FCC Pressure on Networks Likely to Continue; Former Chairs Condemn Carr

“Carr and the FCC don't even need to convey an explicit threat of investigation anymore,” said the American Enterprise Institute’s Clay Calvert, who compared broadcast networks caving to the FCC to dominoes falling in sequence. Lawmakers also weighed in on Kimmel's suspension Thursday (see 2509180055).

Carr appeared to downplay the FCC's role in interviews and social media posts Thursday. "I think it was local communities and viewers that were saying, you know, we don't like this stuff anymore. Nexstar was the first mover here, and they said, ‘We're going to preempt this program,’” he said. “People are focused on narrow specifics, but there's a much bigger shift that's taking place right now in the media ecosystem.” Disney and NAB didn’t comment.

Kimmel opened his show Monday with a monologue in which he commented on the possible political affiliation of the accused shooter of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was killed Sept. 10. Disney announced late Wednesday it was putting Kimmel’s show on hiatus after both Sinclair and Nexstar announced that they would cease carrying it indefinitely. Those moves followed Carr's comments on a podcast that networks and local stations should take action against Kimmel or else the FCC would act against them. Nexstar is seeking FCC approval for its $6.2 billion purchase of Tegna, and Sinclair has also been involved in merger rumors. Both broadcasters have been lobbying the FCC to relax ownership rules and speed the ATSC 3.0 transition.

Sinclair didn't respond to questions about whether there had been any contact with the FCC or Carr about pulling Kimmel’s show, but Nexstar said there had been none. "The decision to preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! was made unilaterally by the senior executive team at Nexstar, and they had no communication with the FCC or any government agency prior to making that decision,” a Nexstar spokesperson told us. Carr thanked both Nexstar and Sinclair for taking action against Kimmel in posts on X.

“It seems the FCC wants to relax its rules to permit more broadcast mergers," said Cheryl Leanza of the United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry, "which then gives leverage to the FCC to pressure broadcasters -- and the broadcasters know they must curry favor to get their deals approved.”

In a news release Thursday, FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez blasted Disney and ABC for giving in to the agency's pressure. Carr’s words “led to a shameful show of cowardly corporate capitulation by ABC that has put the foundation of the First Amendment in danger.” When “corporations surrender in the face of that pressure, they endanger not just themselves but the right to free expression for everyone in this country,” she said. “The duty to defend the First Amendment does not rest with government but with all of us.”

A broadcast attorney told us that with Nexstar and Sinclair ceasing carriage, Kimmel’s show wouldn’t have been shown in a quarter of U.S. markets, thus making continuing to air it less cost-effective for Disney.

“Under the law, we have a responsibility to make sure broadcasters are complying with their public interest obligations, and that’s what I’m doing,” FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty said at a Free State Foundation luncheon Thursday.

Former Chairs Weigh In

Former FCC chairs of both parties and a longtime telecom official said Carr’s actions were unprecedented and beyond the agency's authority.

“First of all, his views on the First Amendment are totally wrong, and the worst is, he knows it,” said Mark Fowler, a longtime FCC chair under President Ronald Reagan. “If you look back two or three years, he sang quite a different tune, fully First Amendment first. His approach now is that freedom of speech is ensured by government oversight, really trampling the First Amendment rights of broadcasters for which President Reagan fought so long and hard,” Fowler said in an interview. “To me, it's personal as well as legal and public policy-wise. And he is a disgrace. What he is saying, no other Republican chairman, in my view, and even Democratic chairman, has ever said.”

Tom Wheeler, former chair under Barack Obama, also pointed to Carr’s former statements, citing what he wrote in the Project 2025 plan. “I agree with the guy who wrote as the first seven words in the FCC chapter of the [Project 2025 plan], ‘The FCC should promote freedom of speech,’” he said in an email. “Now he seems to be running the kind of cancel culture he railed against.” The FCC didn't respond to a request for comment on the former Chairs' remarks.

On Thursday, former longtime USTelecom President Walter McCormick said he would boycott the annual FCBA Chairman’s Dinner "and any other events honoring the FCC Chairman, in order to avoid even so much as the appearance of condoning government actions intended to chill political speech," in a LinkedIn post addressed to FCBA members. McCormick, who was a member of President George H.W. Bush's administration, said it's "a dangerous perversion of the public interest standard" to interpret it as permitting federal agencies to threaten broadcast licenses based on their content "or to condition merger approvals on concessions that have either the purpose or effect of personally enriching the President or eliminating programming that is critical of him."

