{"id":244290,"date":"2025-09-21T16:41:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T16:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/244290\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T16:41:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T16:41:10","slug":"amid-jimmy-kimmel-controversy-head-of-broadcast-tv-lobby-says-democrats-also-pressured-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/244290\/","title":{"rendered":"Amid Jimmy Kimmel Controversy, Head Of Broadcast TV Lobby Says Democrats Also Pressured Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tTackling the thorny Jimmy Kimmel<\/a> situation, the head of the National Association of Broadcasters said \u201cgovernment pressure on media\u201d also happened during the Obama and Biden administrations.<\/p>\n

\n\tWeighing in after Kimmel\u2019s suspension in a blog post<\/a> that did not mention ABC<\/a>, Disney<\/a> or President Trump by name, NAB<\/a> CEO Curtis LeGeyt called this \u201can unprecedented time in media history\u201d requiring \u201ca direct conversation about what\u2019s at stake.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tKimmel\u2019s show was suspended indefinitely by ABC after major station owners Nexstar and Sinclair removed it, citing jokes by the late-night host about the reaction to conservative activist Charlie Kirk\u2019s death. The removal of the show followed open threats to Disney by FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. Talks are ongoing<\/a> among stakeholders to seek a resolution to the impasse, with indications in recent days that a path for the show to return was more likely than it being dropped for good.<\/p>\n

\n\tLeGeyt affirmed the First Amendment rights of broadcasters, who \u201cmust be able to make decisions about the content on our airwaves free from government influence.\u201d Even the perception that broadcasters are being affected by government pressure \u201cis a problem for our credibility and the trust we have built with our audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the same time, LeGeyt notes that government pressure on media \u201cto cover events in a particular way is not new and it has come from both political parties. During the Obama administration, journalists decried the use of the Espionage Act to investigate reporters and demand their confidential sources. Under the Biden administration, reporters faced growing barriers to access, and local affiliate stations were targeted based on the actions of cable news networks. Today, we continue to see veiled threats suggesting broadcasters should be penalized for airing content that is contrary to a particular point of view.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThese attempts were wrong then, and they are wrong now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe NAB is the main lobbying organization for TV and radio broadcasters.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Washington-based group, whose power has ebbed amid cord-cutting and the shift to streaming, has been in an awkward position for decades when it comes to the FCC and its members. That tension came into striking view in recent months, as Deadline\u2019s Ted Johnson has reported<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe organization ran social media ads praising FCC Chairman Brendan Carr for helping \u201cempower our members\u201d by fighting to loosen regulations limiting the business activities of broadcasters. The praise for him came as Carr had launched investigations or inquiries into broadcast<\/a> networks, some of their owned stations and other outlets, including members of NAB. Those probes were sparked by issues ranging from diversity, equity and inclusion practices to newsroom decision-making.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlong with the \u201cthe obvious constitutional issues\u201d raised by the Kimmel situation, LeGeyt continued in the blog post, there is the difficult state of financial affairs for the industry. \u201cBroadcasters are already fighting for our future, facing extraordinary disruption in the media ecosystem from Big Tech,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIf the very act of owning or transferring a broadcast license carries the risk of political interference, it will drive investment further away from local stations at the very moment we need more resources to sustain local journalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe NAB\u2019s efforts to back its members as they face myriad business challenges, the exec concluded, will be \u201cfutile if we cannot fulfill our most sacred responsibility: reporting to our communities without fear of government retribution.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tackling the thorny Jimmy Kimmel situation, the head of the National Association of Broadcasters said \u201cgovernment pressure on…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":244291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[8811,3852,7299,11171,45118,50,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-244290","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-abc","10":"tag-broadcast","11":"tag-disney","12":"tag-jimmy-kimmel","13":"tag-nab","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115243285455806152","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244290","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=244290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}