\n<\/p>\n
\n\tBrendan Carr, the Trump-appointed chairman of the FCC, agreed to appear before the Senate Commerce Committee to testify about the events that led to ABC\u2019s temporary suspension of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel. Carr, in comments on a conservative podcast prior to Kimmel\u2019s benching, had threatened to investigate claims of \u201cnews distortion\u201d against ABC affiliates, implying the FCC could pull their broadcast licenses, unless they took Kimmel off the air.<\/p>\n
\n\tNo date has been set for Carr\u2019s appearance yet. A spokesperson for the committee told Variety<\/em> they were pressing to schedule the hearing. According to a report by Semafor, which first reported the news, the committee is expecting the hearing to be held in November but that the date could move later. The FCC\u2019s two other commissioners, Republican Olivia Trusty and Democratic appointee Anna Gomez, are also expected to appear at the hearing.<\/p>\n \n\tSen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) chairs the Senate Commerce Committee. Two weeks ago, Cruz criticized Carr\u2019s comments about Kimmel, comparing the FCC chairman to a \u201cmafioso,\u201d\u00a0and said it set a bad precedent for ensuring free speech for conservatives.<\/p>\n \n\tThe controversy started after Kimmel on the Sept. 15 episode of his show said that the \u201cMAGA gang\u201d was trying to \u201ccharacterize\u201d the alleged killer of Charlie Kirk \u201cas anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it.\u201d On Sept. 17, Disney-owned ABC suspended \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d after Carr threatened to take action against local affiliates over the remark, which he called \u201csome of the sickest conduct possible.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tOn the podcast of conservative commentator Benny Johnson, Carr threatened ABC and its affiliates if they did not \u201ctake action\u201d on Kimmel: \u201cWe can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel or there\u2019s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead,\u201d Carr said. Shortly afterward, two large ABC station groups \u2014 Sinclair and Nexstar \u2014 said they were preempting Kimmel\u2019s show (and Sinclair specifically thanked Carr for his remarks). Carr celebrated the news about Kimmel\u2019s suspension, sending a CNN reporter a GIF of \u201cThe Office\u2019s\u201d Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute making \u201craise the roof\u201d gestures.<\/p>\n \n\tLast week, Carr downplayed his role in Kimmel\u2019s suspension, saying that he never threatened to revoke licenses and that Nexstar and Sinclair opted to preempt the show of their own accord. Carr said his comment that \u201cWe can do this the easy way or the hard way\u201d was a hypothetical point about what the FCC might do if there was a \u201cnews distortion\u201d complaint filed against Kimmel and ABC and that Democrats had engaged in \u201cdistortion and projection\u201d over his comments.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhat I\u2019ve been very clear in the context of the Kimmel episode is the FCC and myself in particular have expressed no view on the ultimate merits [of a \u2018news distortion\u2019 complaint about Kimmel] had something like that been filed what our take would be one way or the other,\u201d Carr said Sept. 22 at the 2025 Concordia Annual Summit in New York. <\/p>\n \n\tCruz, on his podcast \u201cVerdict with Ted Cruz,\u201d\u00a0said he \u201chates what Kimmel said\u201d and that he was \u201cthrilled that he was fired.\u201d (Kimmel was not \u201cfired.\u201d) However, Cruz said, about Carr\u2019s threats to broadcasters, \u201cThat will end up bad for conservatives. There will come a time when a Democrat wins again, wins the White House. They will get rid of everything America that\u2019s conservative. They\u2019ll get rid of every podcast. They\u2019ll get rid of everything. They will silence us. They will use this power and they will use it ruthlessly and that is dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAfter ABC announced the suspension of Kimmel, Gomez, the FCC\u2019s lone Democratic commissioner, suggested Carr was exploiting Kirk\u2019s assassination \u201cas justification for broader censorship and control.\u201d \u201cThis Administration is increasingly using the weight of government power to suppress lawful expression,\u201d she wrote in a post on X. \u201cAnd it is doing so not because speech glorifies violence or breaks the law, but because it challenges those in power or reflects views they oppose. We must stand firm against every attempt to silence dissent, punish satirists and government critics, and erode individual liberty.\u201d When Disney reinstated Kimmel, Gomez said, \u201cI am glad to see Disney find its courage in the face of clear government intimidation.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMeanwhile, last week Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California) and eight other senators sent a letter to Carr posing a series of questions about the episode. They wrote that Carr\u2019s actions in the Kimmel situation, along with President Trump\u2019s lawsuits against media organizations and the defunding of public broadcasting, \u201crepresent the most blatant and coordinated attack on the free press in American history.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe FCC\u2019s regulatory authority over broadcast licenses was never intended to serve as a weapon to silence criticism or punish satirical commentary,\u201d Schiff and the other senators wrote. \u201cYour agency\u2019s mission is to serve the public interest, not to act as an enforcement arm for political retribution against media outlets that displease those in power.\u201d The letter asked Carr to disclose any communications between the FCC and ABC, Disney or its affiliates about the Kimmel show, as well as any communications with the White House.<\/p>\n \n\tA separate group of senators, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), sent a letter to the CEOs of Nexstar and Sinclair asking them to explain their decisions to preempt \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d, including whether Nexstar\u2019s decision had anything to do with its pending $6.2 billion merger with Tegna, for which it needs FCC approval. <\/p>\n \n\tSinclair and Nexstar announced Sept. 26 that they were ending their preemption of \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d and would immediately begin airing the show on their ABC affiliates. Both companies claimed their decisions were independent of any government influence or communications. Sinclair and Nexstar also both asserted that they were justified in originally deciding to preempt Kimmel\u2019s show.<\/p>\n \n\tRELATED: How the \u2018Jimmy Kimmel Live!\u2019 Flap Exposed The Growing Conflicts Between the Networks and Their Affiliates<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Brendan Carr, the Trump-appointed chairman of the FCC, agreed to appear before the Senate Commerce Committee to testify about the events that led to ABC\u2019s temporary suspension of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel. Carr, in comments on a conservative podcast prior to Kimmel\u2019s benching, had threatened to investigate claims of \u201cnews distortion\u201d against ABC affiliates, implying<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[15390,2431,3052,4698,235,441,1314,4594,15391],"class_list":{"0":"post-25468","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-carr","9":"tag-chair","10":"tag-committee","11":"tag-fcc","12":"tag-jimmy","13":"tag-kimmel","14":"tag-senate","15":"tag-suspension","16":"tag-testify"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}