Trump FCC Chair Who Demanded Jimmy Kimmel Suspension Once Slammed Censoring ‘Late-Night Comedians’
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr also once said Trump bears responsibility for the “political violence” on January 6.
The Republican official who appears to have played a role in the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night comedy show once railed against censorship against “late-night comedians” and suggested that Donald Trump was responsible for “political violence.”
After that Republican, Federal Communications Chair Brendan Carr, threatened to take action against the network over comments Kimmel made earlier this week about the assassination of Charlie Kirk, ABC pulled the late-night comedian off the air “indefinitely” on Wednesday.
During his Monday monologue, Kimmel said: “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 did not explicitly say the man accused of killing Kirk, Tyler Robinson, was conservative. But many on the right condemned the comments, with Carr saying during a podcast interview, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.” He argued that broadcasters “have a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest.”
Not long after Carr’s comments, Nexstar – an owner of ABC affiliate stations nationwide that is currently seeking FCC approval for a $6.2 billion acquisition – said that it would preempt Kimmel’s show “for the foreseeable future." And not long after that, ABC announced the late-night host had been pulled off the air.
Carr’s apparent unprecedented role in getting the comedian taken off-air is a dangerous escalation in the administration’s already-rampant assault on speech. It is especially jarring when you look at the long list of times just in the past five years that he’s revered free speech, specifically comedy and satire. Take a look:
Satire is one of the ‘most important forms of free speech’
Defending a candidate who posted a lightly manipulated video from the 2020 Democratic presidential primary debates, Carr wrote in February 2020 that political satire “is one of the oldest and most important forms of free speech,” and “challenges those in power while using humor to draw more people in to the discussion.”
He added:
“From Internet memes to late-night comedians, from cartoons to the plays and poems as old as organized government itself - Political Satire circumvents traditional gatekeepers & helps hold those in power accountable.
“Not surprising that it’s long been targeted for censorship.”
“This isn’t a close call or a slippery slope,” he continued. “Shutting down this type of political speech - especially at the urging of those targeted or threatened by its message - would represent a serious threat to our freedoms and ability to hold those in power accountable.”
‘Less speech means more power’
In January 2021, in response to Discord banning a server tied to the GameStop stock surge, Carr lamented: “Less speech means more power for established gatekeepers.”