Trump FCC challenges ABC’s licenses amid Kimmel controversy

[0:00] The FCC, the Federal Communications Commission, has suddenly ordered, years ahead of schedule, [0:04] a review of licenses for the Disney-owned and operated ABC local stations. [0:09] Now, this comes just one day after the first lady and the president demanded ABC and his parent company, [0:14] Disney, fired Jimmy Kimmel over a joke he made on his late-night talk show [0:18] days before the White House correspondent dinner. [0:21] The FCC is saying in a filing, and I quote, [0:23] Disney's ABC is hereby directed to file license renewals for all of their licensed TV stations within 30 days, [0:32] in other words, by May 28, 2026. [0:35] The FCC chair, Brendan Carr, is a Trump ally. [0:39] Now, the FCC says the license review is related to an ongoing probe into Disney's diversity initiatives. [0:44] It would only involve the eight ABC stations owned by Disney. [0:48] Critics of the action see it as government retaliation for Aaron Kimmel's show [0:51] and resisting pressure from the president. [0:54] Disney released a statement that reads, quote, [0:56] ABC and its stations have a long record of operating in full compliance with FCC rules [1:01] and serving their local communities with trusted news, emergency information, and public interest programming. [1:07] Disney adds, we are confident the record demonstrates our continued qualifications as licensees [1:12] under the Communications Act and the First Amendment [1:15] and are prepared to show that through the appropriate legal channels. [1:18] Now, again, the FCC action comes on the heels of Melania Trump [1:22] calling for Jimmy Kimmel's firing based on this joke he told in a sketch last Thursday. [1:27] And of course, our First Lady Melania is here. [1:32] Look at Melania, so beautiful. [1:33] Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow. [1:38] That was three days before the shooting. [1:40] Monday morning, the First Lady posted on X, [1:42] his monologue about my family isn't comedy, his words are corrosive, [1:46] and they deepen the political sickness within the country. [1:49] The president later said the joke was a, quote, [1:51] despicable call to violence and added that Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC. [1:56] Kimmel, for his part, is not backing down, had this to say on the show last night. [1:59] It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he's almost 80 and she's younger than I am. [2:06] It was not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination, and they know that. [2:12] I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject. [2:16] I do, and I think a great place to start, to dial that back, [2:20] would be to have a conversation with your husband about it. [2:22] Joining me now is Bill Carter, editor-at-large of late-nighter.com, [2:27] also CNN media analyst Sarah Fisher, who is a media correspondent at Axios. [2:31] So, Bill, what do you make of how Kimmel responded to the president of First Lady? [2:34] Do you think he has anything to be worried about at this point? [2:36] Obviously, ABC and Disney have not taken him off the air. [2:40] It doesn't seem like he does. [2:41] I think he responded very calmly and in character. [2:46] I mean, he wasn't intimidated. [2:48] He made jokes. [2:49] He did say he clearly didn't want this to be implying violence. [2:53] I think he covered himself and gave, you know, ABC and Disney a safe harbor [2:58] in what they have to do, which is stand up to what is now a naked intimidation tactic. [3:04] Sarah, how extraordinary is this FCC order that all ABC stations have to apply, [3:10] local stations have to apply for license renewals within 30 days? [3:13] This wasn't supposed to happen for another couple of years. [3:17] It's completely unprecedented, Anderson, for several reasons. [3:21] One, as you note, they're expediting the review. [3:23] We rarely see that happen. [3:24] And typically, you just reapply for your license when it expires every eight years. [3:29] Two, they are citing this public interest standard, which is very rarely cited for things like [3:35] DEI in going after these stations. [3:37] And then three, you typically go after one broadcast station if you find that something [3:41] that they did violated your rules. [3:43] You don't go after every single station that's owned by a broadcast network. [3:47] And so all these things combined lead people to believe that Chairman Carr is going after Disney [3:52] and ABC, trying to, you know, impose a punishment for the way that they are covering things, [3:57] as opposed to taking issue with what one broadcaster has actually done that could violate its rules. [4:03] Bill, do you think the FCC is going to try to make ABC stations' support for Kimmel a factor [4:09] in whether their licenses get renewed? [4:11] I mean, is this like the only lever the FCC has to pull right now against Disney? [4:17] I find that really astonishing. [4:19] I mean, are they going to make the case that his speech is somehow to be condemned? [4:24] I mean, clearly, ABC is going to say the man has a First Amendment right and we're going to stand up for it. [4:30] I don't think that'll in any way