Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr described the \u201cunprecedented\u201d rejection of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel by local broadcasters on Wednesday as a \u201cturning point\u201d for legacy media outlets \u2014 which he argued have been serving viewers \u201cprogressive foie gras.\u201d<\/p>\n
The comedian\u2019s show, \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d was taken off the air indefinitely by ABC earlier Wednesday after local broadcasters Nexstar and Sinclair announced plans to pre-empt the program over the host\u2019s controversial comments about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.<\/p>\n
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr appeared on Hannity Wednesday, hours after Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s \u201cLive!\u201d was pulled off the air by ABC.<\/p>\n
Carr said that ABC\u2019s move was \u201cunprecedented\u201d while also dubbing it a \u201cturning point in media.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis action today by NexStar and Sinclair, frankly, it\u2019s unprecedented,\u201d Carr told Fox News host Sean Hannity. \u201cI can\u2019t imagine another time when we\u2019ve had local broadcasters tell a national programmer like Disney that your content no longer meets the needs and the values of our community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Disney is the parent company of ABC, which airs Kimmel\u2019s show on several independently owned affiliates.<\/p>\n
NexStar and Sinclair, which have licenses with the FCC that require them to operate in the public interest, \u201cstood up\u201d to Disney and ABC, according to Carr.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an important turning point,\u201d he said of Kimmel\u2019s show being taken off the air.<\/p>\n
Kimmel faced severe backlash over comments he made Monday about Charlie Kirk\u2019s suspected shooter, claiming he was part of the \u201cMAGA gang.\u201d GC Images<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s more work to go, but I\u2019m very glad to see that American broadcasters are standing up to serve the interests of their community, and we don\u2019t just have this progressive foie gras coming out from New York and Hollywood,\u201d the chairman added.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Kimmel, who has long been held in low regard by Republicans and President Trump, outraged conservative viewers Monday by starting his show arguing that Kirk\u2019s suspected killer was part of the \u201cMAGA gang.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,\u201d the late-night host said, one day after authorities announced that suspected assassin held a \u201cleftist ideology.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kimmel has also mocked Trump\u2019s response to the assassination of the Turning Point USA founder, describing it as \u201chow a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish,\u201d and he has accused the president of \u201cfanning the flames\u201d of violence.<\/p>\n
Sinclair, the nation\u2019s largest ABC affiliate group, informed ABC earlier that it would not continue to air Kimmel\u2019s show in the wake of his comments. Disney via Getty Images<\/p>\n
In an interview with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson, Carr had suggested the FCC might take action against Kimmel, ABC and Disney over the comedian\u2019s \u201cnews distortion.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAny license granted by us at the FCC, that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest,\u201d the chairman explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can make a strong argument that this is sort of an intentional effort to mislead the American people, about a very core, fundamental fact, of a very important matter,\u201d Carr said of Kimmel\u2019s remarks about Kirk\u2019s alleged killer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cFrankly, when you see stuff like this, I mean, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way,\u201d he continued, teasing that action against Kimmel isn\u2019t taken by ABC or Disney \u201cthere\u2019s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sinclair, the nation\u2019s largest ABC affiliate group, informed ABC earlier Wednesday that it would not continue to air \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d as a result of the host\u2019s comments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Carr added that there was \u201cmore work to go\u201d after Kimmel\u2019s ouster. REUTERS<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Kimmel\u2019s remarks were inappropriate and deeply insensitive at a critical moment for our country,\u201d Vice Chairman Jason Smith said in a statement. \u201cWe believe broadcasters have a responsibility to educate and elevate respectful, constructive dialogue in our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe appreciate FCC Chairman Carr\u2019s remarks today and this incident highlights the critical need for the FCC to take immediate regulatory action to address control held over local broadcasters by the big national networks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nexstar, which owns dozens of stations affiliated with ABC, similarly said it would pre-empt Kimmel\u2019s show \u201cfor the foreseeable future.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Kimmel\u2019s comments about the death of Mr. Kirk are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse, and we do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the local communities in which we are located,\u201d Nexstar President Andrew Alford said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cContinuing to give Mr. Kimmel a broadcast platform in the communities we serve is simply not in the public interest at the current time, and we have made the difficult decision to preempt his show in an effort to let cooler heads prevail as we move toward the resumption of respectful, constructive dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr described the \u201cunprecedented\u201d rejection of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel by local broadcasters…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":235508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,64,19719,171,36397,11171,50812,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,101433,173,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-235507","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-charlie-kirk","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-fcc","13":"tag-jimmy-kimmel","14":"tag-jimmy-kimmel-live","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-city","17":"tag-newyork","18":"tag-newyorkcity","19":"tag-ny","20":"tag-nyc","21":"tag-sean-hannity","22":"tag-tv","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-united-states-of-america","25":"tag-unitedstates","26":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","27":"tag-us","28":"tag-us-news","29":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115223400564214621","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}