Press freedom advocates condemn the FCC's move to challenge Disney-owned ABC's licenses as the Trumps call for Jimmy Kimmel to be fired over a joke.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/46605116

April 28, 2026

Press freedom advocates on Tuesday forcefully condemned the Republican-dominated Federal Communications Commission—and FCC Chair Brendan Carr in particular—for moving to challenge Disney-owned ABC’s broadcast licenses as President Donald Trump again pressures to network to fire late-night television host Jimmy Kimmel.

“The First Amendment and the FCC’s mandate do not permit the agency to use broadcast licenses as weapons to punish broadcasters for constitutionally protected content they air,” declared Freedom of the Press Foundation chief of advocacy Seth Stern.

  • Carmakazi@piefed.socialEnglish
    11·
    6 days ago
    1. The framework of government will be in such tatters by that time, rules and norms probably won’t matter at all. They intend to rule indefinitely, and in the best case, the midterms are the inflection point of whether they decide to stand 10 toes on fascism or craft a just-in-case exit strategy where they aren’t imprisoned or executed for what they’ve done.
    2. Democrats have never met Republicans at their gutter level and I wouldn’t expect that to change even if #1 isn’t the case.
    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      6 days ago

      Exactly. This dumbfuck nation keeps giving only a modicum of power to the Democrats anyway. And even if they do get a majority, good luck on trying to overturn something like the now-very-much-abused presidential pardons…

      Democrats are going to honor pardon abuse even if it makes zero fucking sense. If they were anything like Republicans, they would have the perps arrested ANYWAY and then let it wind its way through the courts much later. When it comes to people like the J6 terrorists, they should absolutely do this, by the way.

      Good luck on getting the Democrats to do anything about pardon abuse.