00:00House Democratic leadership is calling for FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to resign for, in their words, bullying ABC into suspending Jimmy Kimmel.
00:09They say the Trump administration is waging a war on the First Amendment and it's causing quite the debate here on Capitol Hill about free speech and censorship.
00:19The Democrats, led by minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, also criticized ABC.
00:24They stated, media companies such as the one that suspended Mr. Kimmel have a lot to explain.
00:29The censoring of artists and cancellation of shows is an act of cowardice.
00:33It may also be part of a corrupt pay-to-play scheme.
00:36Here's what Jimmy Kimmel said on his late-night show that led ABC and its parent company Disney to suspend him indefinitely.
00:43We 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.
00:55FCC Chairman Brendan Carr responded by stating he could take steps to revoke ABC's broadcast license.
01:01He wrote, broadcast TV stations have always been required by their licenses to operate in the public interest.
01:08SAN spoke with senators about Kimmel's suspension.
01:11Democrats say it's improper government censorship, while Republicans say ABC made a decision to punish unacceptable comments.
01:19We know there was federal interference.
01:22When the head of the FCC is talking openly about taking away the broadcast license, then that is the government trying to exercise censorship.
01:33It's not a question of whether you agree with Mr. Kimmel or disagree.
01:37And I have no problem with it. Quite honestly, you know, I think some of these people, including Jimmy Kimmel, are getting what the market wants.
01:45And he's getting what he deserves. I don't know about FCC, but am I concerned about it? No.
01:51I think that the censorship is spreading like a cancer in this country.
01:57And we need to speak out now, or we're going to sacrifice free expression.
02:02And the First Amendment taking Kimmel off the air was not only premature and precipitous, it was a violation of basic standards of free expression.
02:17ABC made the decision that his comments were inappropriate.
02:20I think, you know, look, Charlie Kirk was a friend.
02:24He, I was on a show every week, and father, husband, he really energized a lot of young people.
02:33And so, you know, any, any, I don't get, I don't get the inappropriate comments about anybody's death.
02:41And so, but ABC made the decision.
02:42And there's no doubt that for business reasons, someone can say, I don't want to give you a platform anymore.
02:49But that's not what happened here.
02:51We saw the government step up and give a hard shove.
02:55And then we saw a compliant company turn around and suspend Mr. Kimmel.
03:04And that truly undermines the whole premise of the First Amendment.
03:09That's what scares off ABC.
03:11Maybe they need a little bit of a scare.
03:15When it comes to the merger itself, I don't know a lot about it.
03:18I do know that the concentration of liberal communications companies isn't great for America.
03:25But again, it's a, it's a nice liberal thing to do, consolidate power.
03:29Really, really worried about it.
03:31I, I'm, I'm just amazed that the powerful entities like whatever the TV station was that he was on,
03:37they just caved so fast.
03:38I, I feel like the, the, the, the wealthy businesses and the leadership class is showing a complete lack of backbone.
03:46Satire, humor, comedy are the stuff of political expression, not just entertainment.
03:53And this kind of heavy-handed, ham-handed censorship is going to be a whirlwind that will come back to heart the chairman of the FCC.
04:07I'm Ray Bogan for Straight Arrow News.
04:09For more unbiased reporting straight from our nation's capital, download the SAN app.
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