Deadline reports that Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr has made a public statement reinforcing the recent demand made of ABC stations and Disney to renew their station licenses years ahead of schedule. This comes in the wake of President Donald Trump and his supporters calling for the removal of Jimmy Kimmel, tied together with the FCC’s review of its standards for content ratings in entertainment and media.
Just earlier this week, late-night television host of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Jimmy Kimmel (Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Man Show), came under fire once more after a skit he made using a mock White House Correspondents’ Dinner – complete with a satirical and comedic monologue full of jokes about the current administration – for “inciting political violence” after the real-life WHCD was the target of a shooting incident. Kimmel has since responded, but the show’s station ABC and its parent company Disney still remain under close scrutiny; The FCC’s demand for Disney’s early license renewal stated “possible violations of the Communications Act of 1943 and the FCC’s rules, including the agency’s prohibition on unlawful discrimination” as grounds for their review, which critics speculate is being used to retaliate against Kimmel and Disney’s standing diversity initiatives.
From Deadline, Carr stated that the FCC’s demands were based on DEI conduct, not speech. Attempting to double down against the speculation and heavy implications of political interference, Carr said:
“You can’t discriminate based on race and gender, and there’s evidence that [has] been submitted that that’s what Disney was doing, and so that’s the timeline of the agency’s actions. […] There was no pressure from the outside. There was no suggestion from the outside. There was no call for agency action from the outside.”
In respect to specifically DEI, notably aligned with the Trump administration’s historically main target of what it claims are discriminatory practices, Carr claimed that the current review came when it did because Disney “didn’t hand over DEI-related ‘documents on the original deadline.’”
“We can’t mess around,” said Carr on the subject.
Continuing from Deadline, Carr pointedly remarked that Trump, “like any other American,” has a right to express his opinions. On Thursday after the Commission’s latest opening meeting in DC,, he also hinted that Comcast-owned NBC stations could find themselves under license review as well. On the topic:
“It depends on where the investigations go. I don’t have an update right now and where we are in that Comcast one, but we’ve been very consistent across the board about what we view as invidious forms of DEI discrimination as deals have come before the FCC. We have required people to look at their policies and make sure they don’t have what we think [are] invidious forms of DEI.”
In the aftermath of the WHCD shooting, Carr would continue to insist that the ABC/Disney review was actually due to concerns about “racially segregated spaces inside the company.”
mxdwn previously covered the controversial review process; After the situation began on April 28, Disney and ABC were given 30 days leading to a deadline of May 30th to renew their FCC station licenses years ahead of their expiration. This move has been widely considered controversial, as there hasn’t been an issued directive like this in decades and the action has little precedent to refer back towards.
Carr also spoke on the now paused Nexstar/Tegna merger, reports Deadline, and (rather than speaking on the initial California court ruling which froze the deal) and a separate Nexstar issue before the federal court in DC. Allegedly, any responses would come in a May 11 filing on the matter.