More Chickens for Broadcasters That Obey the FCC's Censorship Mandate

The entire episode still leaves a foul taste in the mouths of many; far too many questions remain unanswered, and far too few public officials have been called to account for their assault on the First Amendment.   

On Sept. 23, Free Press Action alerted its million-plus activists and asked them to urge their members of Congress to demand answers from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr in an oversight hearing. Free Press Action has also called for a congressional inquiry into the actions of Nexstar and Sinclair Broadcast Group executives — who are still refusing to air Kimmel’s program — as well as Disney CEO Bob Iger. 

“We need a public hearing to get to the bottom of this threat to free speech,” Free Press Co-CEO Craig Aaron said in a statement. “We need to fully understand what pressure the government put on these media companies and what they were promised in exchange for cutting shows from their lineups and silencing network voices.”

Nexstar and Sinclair continue to obey

After Disney suspended Kimmel, Free Press urged its members to call their local ABC stations and demand that they put Kimmel’s program back on the air. Thousands of them did. Despite the enormous public outcry against the media’s capitulation to government pressure, massive broadcast conglomerates Nexstar and Sinclair continue to preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! on stations that reach more than 20 percent of the show’s national broadcast audience.

On Sept. 23, Free Press downgraded Nexstar’s Media Capitulation Index rating, changing it from three chickens (“capitulating”) to four (“obeying”). Sinclair already sits at four chickens, following its history of editorial allegiance to Trumpist politics. Free Press released the index in July to document what the nation’s 35 largest media and tech companies control, and to examine the degrees to which each is capitulating to demands from the Trump administration.

Nexstar earned this dubious downgrade after it fell in line following an unconstitutional threat from Chairman Carr to take official action against any broadcaster that continued to air Kimmel’s program. The decision is reportedly sparking dissent within Nexstar newsrooms, where staff — who are fielding calls from angry viewers — feel powerless to respond. Activists are organizing demonstrations outside other stations that have failed to bring Kimmel back, including at Seattle’s ABC affiliate KOMO, where protesters are organizing a local advertiser boycott of the Sinclair-owned station.

Calling Brendan Carr to account

It’s not rocket science to figure out why these two broadcast giants continue to obey Carr’s commands to censor Jimmy Kimmel. Nexstar will soon be asking the FCC to rubber-stamp an illegal merger with Tegna, and Carr has made it very clear in other deal reviews that a favorable outcome depends on Nexstar toeing Trump’s political line. Sinclair is reportedly interested in outbidding Nexstar to acquire Tegna, a giant of its own that owns or operates 68 television stations in 54 markets.

In August, Free Press slammed Carr for ignoring the law and settled precedent in his pursuit of a rule change that would eliminate Congress’ TV-station ownership limits on broadcast conglomerates in the United States. That change would pave a path for either Nexstar or Sinclair’s acquisition of Tegna — and would also harm freedom of expression, competition and diversity of viewpoint in television.

In our comments to the agency, Free Press wrote that the FCC’s real aim in lifting these limits is to fulfill the Trump administration’s desire “to use the Commission’s licensing authority to exert total control over the media.”

“Media consolidation and deal approvals are now explicitly a way for President Trump to further consolidate his dictatorial power, through explicit loyalty tests and pledges to use the public airwaves as a propaganda tool against the American public,” we wrote. 

Carr, for his part, dangles a deregulatory carrot to get these acquisition-obsessed companies to silence Trump critics. It’s typical Trump-administration corruption, and it violates the First Amendment when government officials coerce changes in coverage and content by offering regulatory favors — and threatening negative consequences for speech they don’t like.  

This cuts right to concerns about freedom of speech and freedom of the press, but also raises questions about Carr’s violation of the statute expressly prohibiting this kind of FCC interference. The First Amendment concerns here are obvious and self-executing, but the provisions written by Congress into Section 326 of the Communications Act limit the FCC’s powers over broadcast-license holders. That law explicitly prohibits the FCC from censoring broadcast content, or interfering with the right of free speech over broadcasting.

As Carr continues to strong-arm broadcasters, he has careened far beyond the limits of his authority. Lawmakers need to haul him before Congress and demand that he explain his unconstitutional actions. 

When the media fails, the people must step up

The good news is that people across the country aren’t having any of it — and their message got through loud and clear to Disney, which buckled to public pressure and restored Kimmel’s program. It’s now Nexstar’s and Sinclair’s turn to do right by the public and reverse their bans.

Kimmel is correct: This push to silence dissenting voices and muzzle the press is profoundly “anti-American” and “so dangerous.” But the public response to the FCC-coerced suspension of Kimmel is one of the most powerful and hopeful reactions we’ve seen so far to the Trump administration’s authoritarian overreach. 

If this episode has taught us anything, it’s that if media companies fail to exercise their First Amendment rights, the American people will rise up and defend free speech for them.

As public pressure increases against Nexstar and Sinclair, let’s hope their executives do right by the communities they’re really supposed to serve.

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