redundant.
According to the rules of the national Emergency Alert System, in which all licensed radio/TV stations are required to participate, the transmission of national emergency messages is mandatory for all broadcasters. Once these have been conveyed, stations are supposed to either stay on the air and await further instructions or shut down (what each station does is dependent on its license class and place in the state/local EAS "chain").
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Some may quibble that Bush's orders derive from a national emergency management contingency portfolio initially drawn up during the Reagan administration. However, the provision directing physical seizure of radio and TV stations is a new addition, authored after 9/11.
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