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FCC Chair Brendan Carr apparently didn’t expect the fallout and blowback that has come from his pressuring of ABC to take Jimmy Kimmel off the air after he made a comment about Charlie Kirk’s shooter and political affiliation.
On Thursday morning, Carr told a different version of the story with some details missing.
Carr posted on X:
Broadcast TV stations have always been required by their licenses to operate in the public interest—that includes serving the needs of their local communities. And broadcasters have long retained the right to not air national programs that they believe are inconsistent with the public interest, including their local communities’ values. I am glad to see that many broadcasters are responding to their viewers as intended.
What Carr posted isn’t what happened.
Here is the video of Carr threatening ABC on a podcast:
The full video of the podcast is posted so that there can be no claims about being taken out of context.
Carr said, “[This] appears to be an action by Jimmy Kimmel to play into the narrative that this was somehow a MAGA or Republican-motivated person. What people don’t understand is that the broadcasters … have a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest. When we see stuff like this, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