fly. [4:32] I mean, look, this is part of his retribution tour. [4:36] I mean, he's going after people who criticize him or make fun of him or, in James Comey's case, you know, didn't support him. [4:43] And Kimmel is obviously a person that irritates him and he doesn't back down. [4:48] And he gets people like Carr and, you know, the people in the Justice Department to do this, [4:54] even though they have to know there's no case. [4:57] There's no case to be made here. [4:58] This is harassment. [5:00] And really, it's just an effort that I think is going to fail because I can't see Disney caving into this. [5:06] It's irritating to them. [5:08] And it's certainly stress on Kimmel, but I can't see them backing down. [5:12] It's too important. [5:13] Sir, I mean, Brendan Carr certainly has a record here of, you know, backing up things it seems like the president wants done. [5:21] I want to play a clip from December when Carr was asked by Democratic Senator Ben Ray Lujan about the agency's independence. [5:28] So is your website wrong? [5:32] Is your website lying? [5:33] Possibly. [5:34] The FCC is not an independent agency. [5:35] OK, can I read this to you? [5:37] The FCC's mission on the homepage of the FCC, man, an independent U.S. government agency overseen by Congress. [5:44] Is that factual or is that a lie? [5:47] The FCC is not formally an independent agency. [5:49] I mean, is the FCC an independent agency? [5:57] Yes. [5:58] And Anderson, when that exchange happened, I took a screenshot of the FCC's website right as he was saying that. [6:05] And a half hour later, they had actually scrubbed the word independent from the website. [6:09] So you can kind of see that they're sort of making up their interpretation of what the agency's role is in real time. [6:15] The FCC is supposed to act independently from the executive branch. [6:19] And by the way, so is the DOJ. [6:20] So are so many of these, you know, agencies. [6:23] But in the Trump administration, it's been a trend that he is trying to sort of consolidate power over what are supposed to be these independent branches. [6:31] For Brendan Carr, I got to say this has been surprising. [6:34] In all the many years that he served as a lawyer at the FCC, of course he was conservative, [6:39] but he was not somebody that seemed to be in the pocket of any one president or political figure. [6:44] He seemed to have made this sort of 180 degree switch once he became the chairman, I think likely to keep his position. [6:51] We see how Donald Trump acts towards his members of his cabinet and his administration when they don't fall in line. [6:57] It's so interesting to see all these characters pop up in all these different places willing to do whatever it takes, [7:03] it seems, to please the president of the United States. [7:06] Members of the Trump administration sometimes seem a bit selective in what they consider beyond the pale when it comes to jokes. [7:14] Because frankly, we've heard plenty of jokes from Trump and his allies about actual attacks that had happened in the past, [7:24] including that brutal 2022 hammer attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul, [7:30] which left him severely injured and traumatized by a lunatic with a hammer. [7:39] Well, maybe Paul Pelosi needs the hammer instead of the metal. [7:44] It's metal. [7:46] Rachel. [7:47] It's metal. [7:48] We'll stand up to crazy Nancy Pelosi who ruined San Francisco. [7:55] How's her husband doing, by the way? [7:57] Anybody know? [8:03] And she's against building a wall at our border, even though she has a wall around her house, [8:08] which obviously didn't do a very good job. [8:10] The apple did not far fall far from the tree. [8:16] Donald Trump Jr. posted on Instagram around that same time, [8:20] got my Paul Pelosi Halloween costume ready. [8:22] It's underwear and a hammer. [8:24] Why is that funny? [8:26] Her husband was hit in the head with a hammer and he's still injured. [8:30] Why does anybody think that's funny? [8:32] Republican officials and pundits have also taken issue with people calling Trump fascist or a tyrant, [8:38] saying that that sort of rhetoric leads others to commit acts of violence. [8:42] The entire Democrat Party has made their pitch to voters across the country that Donald Trump poses [8:50] an existential threat to democracy, that he is a fascist and that they compare him to Hitler. [8:55] I mean, these are despicable statements that the American people have been consuming for years. [9:00] And so many mentally perturbed individuals are led to believe these words are truth and then are inspired to act on it. [9:07] Okay, I hear that. [9:11] What's the response to this? [9:15] We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs [9:23] that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections. [9:31] The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous, and grave than the threat from within. [9:39] Our threat is from within. [9:40] She's a Marxist, communist, fascist, socialist. [9:45] That last remark, of course, directed at Trump's then opponent, then Vice President Kamala Harris. [9:50] Thank you. [9:51] Thank you. [9:54] Let's go. [9:55] Bye. [9:55] Bye. [10:18] Bye.