Brendan Carr, the Republican chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has denied threatening television networks over a Jimmy Kimmel segment, claiming his comments were misrepresented by Democrats and the media. During a press conference on Tuesday, Carr insisted that broadcasters Nexstar and Sinclair pulled Kimmel's show for business reasons, not due to any pressure from him.
On 17 September, ABC announced it would indefinitely pre-empt Jimmy Kimmel Live! after Carr appeared on a conservative podcast and said, 'We can do this the easy way or the hard way,' urging networks to take action over Kimmel's remarks on the death of pundit Charlie Kirk. Nexstar and Sinclair quickly dropped the show, but ABC reinstated it the following week after a wave of Disney+ cancellations.
Carr faced bipartisan criticism, with Republican Senator Ted Cruz calling his remarks 'dangerous as hell.' At the press conference, Carr said the full context of his interview was clear and accused Democrats of hypocrisy, referencing their 2018 calls to review Sinclair's licenses over a controversial video. He framed the episode as a win for local broadcasters, saying they pushed back against national programming for the first time in decades.
During the FCC meeting, Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez criticised Carr, stating, 'This FCC threatened to go after [ABC], seizing on a late night comedian’s comments as a pretext to punish speech it disliked.' Outside the building, protesters from the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders displayed a billboard reading 'Government can’t control media content,' while activists from Our Revolution wore shirts saying 'Federal Censorship Commission' and chanted 'Fire Carr.'
