(AURN NEWS) — President Donald Trump’s FCC Chair Brendan Carr is putting broadcasters on notice: Criticize the president and your license could be at risk.
Carr pressured Disney to act after he believed Jimmy Kimmel mocked Republicans over Charlie Kirk’s killing, and ABC later suspended “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” indefinitely.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said on conservative commentator Benny Johnson’s podcast. “These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Democrats say it’s censorship, plain and simple. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) have called for Carr to resign. Even fellow FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez says Carr is misusing the law to silence speech that Trump opposes.
This isn’t the first time presidents have flirted with the idea. Richard Nixon tried to use the FCC against The Washington Post during Watergate.
But Carr’s actions are testing the First Amendment in real time, reshaping the FCC into Trump’s culture war police.
Click play to listen to the report from AURN White House Correspondent Ebony McMorris. For more news, follow @E_N_McMorris & @aurnonline.
