WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic senators on Wednesday hammered the Federal Communications Commission’s leader for pressuring broadcasters to take ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel off the air, suggesting that Brendan Carr was politicizing an independent agency and trampling the First Amendment.
The FCC chairman refused to disown his comments about Kimmel and, when questioned by Democrats about an agency long considered autonomous, suggested it was not insulated from Trump’s pressure.
“The FCC is not an independent agency,” Carr said.
Carr later sidestepped questions about whether he considered the Republican president to be his boss and whether he had taken orders from Trump or his inner circle.
“President Trump has designated me as chairman of the FCC,” Carr added later. “I think it comes as no surprise that I’m aligned with President Trump on policy.”
Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., noted that the FCC’s website described it as an “independent U.S. government agency overseen by Congress.”
Soon after, with the hearing still underway, the website changed, removing “independent” from a section describing its mission.
This is the thing that makes me pull my hair out after every change-of-office.
You’re going to see Republicans say, nakedly, and without a shred of shame that these agencies exist to serve the interests of the Republican Party first and foremost. The trying-to-get-Kimmel-Fired thing was a pure partisan stunt. It wasn’t on strong legal footing or with any compelling national interest. It was just a brick Trump’s guys could throw through ABC’s window in the middle of a national pissing contest.
The takeaway from this, by Democrats, is going to be “This is bad because it hurt a Big Beautiful Business and was mean to a rich guy who smiles at me from the TV”. And the conclusion is going to be “The FCC is too powerful, we need to rein it in and let the free market flourish”.
And while guys like Carr continue to look for more bricks to throw through more windows, Democrats are going to run on television and promise that when they’re in charge stuff like this won’t happen ever again.
And in four years (God willing) its President Pete Buttigieg in charge. Bari Weiss has given Steven Crowder the Colbert spot on Late Night. Crowder goes on TV and says “Pete Buttigieg is a f-got and I’ll invite the person who puts a bullet through his head on my show”. And the Dems. Will. Do. Nothing. Because they don’t want anyone to claim they are like Trump’s FCC guy.
Meanwhile, a Palestinian Rights Organization will make a Kickstarter for some 14-year-old who threw a rock at a tank and got his arm blown off. And the FCC will subpoena the organizer’s address, pass it off to DHS, and have ICE kick in his teeth and drag him off to El Salvador’s Mega-Prison Muslim Detention Wing.