Simington Blasts ABC; Senate Democrats Say CBS Should Not Settle with Trump
The FCC’s recent pressure campaign against broadcast networks continued this week as Commissioner Nathan Simington blasted ABC and American Idol for hiring Lin-Manuel Miranda. Meanwhile, a group of nine Senate Democratic caucus members pressed Paramount Global not to settle President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against CBS over 60 Minutes’ October 2024 interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris, who was then the Democrats’ presidential nominee (see 2411010044).
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“Shame on you, @AmericanIdol & @ABC,” Simington said in a post Tuesday on X. “We used to honor dissidents -- now we elevate partisan bullies,” he said in a follow-up post. Simington’s condemnation of ABC was based on American Idol picking Miranda as a guest mentor for the show’s upcoming two-part “Disney Night” episode.
“You picked Lin-Manuel Miranda to mentor young performers just weeks after he pulled his show from the Kennedy Center over Republican ties,” Simington said, referring to Miranda canceling a performance of his musical Hamilton from the venue after President Donald Trump installed new leadership, including himself as board chair. Simington also criticized ABC over Miranda’s past support of imprisoned members of Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional Puertorriquena, a Puerto Rican independence group responsible for bombings in the 1970s and '80s. “This is the same man who supported FALN terrorists responsible for deadly bombings in the U.S.” ABC didn’t comment.
In addition, Simington reposted comments from new interim Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell, who appeared to call for FCC intervention over Miranda’s hiring. Choosing Miranda as guest mentor is “an obvious move to support political intolerance,” Grenell said. “Dumb Move, @abc.” He also tagged FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. In his reply, Simington wrote, “Thank God for leaders like @RichardGrenell who still stand for truth, courage & real tolerance.”
Miranda said in an interview in March that he canceled Kennedy Center performances to oppose Trump. "We’re not going to be a part of it while it is the Trump Kennedy Center,” Miranda said then. In calling Miranda a bully, Simington's post Tuesday said the U.S. should instead honor dissidents who behaved like the late cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, who was exiled from the Soviet Union for aiding government critics.
Broadcast attorneys have told us the FCC lacks authority over the content of network programming, but Carr’s letters to networks have claimed the Communications Act’s public interest standard gives the agency broad oversight over TV and radio stations. Earlier this week, the Center for American Rights asked the FCC to impose conditions on CBS over how its national newscast selects stories from around the country (see 2505060063).
Senators: Don't 'Capitulate'
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and eight Senate Democrats are urging Paramount Chair Shari Redstone to “not capitulate” by settling Trump’s CBS lawsuit. “It appears that Paramount is now seeking to settle this case with Trump for as much as $75 million,” the senators wrote in a letter to Redstone released Wednesday. “In our view, that would be a grave mistake. We urge you and Paramount’s board of directors to reconsider.” CBS also faces an FCC news distortion proceeding (see 2502050063).
Trump’s lawsuit “is an attack on the [U.S.] Constitution and the First Amendment,” the senators said. “It has absolutely no merit and it cannot stand.” ABC in February settled a similar Trump lawsuit by issuing a public statement of regret and making a $15 million contribution to the foundation responsible for constructing Trump’s presidential library (see 2412160043).
“Rewarding Trump with tens of millions of dollars for filing this bogus lawsuit will not cause him to back down on his war against the media and a free press,” the senators told Redstone. “It will only embolden him to shakedown, extort and silence CBS and other media outlets that have the courage to report about issues that Trump may not like.” In the U.S., “presidents do not get to punish or censor the media for criticizing them,” the senators said. “Freedom of the press is what sets us apart from tin pot dictatorships and authoritarian regimes.”
Paramount didn’t comment.
Trump on Wednesday again aired his grievances with CBS, saying on Truth Social that 60 Minutes’ Harris interview “turned out to be much worse than expected, with her answers being unlawfully fixed, manipulated, and doctored throughout by CBS, in order to try and make Kamala appear at least somewhat coherent.” The “full [Harris] transcript … shows that the ‘interview’ was nothing but fake, corrupt, anti-Trump propaganda.”