Center for American Rights Wants FCC Investigation of ABC's Kimmel
The FCC should investigate ABC over late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s donations to and fundraising for politicians who have appeared on his show, said the Center for American Rights in a complaint filed Thursday.
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CAR said in the filing that Kimmel’s “lopsided” hosting of Democrats and his failure to disclose fundraising activities on their behalf violate FCC rules. Kimmel hosted fundraising campaigns for former President Joe Biden while repeatedly having campaign officials -- including former Vice President Kamala Harris -- on his program, CAR said. The host “consistently hijacked the public airwaves for his personal political agenda” without “ever telling the viewers that he was personally engaged in their race.” An aide to Commissioner Anna Gomez replied to a post on X about the CAR complaint Thursday with three yawning emojis.
Communications attorneys told us that some of the policies that CAR cited in the complaint are no longer in effect and that CAR’s interpretations of FCC policy run counter to how those rules have been historically interpreted. NAB, ABC and the FCC didn’t comment.
CAR’s filing pointed to rules against payola, the equal opportunity rules and cases from the 1970s and 1980s involving broadcasters who were political candidates or employees of political campaigns, offering them as evidence that the agency has policies against broadcaster conflicts of interest.
The FCC’s rules on payola stem from its sponsorship ID rules, which govern “payments TO broadcasters, not payments BY broadcasters,” emailed Andrew Schwartzman, a longtime communications attorney and vocal critic of FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. The complaint said that ABC violated FCC policies but didn't point to a specific rule that has been broken, he said. It also cited FCC enforcement cases that were based on the now-repealed fairness doctrine, he noted. “Sadly, the current Chair treated an earlier, equally whackadoodle filing from this group (which seems to have no constituency) as if it raised a genuine issue. Evidently, that has encouraged it to file something that is even more ridiculous,” Schwartzman added.
"It's sad that baseless, political complaints like this seem to have a receptive ear in the FCC," Public Knowledge Legal Director John Bergmayer said in an email. "I would suggest that the 'Center for American Rights' familiarize itself with the rights contained in the First Amendment. They're pretty important."
Attorneys and public interest groups lodged similar objections to CAR’s news distortion complaint against CBS (see 2503100073), but it was endorsed by Carr and then-Commissioner Nathan Simington anyway and led to a still-open FCC proceeding. CAR wrote the FCC earlier this week about recent complaints against CBS from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem (see 2509020066).
The FCC Enforcement Bureau “should investigate the full overlap between Mr. Kimmel’s partisan personal activities and the programming on his show before determining the level of appropriate response,” CAR wrote in the complaint.
The complaint also targeted political donations made by staff members of Kimmel’s show and suggested there should be new FCC rules or network policies requiring more disclosures for non-news employees. “These are topics for further research and discussion within the industry -- and hopefully better voluntary compliance by the networks and shows,” it said. CAR said ABC “should clarify its policy for hosts and employees with a personal political interest in guests, which could include insulating employees from certain guests, not inviting certain guests, using other staff on certain guests, or full disclosure to viewers.”