Cancel the FCC, Not Jimmy Kimmel
Turnabout may be fair play, but there is nothing conservative about it.
I have never watched Jimmy Kimmel Live! other than occasionally seeing a video clip. Neither have I ever watched late-night talk shows staring Seth Myers, Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, Conan O’Brien, or David Letterman; again, other than seeing a video clip. I think the only late-night talk shows I have ever actually watched were those hosted by Johnny Carson and Jay Leno.
Although I have never watched his show, I am familiar enough with Kimmel to not be surprised at his remarks about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Said Kimmel: “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.”
Although I did not agree with them, I thought Kimmel’s remarks were rather tame, especially since he did not attack or even criticize Charlie Kirk himself.
Nevertheless, Nexstar Media Group, which owns about 25 of the approximately 225 ABC affiliate stations, said that it would preempt Kimmel’s show “for the foreseeable future beginning with tonight’s show” because of Kimmel’s remarks. Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division, said that Kimmel’s comments “are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse.”
President Trump cheered the Kimmel suspension as “great news for America” and urged other networks to cancel their late-night shows.
What a private business does in response to political remarks or events, whether we like its decision or not, is not a cause for concern. If a company wants to fire everyone who it thinks is Jewish or Muslim, voted for Biden or Trump, is Catholic or Protestant, or eats vanilla or chocolate ice cream is its own business and an example of the free market at work. If someone does not like a company’s actions, then he can patronize another company that stays neutral when it comes to politics or sides with positions he agrees with.
It is when the government gets involved that everyone ought to be concerned.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair Brendan Carr labeled Kimmel’s comments as “truly sick.” He is certainly entitled to his opinion as a private citizen, but the fact that he also said there was a “strong case” for FCC action against ABC and Disney, which owns ABC, is deeply disturbing. Said Carr: “This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead. They have a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest.”
It has been claimed that Carr also said that the FCC “has a strong case for holding Kimmel, ABC and network parent Walt Disney Co. accountable for spreading misinformation” and that Kimmel “appeared to be making an intentional effort to mislead the public that Kirk’s assassin was a right-wing Trump supporter.”
But every news broadcast on television or radio spreads misinformation and misleads the public, especially the government-funded NPR and PBS. Most every presidential press conference does the same thing, as do most major newspapers. The biggest offender is the U.S. government itself, which continually spreads misinformation and misleads the public: Vietnam, Cambodia, COVID, the COVID vaccine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, the JFK assassination, swine flu, Ukraine, Obamacare, Biden’s health, saturated fat, raw milk, salt, cholesterol, eggs, marijuana, and so on.
I may not agree with anything else that FCC commissioner Anna Gomez, who was nominated to the FCC by President Biden, has ever said or will ever say, but her statement on the Kimmel imbroglio was spot on:
This FCC does not have the authority, the ability, or the constitutional right to police content or punish broadcasters for speech the government dislikes. If it were to take the unprecedented step of trying to revoke broadcast licenses, which are held by local stations rather than national networks, it would run headlong into the First Amendment and fail in court on both the facts and the law. But even the threat to revoke a license is no small matter. It poses an existential risk to a broadcaster, which by definition cannot exist without its license. That makes billion-dollar companies with pending business before the agency all the more vulnerable to pressure to bend to the government’s ideological demands.
Gomez issued another statement after Kimmel was reinstated:
I am glad to see Disney find its courage in the face of clear government intimidation. More importantly, I want to thank those Americans from across the ideological spectrum who spoke loudly and courageously against this blatant attempt to silence free speech. It will continue to be up to us as citizens to push back against this Administration’s growing campaign of censorship and control
Most conservatives and Republicans supported the Trump administration on this issue because they always support the Trump administration. However, I note two prominent exceptions: Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.
Said Cruz: “I hate what Jimmy Kimmel said. I am thrilled that he was fired. But let me tell you: If the government gets in the business of saying, ‘We don’t like what you, the media, have said; we’re going to ban you from the airwaves if you don’t say what we like,’ that will end up bad for conservatives.” Cruz also remarked that FCC Chair Brendan Carr’s threats were “dangerous as hell.”
Paul agreed that Carr’s involvement was “absolutely inappropriate.” The FCC chairman “has got no business weighing in on this. If you’re losing money, you can be fired. But the government’s got no business in it. And the FCC was wrong to weigh in. And I’ll fight any attempt by the government to get involved with speech.”
Cruz and Paul, as well as other conservatives and Republicans who actually believe in the First Amendment, are exactly right.
Libertarians, however, go two steps further.
First, cancel the FCC, not Jimmy Kimmel.
On this first step, libertarians should be joined by every conservative who claims to respect and follow the Constitution.
According to the FCC website:
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulates interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. An independent U.S. government agency overseen by Congress, the Commission is the federal agency responsible for implementing and enforcing America’s communications law and regulations.
The agency is directed by five commissioners appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. It is organized into seven bureaus and twelve offices and has about 1,400 employees. The FCC was created by the Communications Act of 1934.
There is just one problem: the Constitution nowhere grants to the federal government the authority to have an FCC. As badly as government bureaucrats, politicians, the American people, and even radio and television stations may want the federal government to have an FCC, this burning desire cannot overcome the obstacle of the Constitution. It is argued by some, however, that there was no such thing as radio, television, or even electricity when the Constitution was adopted. That is true, but it is even more reason why a constitutional amendment would have to be adopted before the federal government could legitimately have an FCC.
Libertarians, and perhaps even some conservatives who actually believe in a free market instead of a MAGA market, would then go an additional step.
They would also oppose any constitutional amendment to authorize the federal government to have an FCC, period. From its very beginning, President Franklin Roosevelt used the agency against broadcasters who opposed his New Deal, and for years, the FCC’s “Fairness Doctrine” was used to restrict the speech of conservatives. The FCC has also since its inception issued licenses to stations only if (in its view) the “public interest, necessity, or convenience would be served,” and it engaged in censorship by prohibiting obscene, indecent, or profane language.
Not only can the government not be trusted to have an FCC: it is not a legitimate function of government to have an FCC in the first place. There is no reason why the free market cannot handle broadcasting just like the free market provides electricity and collects garbage. The fact that some government agencies in some states provide electricity and collect garbage does not mean that the free market has failed or that government is more effective or efficient at providing electricity and collecting garbage. It just means that the government has taken upon itself to do so.
Whether or not you agree with Jimmy Kimmel’s politics is not the issue. If we are to have freedom of speech in America, then it is the FCC that must be cancelled, not Jimmy Kimmel.
The post Cancel the FCC, Not Jimmy Kimmel appeared first on The Future of Freedom Foundation.
