No.Nonsense.

Last week, Disney received notice that the FCC was bringing multiple ABC studios in major markets up for early review of their licenses. The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Trump-appointee Brendan Carr, announced that the early reviews, some as much as five years ahead of schedule, is in response to concerns over their DEI policies. This is a catch-all phrase of this administration to say, “we don’t like what you’re doing so we’re going to use this bogus standard to stop it.” Of course, the previous administration used the same excuse in reverse.

It must be pure coincidence that these reviews were called up just days after Trump called for the firing of Jimmy Kimmel over his tasteless widow joke two days before the shooting at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Back in the fall when he insensitively joked post- Charlie Kirk assassination, Disney and ABC capitulated and took him off the air, delivering a slap on the hand for his poor taste. This time when the call came they said no. Days later these early reviews were announced.

I don’t believe in coincidence.

This current FCC director has previously targeted Comcast/ NBC Universal and Paramount with early reviews as well. For Paramount it mysteriously came right around the time that Stephen Colbert was in a verbal sparring match with Trump. The reviews were completed when Colbert’s contract was announced to come to an end and his show shelved.

Was his show ended as a prostrating to the administration or was it because it was hemorrhaging money and audience share? Who knows what is in the minds of those who made the decision? But the timing is suspect.

Prior administrations have seemed to use the FCC to their advantage, as well. Obama famously tried to apply the fairness doctrine to conservative talk radio outlets, arguing they had to provide equal time to opposing viewpoints. This is a misconception of The Fairness Doctrine which allows for a balance of viewpoints on the airwaves. But misconception or not, they attempted the takeover.

The Biden White House practiced what was termed as “The Soros Shortcut” to abbreviate the normal length of time for review and transfer of 200 radio licenses to a company partially owned by George Soros. They took this action just ahead of the 2024 election.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck. . .

My first round in college, I was in media studies and had a subsequent decade plus career in newspaper. I lived by the ideals that the media was the Fourth Estate, its very existence to hold those in power accountable. The US had a free and fair press that wasn’t beholden to the government. I idolized men like Thomas Paine and his Common Sense. We weren’t China and Russia and North Korea who operated in propaganda designed to keep their citizens in the dark, thinking what they were told to think.

I’m no longer in media professionally but am still a free speech absolutist who believes that the First Amendment gives us the right to say whatever inane, hateful, offensive thing we choose. We are the freaking US of A and no one has the right to stifle our opinions. Does that mean it’s always advisable to say what we are thinking? Of course not. Is it permissible for us to say it? Absolutely.

So does the government have the right to come in to a private enterprise and tell them what they must do with their on-air talent? I would say no. Does the government regulate the airwaves? Our laws say they do and can determine what is broadcast over those airwaves. Should they use this regulation as a means to stifle an opinion that the person in the Oval Office doesn’t like? I would call this an abuse of their power.

The FCC is a governing body that should never be subject to political whims. The fact that the director is a political appointee makes this a likelihood and I would argue that steps should be taken to prevent this eventuality for the sake of both political parties as well as every American citizen who values our rights.

Ultimately it comes down to one thing. Jimmy Kimmel’s joke wasn’t funny but he should not lose his job over it. ABC shouldn’t be subject to early reviews of their licenses because of a difference of opinion with the White House. And, yes, I would argue this point for every victim of cancel culture., whether I liked what they said or not.

Our media should be allowed to operate independently of any political partisanship. We must be able to trust that the news we receive is free of any influence. We must know that the shows we watch can be free to entertain without backlash from the administration. If we choose to engage with a biased entity that should be our choice. We need to know that we do, in fact, live in a country that upholds its rights to free speech and a free press. If we lose that right, we lose one of the basic fundamentals that every revolutionary war soldier fought and died for. We cannot sacrifice our speech to the whims of another.