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FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez took ABC to task for suspending Jimmy Kimmel, saying the broadcaster “has put the foundation of the First Amendment in danger.”
“When corporations surrender in the face of that pressure, they endanger not just themselves, but the right to free expression for everyone in this country,” Gomez, a Biden appointee, said in a statement on Thursday. “The duty to defend the First Amendment does not rest with government, but with all of us. Free speech is the foundation of our democracy, and we must push back against any attempt to erode it.”
ABC suspended the late-night host on Wednesday after Kimmel’s comments about the killing of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. Before ABC announced its suspension, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, a Trump appointee, had suggested that broadcast licenses might be at stake.
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“This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney. We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr told conservative podcaster Benny Johnson. “These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Gomez is the sole FCC Commissioner who was appointed by a Democratic president. By law, no more than three commissioners can be from the same political party. The current president also selects the FCC’s chairman. Two vacancies remain after the Senate confirmed Olivia Trusty in June, though the agency now has a quorum.
Without directly naming Carr, Gomez criticized the chairman for threatening ABC.
“This FCC does not have the authority, the ability, or the constitutional right to police content or punish broadcasters for speech the government dislikes,” Gomez said. “If it were to take the unprecedented step of trying to revoke broadcast licenses, which are held by local stations rather than national networks, it would run headlong into the First Amendment and fail in court on both the facts and the law.”
President Donald Trump has repeatedly urged the FCC to pull licenses. National networks like ABC do not have licenses, but local stations do. Disney, ABC’s parent, also owns 10 stations.
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Gomez said the mere threat of revoking a license “is no small matter.”
“It poses an existential risk to a broadcaster, which by definition cannot exist without its license,” she said. “That makes billion-dollar companies with pending business before the agency all the more vulnerable to pressure to bend to the government’s ideological demands.”
Trump has celebrated Kimmel’s suspension.
“Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done,” he wrote on Truth Social. He also called on NBC to remove its late-night hosts, Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers.
Asked by reporters on Thursday, Trump said ABC’s response was not due to government pressure.
“You can call that free speech or not,” Trump told reporters during a news conference in Chequers, England. “He was fired for lack of talent.”
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