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.