{"id":22823,"date":"2026-04-30T22:19:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T22:19:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/22823\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T22:19:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T22:19:26","slug":"fcc-boss-says-abc-license-renewals-probe-about-dei-not-kimmel-nbc-in-sights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/22823\/","title":{"rendered":"FCC Boss Says ABC License Renewals Probe About DEI, Not Kimmel; NBC In Sights"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cThis was based on DEI<\/a> conduct, not speech,\u201d said Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr<\/a> today as the agency has launched a sudden and suspicious license renewal review of ABC<\/a> stations after another fracas between Donald Trump<\/a> and Jimmy Kimmel<\/a>. \u201cThe FCC<\/a> has rules on the books.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou can\u2019t discriminate based on race and gender, and there\u2019s evidence that have been submitted that that\u2019s what Disney<\/a> was doing, and so that\u2019s the timeline of the agency\u2019s actions,\u201d Carr doubled down, trying to swat away the obvious implications of political interference out of the seemingly kneejerk probe.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere was no pressure from the outside,\u201d Carr stated, with circumspect terms. \u201cThere was no suggestion from the outside. There was no call for agency action from the outside.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShifting to DEI, a die-hard target of the Project 2025 driven Trump administration since its return to power, Carr proclaimed that the current review was triggered this week because Disney didn\u2019t hand over DEI-related \u201cdocuments on the original deadline.\u201d He added: \u201cWe can\u2019t mess around.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: Trump Celebrity Supporters: Famous Folks In Favor Of The 47th President<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tStill, ever the loyalist, when it came to the White House\u2019s latest outrage over satirical comments by Kimmel and ABC, Carr could resist aiming to please his audience of one. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of people who agree with the President on this one,\u201d Carr made a point of saying, and declaring that Trump like any other American has a right to express his often acerbic opinion. <\/p>\n

\n\tHolding a further match over regulatory gasoline, Carr also Thursday hinted that Comcast<\/a>-owned NBC<\/a> stations could find themselves under license review too.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt depends on where the investigations go,\u201d he said Thursday after the Commission\u2019s latest opening meeting in DC. \u201cI don\u2019t have an update right now and where we are in that Comcast one, but we\u2019ve been very consistent across the board about what we view as invidious forms of DEI discrimination as deals have come before the FCC. We have required people to look at their policies and make sure they don\u2019t have what we think is invidious forms of DEI.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: Jimmy Kimmel Delivers Scathing \u201cAlternative\u201d White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner Roast Of Donald Trump<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tOpening with remarks that saw a clumsy \u201che didn\u2019t see that coming\u201d quip about the true powers of mentalist Oz Pearlman in light of the April 25 shooting at the White House Correspondence Dinner, Carr continued Monday to insist the ABC review was actually due to concerns over \u201cracially segregated spaces inside the company.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe thought Disney was hitting us up with the okey-doke,\u201d the longtime FCC member added of his perception of the scope of diversity polices.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: The Fox News-To-White House Pipeline: TV Personalities Who Joined The Trump Administration<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tThe widely criticized review process kicked off by the FCC on April 28 gives the Disney-owned ABC 30 days to submit all the required documentation on its approximately 10 owned and operated station for vital \u00a0license renewals. Coming two to four years early, the timeline of long-threaten process from MAGA loyalist Carr could prove ultimately to be an empty threat to pressure the now Josh D\u2019Amaro run Disney. The process also could, depending on where it goes, result in a long drawn out court battle that may outlive the current administration or certainly GOP dominance of al three levels of the federal government.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn terms of another haywire process that may or may not have seen politics play a larger role that policy, Carr punted Thursday on the state of the now paused Nexstar<\/a> and Tegna merger. Avoiding mention of the April 17 California court order freezing the apparent done deal,<\/a> that was lightening speed fast tracked, the FCC boss spoke of a seperate Nexstar issue before the federal court in DC and noted any response would come in a May 11 filing on the matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThis was based on DEI conduct, not speech,\u201d said Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr today as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[707,829,13916,13917,4096,38,830,4097,8,1530,10496,1738,9,5939,7,12904,11461],"class_list":["post-22823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-top-stories","tag-abc","tag-brendan-carr","tag-comcast","tag-dei","tag-disney","tag-donald-trump","tag-electionline","tag-fcc","tag-headlines","tag-jimmy-kimmel","tag-josh-damaro","tag-nbc","tag-news","tag-nexstar","tag-top-stories","tag-whcd","tag-white-house-correspondents-dinner"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116495985051615461","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}