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One ABC insider had a message particularly for liberals in the fallout of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” being pulled from the airwaves.
“I hope it teaches the left (and the right that still cares about speech) that the executive branch agencies have waaaaay too much power,” the network staffer told Fox News Digital.
“If you don’t want your political enemy to get to define hate speech, then you don’t want to criminalize hate speech,” they continued. “Same goes for the FCC.”
Neither Disney nor ABC responded to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
Disney was facing mounting pressure from ABC affiliate stations around the country as well as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over its handling of its liberal late-night host Jimmy Kimmel over his comments about the alleged Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson. A spokesperson for Disney told Fox News Digital “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” would be preempted “indefinitely.”
On Monday, Kimmel suggested Robinson was part of the “MAGA gang” despite reports he had a left-wing ideology, which was later reaffirmed in Tuesday’s indictment.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel told his audience.
Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group had expressed to ABC that it would preempt “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on the affiliate stations they operate unless the Disney-owned network addressed the controversy.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr also threatened ABC and Disney to remedy the situation, saying “we can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
“I’ve been very clear from the moment that I have become chairman of the FCC, I want to reinvigorate the public interest. And what people don’t understand is that the broadcasters, and you’ve gotten this right, are entirely different than people that use other forms of communication. They have a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest,” Carr told YouTube host Benny Johnson. “These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or, you know, there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
One broadcast journalist was perplexed by Carr’s demands.
“What does Carr mean when he says it’s our obligation to ensure the FCC has license holders uphold the public interest, who’s going to define that?” they told Fox News Digital. “I imagine what the commander in chief’s definition of the public interest is but it’s crazy.”
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