"I know that many of you who agree with these principles are not at liberty to speak freely, as to do so may be met with retribution that could jeopardize your clients’ interests before the Commission," McCormick added. "That in-and-of itself underscores the precariousness of the moment."

Carr said in interviews and social media posts that his actions were in line with long-standing FCC rules on broadcast public interest obligations that the agency had ceased to enforce. “Broadcast TV stations have always been required by their licenses to operate in the public interest -- that includes serving the needs of their local communities.” He has said previously that actions by the last FCC to delay license renewals for Sinclair’s stations and hold up the renewal of WTXF Philadelphia justify his singling out of ABC, NBC and CBS and lack of similar attention to Fox.

In TV interviews Thursday, Carr said the broadcasters made a decision to cease airing content that wasn’t up to the standards of their public interest obligations and dodged suggestions that it was due to FCC pressure. Asked on CNBC if his actions caused the show to be pulled, Carr said, “I think people can focus narrowly on the specifics here,” but that the matter was part of a media “shake-up” created by President Donald Trump’s election, which allowed companies to cease subsidizing content that their viewers don’t want. “While this may be an unprecedented decision, it is important for broadcasters to push back on Disney programming that they determine falls short of community values,” Carr told CNBC.

Also on Thursday, Carr responded with a bull's-eye emoji to a post on X from British media personality Piers Morgan suggesting that Kimmel’s suspension was a purely private act by his employers. Carr also reposted remarks from Trump blaming Kimmel’s suspension on declining ratings. “He had very bad ratings and they should have fired him a long time ago. So, you know, you can call that free speech or not. He was fired for lack of talent," Trump said.

Nathan Leamer, who served as an aide to former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, said outrage against Carr is a function of media bias. “During the Biden Administration the White House created a Disinformation Czar and bullied social media companies to take down content it didn’t like or [President Joe] Biden would explore weakening of Section 230,” he said in a post on X. Trump reportedly said Thursday that Carr “is doing a great, and he’s a great patriot.”

Likely to Continue

After FCC threats against Disney and Paramount Global yielded concessions from those companies, Carr is widely expected to keep using the tactic.

“That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!!” Trump posted Wednesday after Kimmel’s suspension, referring to NBC late-night hosts Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers. Carr has previously sent a warning letter to NBCUniversal parent company Comcast announcing an FCC investigation into whether the network unduly influences programming decisions by its affiliate stations (see 2507300049).

Asked by CNBC on Thursday about the prospect of the FCC going after NBC’s shows, Carr said the agency's obligation is “to make sure that broadcasters are serving the public interest. I don't think that running that programming does it.” He said the commission wasn’t targeting any particular show, but the country is “in the midst of a very disruptive moment right now, and I just frankly expect we're going to continue to see changes in the media ecosystem.”

Wheeler told us that broadcasters “don't need their weather person to tell them which way the wind's blowing when they hear the FCC Chairman saying their licenses aren't sacred cows.”

Carr’s pressure is unlikely to face a court challenge, because the FCC didn’t take any overt actions against the companies, academics and attorneys said. Legal precedent related to the Biden administration's actions against social media companies over COVID-19 disinformation could make it hard for any challenge to show that Kimmel’s suspension was directly related to Carr’s comments, said Boston University law professor Daniel Lyons in an interview.

“We will never get to a court to litigate that," said Free Press co-CEO Jessica Gonzalez in a post on Bluesky. "The media companies that are being harassed are too chicken and too greedy to sue, because they have other business in front of the administration.”

Disney's actions against Kimmel may not forestall FCC action against the company. In a news release Wednesday, Sinclair said Kimmel's suspension was insufficient, suggesting that he should also be required to make a donation to Kirk's Turning Point USA organization. Late the same day, the Center for American Rights filed a complaint calling for an FCC investigation of the network over Kimmel's remarks. "Here, where ABC affiliates nationwide broadcast 'untrue matter' on the most important news story of our times, in line with the clear ideological bias of the host, without prompt correction, strong action by the Commission to protect the public interest is required."