FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, appointed by President Trump, insisted there was no pressure from the White House to issue the unprecedented order forcing Disney’s ABC to reapply for spectrum licenses early. The move comes after President Trump called for the firing of Jimmy Kimmel over a joke the late-night show host made about First Lady Melania Trump.
“There was no outside pressure” on the matter, Carr told reporters Thursday after the FCC’s April public meeting. He maintained the agency’s official position that the ABC license review was due to the agency’s investigation into Disney’s potential violations of discrimination rules through its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices, and not because of “speech.”
That said, Kerr said President Trump, like first lady Kimmel, has “every right” to ask ABC to fire Kimmel, adding: “There are a lot of people who agree with the president on this.”
Asked if Kimmel’s joke would play a role in the FCC’s review of ABC’s license, Kerr said Disney “will have to step in and prove it’s operating in the public interest,” adding that “anyone can file a petition” asking the agency to deny ABC’s license renewal as part of that process, which the FCC will review.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday night, Carr posted a retort to an X commenter who attacked the FCC chief. A user named Brian Christopher tagged Carr in a post that read, “This guy @BrendanCarrFCC is a complete bitch. I can’t wait until the next president replaces his stupid ass.”
Kerr responded with a meme from NBC’s “Parks and Recreation,” quoting Nick Offerman’s Ron Swanson’s line, “I never do two things halfway. I do one whole thing.”
This wasn’t Carr’s cookie-cutter response, like his other works in the MAGA-verse, hitting back at critics with a meme meant to convey bravado or defiance.
Officially, the FCC’s Office of Media said in an April 28 order that it is asking ABC to submit the licenses of eight stations it owns and operates for expedited review based on its investigation into Disney and ABC over possible violations of the FCC’s “prohibition against unlawful discrimination.”
But the timing of the order made it clear that the FCC was responding to anger from Trump and others over Kimmel’s comedic remark that first lady Melania Trump had the “glow of a pregnant widow.” That corner on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” The incident occurred two days before the actual White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 25th was disrupted when an armed man burst through the security perimeter outside the banquet hall, and was subsequently arrested and charged with attempting to assassinate the president.
The perception of the situation as if the FCC was trying to punish or threaten ABC over Kimmel’s joke drew condemnation from advocacy groups and lawmakers.
“The FCC’s broadcast license renewal process must be based on predictability, fairness, and transparency,” Curtis LeGate, president and CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters, said in a statement Wednesday about the order. “The media station’s almost unprecedented request for a single company to quickly reapply for all its licenses, rather than using the traditional enforcement process, violates these principles and creates significant uncertainty for all broadcasters.”
Asked about NAB’s statement, Kerr on Thursday referred to the religious broadcaster’s opposition to Kimmel. “NAB is going to say what NAB says, I get that…I think Disney is a member of NAB, but not all broadcasters agree with NAB on this,” Kerr said. Regarding Kimmel’s Melania joke, he said, “The National Religious Broadcasting Corporation has filed a petition asking the FCC to take action against Disney.”
The NRB announced Monday that it had asked the FCC to investigate ABC after Kimmel made a joke about Melania Trump on an April 23 episode of the late-night show, which the group argued “when viewed in context, raises serious concerns about the normalization and potential incitement of political violence.”
Among those who criticized the FCC’s move against ABC was Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. “It’s not the government’s job to censor speech. I don’t think the FCC should act as a speech police,” Cruz said of accelerating licensing reviews for ABC-affiliated broadcasters.
“I agree with Sen. Cruz that the FCC should not serve as a ‘speech police,'” Carr told reporters Thursday. What we have to do as a government body is enforce rules and regulations, and there are anti-discrimination rules that have nothing to do with speech, which we’ve been promoting across the board. And that became the basis for early renewal of the Disney case. ”
