FCC Chairman Brendan Carr Must Resign
WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, Free Press and Public Citizen delivered a letter signed by dozens of pro-democracy organizations calling on Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr to resign. The letter condemns the unconstitutional threats Carr made against ABC and its affiliates over comments made on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Signers of the letter include Indivisible, MoveOn, People for the American Way, National Women’s Law Center and the People’s Action Institute.
On Sept. 17, Carr used a podcast appearance to pressure ABC and its stations to punish late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, warning: “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Major broadcasters Nexstar and Sinclair quickly responded by pulling Jimmy Kimmel Live! from more than 60 ABC affiliates, and Disney/ABC suspended Kimmel indefinitely before public outrage forced the company to reverse course. Carr then celebrated the censorship by sending reporters mocking GIFs.
“As someone who has repeatedly inveighed against the dangers of government censorship and who has specifically defended the importance of political satire, you know exactly how chilling and unconstitutional your statements have been,” the letter states. “Yet since being made chairman of the FCC by Donald Trump and even before his election last year, you have repeatedly threatened newsrooms and interfered with broadcasters and other media outlets, based on meritless complaints about their journalistic practices and the content these companies produce.”
“The Chair of the Federal Communications Commission should be the nation’s defender of press freedom,” said Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen. “Instead, FCC Chair Brendan Carr has fashioned himself into a MAGA-waving, free-speech-be-damned bully, ready to abuse his power to take down the president’s opponents. He has disgraced his position and should resign immediately.”
“FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has repeatedly abused the power of his office to shake down media companies, censor broadcasts and punish newsrooms that won’t twist their coverage to placate President Trump,” said Craig Aaron, co-CEO of Free Press. “As the loud public outcry over the censoring of Jimmy Kimmel shows, Carr has lost the trust of the American people and shown himself to be unfit to safeguard the public airwaves. Kimmel may be back on the air, but Nexstar and Sinclair — the same giant conglomerates that refused to air Kimmel’s show — have mega-deals still pending before Carr’s FCC and long-standing regulations they are trying to eliminate. Carr should not be the one making these decisions. He should resign to prevent any further damage to free speech, press freedom and the rule of law.”
The letter emphasizes that Carr’s actions represent a serious violation of his oath of office and undermine core democratic principles, and concludes by demanding that Carr both apologize and immediately step down: “To mitigate the damage you have caused, we urge you to retract and apologize for your remarks and clarify that FCC regulatory decisions are not impacted by the views expressed by broadcasters or on their programs.”