Carr Pressures Disney and Local Stations Over Kimmel Monologue

“Look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr told host Benny Johnson on The Benny Show podcast Tuesday. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel or, you know, there's going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

Carr also said local broadcasters should preempt network programming and refuse to air Jimmy Kimmel Live! until Disney acts. “I think that it's really sort of past time that a lot of these licensed broadcasters themselves push back on Comcast and Disney and say: ‘Listen, we are going to preempt. We are not going to run Kimmel anymore until you straighten this out because we licensed broadcasters are running the possibility of fines or license revocation from the FCC.”

“An inexcusable act of political violence by one disturbed individual must never be exploited as justification for broader censorship or control,” said FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez in an emailed statement. "We must stand firm against every attempt to silence dissent, punish satirists and government critics, and erode individual liberty. To surrender our right to speak freely is to accept that those in power, not the people, will set the boundaries of debate that define a free society." ABC and NAB didn’t comment.

In a monologue opening his show Monday, Kimmel said, “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA [Make America Great Again] 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.”

That comment drew widespread criticism from conservatives and appeared to be the focus of Carr’s warnings to ABC. “In some quarters, there's a very concerted effort to try to lie to the American people” about the nature of “one of the most significant, newsworthy public interest acts that we've seen in a long time,” Carr said. Kimmel’s comments appear “to play into that narrative that this was somehow a MAGA or Republican-motivated person.”

Carr said he had to be careful not to prejudge whether Kimmel’s comment rose to the level of news distortion, but he added that it was “the sickest conduct possible.” In the same monologue, Kimmel extensively mocked President Donald Trump, FBI Director Kash Patel and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.

Asked a question by an ABC reporter Monday, Trump suggested that the network’s coverage of him amounts to hate speech that could lead to prosecution.

Carr said ABC should take disciplinary action against Kimmel but repeatedly said FCC proceedings were also possible. “Obviously, there are calls for him to be fired. I think you could certainly see a path forward for suspension over this.” He argued that an apology from Kimmel would be a “reasonable, minimal step,” adding that the FCC "is going to have remedies that we could look at.” Carr pointed to agency policies against broadcasting hoaxes and news distortion as possible avenues for action. The Center for American Rights, the same entity that filed the news distortion complaint against CBS, targeted Kimmel’s political donations and fundraising earlier this month in a letter calling for an FCC investigation (see 2509040045).

"You can make a strong argument that this is a sort of intentional effort to mislead the American people about a very core fundamental fact, a very important matter," Carr said. "If we do get called upon to cast a vote on this, Disney will have a chance to put in their arguments and explain it. But this is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney."

Carr’s call for local broadcasters to preempt Kimmel’s show puts them in a difficult position, a broadcast attorney told us. Under FCC rules, network affiliate contracts are required to include provisions allowing a station to choose not to air specific content from a network, the attorney said. However, the same contracts also often include incentives for broadcasters to air all or most of the network’s programming, which could make preempting Kimmel costly.

At the same time, the FCC is weighing rule changes with huge financial implications for broadcasting. The agency has an open proceeding on relaxing the national ownership cap, and commissioners are set to vote on a 2022 quadrennial review NPRM that could lead to relaxed local ownership rules later this month. Broadcasters have also been lobbying the agency to set a specific date for the ATSC 3.0 transition, and Nexstar is seeking FCC approval of its proposed purchase of Tegna. With those matters pending, broadcasters will face great pressure to appease Carr, industry officials told us.

First Amendment experts condemned Carr’s remarks in an email. “Chairman Carr's overt threat to take action against ABC for comments by Jimmy Kimmel is a direct affront to both the Communications Act and the First Amendment,” said Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression Chief Counsel Robert Corn-Revere, a former FCC chief of staff. “The Chairman's threadbare claim that the Commission can take such action under its public interest authority is just an embarrassing fig leaf.”

There “is no legal basis for a single statement of this type -- even one that is intentionally made -- to result in the loss of a broadcast license,” said the Freedom Forum's Kevin Goldberg. “Taking that approach would set a troubling precedent -- one that could lead to government oversight of editorial decisions, like letting them review every line of every script prior to broadcast.”