Late-night perennial Jimmy Kimmel was on the receiving end of a fake news blowback and had his show “pre-empted” by one of ABC’s major network partners. The host is now back on the job market, joining Emmy Award consolation prize winner Stephen Colbert. And while the political left is near apoplectic over Kimmel's ousting – with the Fourth Estate along for the ride – there are three significant factors that make a far bigger story than the veneer headlines.
FCC Does Its Job?
No one wants to hear it, but it seems FCC chair Brendan Carr may have, in fact, been doing his job when he warned of consequences. Consider this from the FCC Consumer Guide:
“The FCC prohibits broadcasting false information about a crime or a catastrophe if the broadcaster knows the information is false and will cause substantial ‘public harm’ if aired.
“FCC rules specifically say that the ‘public harm must begin immediately, and cause direct and actual damage to property or to the health or safety of the general public, or diversion of law enforcement or other public health and safety authorities from their duties.’”
Did Kimmel give false information about a crime? Certainly, all evidence presented thus far strongly indicates that the alleged assassin of Charlie Kirk was on the political left. Kimmel telling his audience that the suspected killer is a “MAGA Republican” is at best fake news. So that’s the first element satisfied, but was there a risk of “public harm” based on his falsehood?
It’s no secret that the country is a tinderbox – Exhibit A: Charlie Kirk was murdered. Over the last five years, we have seen groups react to the killing of individuals with rioting or worse. Granted, almost all of this has come from adherents to the left, but this speaks still to the very real possibility of potential “public harm.”
However, while Carr may have been within his remit to challenge ABC, saying, “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action on Kimmel or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead,” like Caesar’s wife, those in public office need to be beyond reproach.
Did his statement give rise to accusations of First Amendment suppression? Without a doubt. Was ABC’s decision to pull the Kimmel show a reaction to Carr’s threats to enforce the FCC charter? Maybe – that’s a question that will no doubt be argued in congressional committees and maybe even the courts of law. But either way, he precipitated a firestorm.
Conservatives have long been the champions of free speech and anti-censorship. Carr may or may not have been operating in good faith, but the appearance and optics have tarnished the conservative brand.
A Rare Concordance
From Bud Light to Tesla, these last few years have brought fresh new boycotts and social media condemnation. Uniquely, this furor may be the only such action that has the left and right united.
The pages of X are filled with those on the left declaring that they are canceling their Disney+ subscriptions and planned excursions to the Magic Kingdom. Much like a tree falling in the forest, if someone doesn’t post about it, would anyone hear? Disney is the parent company of ABC and is receiving backlash for sidelining Kimmel.
Here’s the rub: Many of those on the right have already ditched the House of Mouse. Whether it was the courtroom brawl with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis or the increasingly left-leaning plots, characters, and machinations of the company’s entertainment enterprises, the right just isn’t that interested in spending cash on Disney.
And now, it seems, neither is the left. Who said unity was impossible?
A Dollop of Schadenfreude
Wise heads have been warning for a long, long time that if one political group engages in a practice, it won’t be long before the others decide what’s good for the goose … you know the rest.
All of a sudden, folks like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) have decided that the government pressuring companies to do its bidding (if indeed that’s what Carr did) is a bad thing. The voluminous Facebook and Twitter Files demonstrated that the Biden administration had a direct line to social media to enforce sanctions and bans on those with whom it disagreed, and it’s well-documented. Yet Messrs. Schumer and Jeffries were totally silent during this dark period.
Still, in an almost Damascene conversion, they have decided that alleged government interference in private enterprise to restrict the First Amendment right of Americans is going too far when it comes to Jimmy Kimmel. What strange timing.
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