Democrats Blast Carr's Kimmel Comments, FCC Weaponization at Unofficial Hearing
House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Senate Homeland Security Investigations Subcommittee ranking member Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and other Hill Democratic leaders castigated FCC Chairman Brendan Carr during what amounted to a one-party bicameral hearing Monday for his mid-September comments against ABC and parent Disney widely perceived as influencing the network’s since-reversed decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel Live! from the air (see 2509180066). Nexstar and Sinclair Broadcast stopped preempting Kimmel Friday night, as expected (see 2509260054). The Senate Commerce Committee is eyeing potential dates soon for an FCC oversight hearing that ranking member Maria Cantwell of Washington and other Democrats have been requesting to confront Carr (see 2509220059), lobbyists told us.
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President Donald Trump continued to back Carr Friday night, saying on Truth Social that the FCC chairman “is Smart, Tough, and a True American Patriot. He is supported by MAGA, like few others. Keep up the GREAT work, Brendan. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Carr reposted Trump’s compliment on X and thanked the president for his “strong leadership.” Carr didn’t address the issue during a Monday appearance at SCTE's TechExpo event in Washington, D.C. (see 2509290016). He has faced criticism from some congressional Republicans for getting involved in the Kimmel fracas, including from Senate Commerce Chairman Ted Cruz of Texas (see 2509190059).
Blumenthal emphasized Monday he invited Carr “to be here so he could defend himself, [but] perhaps not surprisingly, he declined.” Democrats have “written [Carr] numerous times asking for answers and documents [and he has] given us perfunctory, unresponsive answers. So, I hope that he will come before” congressional committees soon, Blumenthal said. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Raskin said, referencing Carr’s comments about ABC. “We might have to bring Congress back and subpoena him.” House Oversight Committee Democrats unsuccessfully sought a panel subpoena earlier this month for Carr to appear at a hearing.
Democratic lawmakers during the Monday hearing hailed ABC, Nexstar and Sinclair for their U-turn on Kimmel but warned that it didn’t spell the end of what they called Carr’s repeated weaponization of the commission this year to punish media outlets for content seen as unfavorable to the Trump administration. “The American people stepped forward and spoke truth to power [over Kimmel’s suspension and] successfully advocated for his return,” Blumenthal said. “But make no mistake, there is no cause for complacency.” The “mounting threat to free speech and criticism … is growing, not subsiding,” he said. “This administration is using all of the tools at its disposal.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said Trump “is leading a corrupt and dangerous attack on freedom of speech and the free press in the hopes that no one will be able to talk about what's going on.” She claimed ABC, Nexstar and Sinclair initially punished Kimmel as part of “a quid pro quo deal ... to curry favor with [the administration] in the hopes that they would get their big deals approved.” Warren also cited CBS’ July decision to cancel The Late Show, hosted by Stephen Colbert, in connection with the federal government approving Skydance’s $8 billion purchase of network owner Paramount Global (see 2507250029).
Gomez Urges 'Guardrails'
Raskin said the line between bribery and extortion is “very murky” in the case of CBS’ $16 million settlement of Trump’s lawsuit against the network over its editing of a 60 Minutes interview last October with former Vice President Kamala Harris during the presidential election campaign (see 2507020053). “It’s clearly coercive and a shakedown [when] the president is using the FCC, which is an arm of the state essentially, to hold up someone's license or transfer someone's license or someone's merger until he gets paid off for a personal lawsuit that he's brought against a broadcast company,” Raskin said.
House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Doris Matsui, D-Calif., touted her Broadcast Freedom and Independence Act (HR-1880/S-867), which would bar the FCC from revoking broadcast licenses or taking other action against broadcasters based on the viewpoints they broadcast (see 2503070013). It would “make crystal clear that no administration can punish broadcasters for their viewpoints,” she said.
Democratic FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, one of several witnesses at the hearing, endorsed HR-1880/S-867. “It’s very clear that we need some guardrails on what the FCC can do because the weaponization of our authority to frame and mold how the media reports on this administration is clearly a problem, and it frays our constitutional republic,” Gomez told Matsui.
Gomez told lawmakers Carr’s ABC comments constitute “one of the most alarming attacks on the First Amendment in recent memory” and said the Trump administration “seems intent on using its vast power to punish anyone who dares to speak up and disagree with its agenda. Broadcasters across the country are facing an impossible choice: comply with this administration's demands or risk a financially debilitating investigation and the threat of a license revocation.” She made similar comments during the SCTE event. “It's not just Kimmel,” she said: Corporate parents need to stop thinking about bottom-line costs "and think about the future of democracy.”