In case you missed it, after Melania and Donald Trump decided, three days after Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue, that he should be punished for someone not connected to Kimmel allegedly trying to kill the president, Trump puppet and FCC chair Brendan Carr is trying to pressure ABC to fire Kimmel. Again. After the last effort to be rid of him backfired so spectacularly, Carr is now using the fig leaf of accusing the network of being too inclusive.
As The New York Times explains it, Carr’s order to review all of ABC’s broadcast licenses is not likely to succeed. To take away the licenses, the FCC “must be able to make a convincing case that the stations had shown a pattern of violating rules and regulations,” The Times said. “Even if the F.C.C. ultimately decides to block the renewal of ABC’s station licenses, the network would have ample recourse in the courts. And it would be able to continue to broadcast as the fight played out.”
But, like so much of Trump’s fascism, the move is more about intimidation than legal strategy. Carr's maneuver “all but guarantees months if not years of legal wrangling that would lock the network in an expensive, running war with the federal government,” The Times noted.
If Monday’s monologue is any guide, Kimmel is not feeling one itsy-bitsy intimidated. And why should he? Judging from the huge applause, chants and whistles that greeted him when Kimmel took the stage that night, his audience supports him as much as, if not more than ever. Also, he surely knows that if ABC does can him, he can go to Netflix or some other streaming service the next minute.
ABC did not respond, as I write this. “But media lawyers and free speech advocates have decried the action, and vowed to fight it in court,” The Times said.
Let’s hope ABC can find some backbone at last to resist Trump’s attack on free speech and a free press.
Maybe this will help: Not long after the last time the network caved to Trump and suspended Kimmel, the comedian came out 16 points ahead of Trump in polled favorability. That was in October. Trump’s polling has only sunk further since then.
I’ll bet Kimmel’s favorability will keep rising.
By the way, if you’d like to let the FCC know what you think of Carr’s tactics, the phone number is 1-888-225-5322. Or you can write to the Federal Communications Commission at 45 L Street NE, Washington, D.C. 20554.
