In the immediate wake of the Jimmy Kimmel Live! controversy, President Donald Trump has now suggested that broadcast networks should have their FCC licenses revoked if they air overwhelmingly negative coverage of — or commentary about — him.
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, “I have read someplace that the networks were 97 percent against me, I get 97 percent negative, and yet I won and easily,” according to The New York Times.
He added on the return flight from his U.K. visit: “I would think maybe their license should be taken away.”
Trump also called networks “an arm of the Democrat party” that are out to get him.
The president’s latest remarks are an escalation of what many are calling an attack on free speech. While Trump has consistently berated his opponents and members of the Democratic Party, it appears he doesn’t want the same done to him — at least not on TV.
This all stemmed from remarks comedian Jimmy Kimmel made on his show Monday night about the alleged shooter who killed right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. Kimmel mocked MAGA Republicans over what he saw as scrambling attempts to distance their own political affiliations from alleged Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said at the time.
The comments quickly caught Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr’s attention. Carr condemned the monologue material and proceeded to threaten ABC affiliate licenses if they continued to carry the show. “[This] appears to be an action by Jimmy Kimmel to play into the narrative that this was somehow a MAGA or Republican-motivated person,” Carr said on a podcast. “What people don’t understand is that the broadcasters … have a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest. When we see stuff like this, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
ABC ended up “indefinitely” suspending Jimmy Kimmel Live! The swift and stern response by Disney has drawn a wave of its own criticism. As The Hollywood Reporter previously reported, the decision to pull Kimmel’s late night show was made by CEO Bob Iger and co-chairman of Disney Entertainment Dana Walden.
The FCC regulates the public airwaves in the U.S., giving out licenses to TV stations to broadcast over radio frequencies. While Carr has suggested that the agency should investigate other shows, like The View (also on ABC), the lone Democratic commissioner on the FCC, Anna Gomez, said the agency doesn’t “have the ability to actually take these actions” based on content.
“I see this as a part of this administration’s campaign of censorship and control, and what it’s doing is it’s weaponizing its licensing authority in order to bring broadcasters to heel and to really think twice about what they say about this administration,” she added at Axios‘ Media Trends summit on Thursday. “It’s not because of the content of these broadcasts, whether it’s the Jimmy Kimmel show or CBS, is actually inciting violence or breaking the law. All it’s doing is speaking about this administration in a way that it does not like that is contrary to the First Amendment. It’s contrary to the Communications Act.”
