Posted in: ABC, Opinion, TV, TV | Tagged: fcc, Jimmy Kimmel

FCC Chair Carr Set for Senate Testimony in Jimmy Kimmel Suspension

Brendan Carr will answer questions from the Senate Commerce Committee about what role the FCC played in Jimmy Kimmel's suspension from ABC.

FCC Chair Brendan Carr has discussed Jimmy Kimmel's late-night talk show being pulled from ABC on a podcast and during a conference. Now, it looks like the Senate Commerce Committee would like Carr to answer some questions they have on the matter. A spokesperson for the committee confirmed to Variety that Carr has agreed to attend the hearing. The hearing itself is expected to take place in November, and FCC commissioners Olivia Trusty and Anna Gomez are also expected to attend. The news comes a little less than a week after Jimmy Kimmel Live! returned to ABC, including Nexstar and Sinclair, with the show originally pulled over comments regarding the individual who killed conservative activist and advisor Charlie Kirk.

The day after Kimmel's comments, Carr addressed the matter during an interview with YouTube personality Benny Johnson. "[This] appears to be an action by Jimmy Kimmel to play into the narrative that this was somehow a MAGA or Republican-motivated person. What people don't understand is that the broadcasters … have a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest. When we see stuff like this, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct, on Kimmel, or there's going to be additional work for the FCC ahead," Carr said.

Carr continued, "I think you see some lashing out from people like Kimmel, who are frankly talentless and are looking for ways to get attention. Their grip on the narrative is slipping. That doesn't mean that it's not still important to hold the public interest standard … We have a rule on the book that interprets the public interest standard that says 'news distortion' is something that is prohibited … the FCC has stepped back from enforcing it … I think it's past time these [affiliates] themselves push back on Comcast and this and say, 'Listen, we're not going to run Kimmel anymore until you straighten this out because we're running the possibility of license revocation from the FCC if we continue to run content that ends up being a pattern of news distortion.' So I think again, Disney needs to see some change here." Hours later, Nexstar and Sinclair, owners of a large number of ABC affiliates, announced that they were removing Kimmel's show from that local stations, raising questions about whether the station owners felt pressured by the Trump administration to pull the show from their affiliates.

On the same day that ABC announced that it was reinstating the late-night talk show, Carr looked to defend himself and the FCC from accusations of government overreach, and that the commissioner was looking to infringe on free speech by clarifying his "we can do this the easy way or the hard way" during the Concordia Summit in New York. Stating that a threat to pull licenses from ABC stations for not taking action against Kimmel "did not happen in any way, shape or form," Carr added, "what I spoke about last week is that when concerns are raised about news distortion … there's an easy way for parties to address that and work that out. In the main, that takes place between local television stations that are licensed by the FCC and what we call national programmers like Disney. They work that out, and there doesn't need to be any involvement of the FCC." The FCC head continued, "Now, if they don't, there's a way that is not as easy, which is someone can file a complaint at the FCC, and then the FCC, by law, as set up by Congress, has to adjudicate that complaint. And what I've been very clear in the context of the Kimmel episode, is the FCC, and myself in particular, have expressed no view on the ultimate merits."

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