{"id":443799,"date":"2025-09-22T17:54:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T17:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/443799\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T17:54:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T17:54:12","slug":"republican-us-senators-knock-fcc-chair-for-threatening-disney-over-kimmel-donald-trump-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/443799\/","title":{"rendered":"Republican US senators knock FCC chair for threatening Disney over Kimmel | Donald Trump News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">Republican United States Senator Rand Paul has said that threats by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/9\/22\/does-uss-communications-agency-have-power-to-regulate-kimmels-speech\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr<\/a> against Disney and local broadcasters for airing the programme Jimmy Kimmel Live were \u201cabsolutely inappropriate\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>US television network ABC, which is owned by Disney, suspended Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s late-night talk show after Carr threatened investigations and regulatory action against licensed broadcasters.<\/p>\n<p>Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n<p>Carr\u2019s threat was aimed at broadcasters who aired Kimmel following the host\u2019s comments on his September 15 show about Republicans distancing themselves from the alleged shooter in the September 10 killing of Charlie Kirk, a conservative icon and the founder of Turning Point USA.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">After Kimmel made those comments on live television, owners of dozens of local TV stations affiliated with ABC said they would no longer carry his show.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Paul said on NBC\u2019s Meet the Press programme on Sunday that Carr had \u201cno business weighing in on this\u201d. He said people could be fired for making inappropriate comments, but the government should not pressure companies to take action.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cThe government\u2019s got no business in it. And the FCC was wrong to weigh in. And I\u2019ll fight any attempt by the government to get involved with speech,\u201d Paul said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">On Friday, US Senate Commerce Committee chair Ted Cruz, a Republican, said Carr\u2019s threat to fine broadcasters or pull their licences over the content of their shows was dangerous.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cI got to say that\u2019s right out of \u2018Goodfellas\u2019,\u201d Cruz said, evoking the Martin Scorsese gangster movie. \u201cThat\u2019s right out of a Mafioso coming into a bar going, \u2018Nice bar you have here. It would be a shame if something happened to it\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">On Monday, Republican Senator Todd Young praised Cruz\u2019s comments on the issue. \u201cAs Americans, we must cherish and protect free speech,\u201d Young wrote on X.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Late on Friday, Republican Senator Dave McCormick said on X that he agreed with Cruz\u2019s concerns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cGood riddance to Jimmy Kimmel and his disgusting rhetoric. Ted also raises important concerns about the comments of the FCC chairman,\u201d McCormick said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Democratic leaders in Congress have called for Carr to resign and demanded an inspector general\u2019s investigation and public hearings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Cruz, chair of the Senate\u2019s Committee on Commerce, said Carr\u2019s comments were \u201cdangerous as hell\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Carr did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">US President Donald Trump, who appointed Carr, has cheered ABC\u2019s decision to suspend the show and backed Carr\u2019s comments. \u201cHe\u2019s done nothing that\u2019s over the line,\u201d Trump told the Fox News programme The Sunday Briefing.<\/p>\n<p>Stars also show support for Kimmel<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Hundreds of Hollywood and Broadway stars \u2013 including Robert De Niro, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Selena Gomez, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep \u2013 urged Americans to \u201cfight to defend and preserve our constitutionally protected rights\u201d in the wake of Kimmel\u2019s suspension.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">More than 430 movie, TV and stage stars, as well as comedians, directors and writers, added their names to an open letter on Monday from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) that argues it is \u201ca dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cRegardless of our political affiliation, or whether we engage in politics or not, we all love our country,\u201d the letter says. \u201cWe also share the belief that our voices should never be silenced by those in power \u2013 because if it happens to one of us, it happens to all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The list of signatories includes newly crowned Emmy winner Noah Wyle, Oscar-nominated Florence Pugh, comedian David Cross, Tony winner Kelli O\u2019Hara and veteran actor Molly Ringwald. Pedro Pascal, Billy Crystal, Nathan Lane, Kerry Washington and Kevin Bacon also signed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cThis is the moment to defend free speech across our nation. We encourage all Americans to join us, along with the ACLU, in the fight to defend and preserve our constitutionally protected rights,\u201d the letter concludes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Republican United States Senator Rand Paul has said that threats by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[32,18320,1234,12,49,978,286,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-443799","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-freedom-of-the-press","10":"tag-government","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-us","14":"tag-us-canada","15":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115249234979155820","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}