The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
"Trump's FCC Head Went Too Far When He Threatened Disney over Jimmy Kimmel's Charlie Kirk-Related Comments"
From Paul Mirengoff (Ringside at the Reckoning); much worth reading. Mirengoff and his coauthor Bill Otis are my go-to people for hardheaded, pragmatic, but principled conservative views. They tend to be somewhat more conservative than I am, but I always find their work interesting (and well-written). An excerpt:
ABC pulled Kimmel off the air shortly after Carr's remark. However, the suspension also followed media giants Nexstar and Sinclair saying they would no longer carry Kimmel's show on their affiliates.
Thus, one can argue that Carr's statement did not cause the suspension of Kimmel's show. Maybe it was just Nexstar and Sinclair that caused it. And maybe Nexstar, which like Disney and Sinclair, has business before the FCC (such as seeking approval to acquire Tegna, another media company, in a $6.2 billion dollar deal), wasn't influenced by what Carr said. Maybe Kimmel's weak rating caught up with him.
But even if the decision to suspend Kimmel's show was based purely on market considerations and nothing Carr said, the head of the FCC had no proper business saying what he did. The government shouldn't threaten to use its licensing and other powers for the purpose of coercing TV networks into taking action against hosts who say things the government doesn't like….
For those who genuinely believe in free speech, it follows that television hosts should be free to level such insults — including stupid ones — without the government threatening consequences for their network if the network doesn't take action against the speaker.
In his statement, Carr relied on the obligation of networks "to operate in the public interest." But it is counter to the strong public interest in free speech for the government to make threats against outlets that present speech it doesn't like….
Highly offensive or not, the government shouldn't have threatened consequences for Disney if it didn't take action against Kimmel. If his comments made him too toxic for the network or affiliates to carry him, let market forces work. The government shouldn't put its thumb on the scale. The government should stay out of it.
