Trump Issues Fresh Warning to TV Networks Amid Growing Criticism Over Kimmel Suspension

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President Donald Trump praised the suspension of talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel and suggested TV networks should face license cancellations for broadcasting negative content about his leadership, intensifying discussions on free speech rights.

While visiting the UK, Trump commented that Kimmel deserved punishment for making inappropriate remarks about Kirk.

On Air Force One returning to the US, Trump expressed frustration over critical media coverage, stating, “It’s a subject for license discussion… All they seem to do is criticize Trump.”

“Maybe their license should be revoked,” Trump suggested, indicating it would be up to [Federal Communications Commission chief] Brendan Carr.

According to US federal law, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) cannot revoke a broadcaster’s license solely based on unfavorable coverage or speech that the government finds objectionable.

Not ‘the last shoe to drop’, says US federal broadcasting chief

Brendan Carr, the head of the FCC, which regulates broadcasters, said Kimmel’s axing was part of a “massive shift” taking place in US media.

“I don’t think this is the last shoe to drop. This is a massive shift that’s taking place in the media ecosystem. The consequences will continue to flow,” Carr said in an interview with Fox News.

He praised the owners of local TV stations that broadcast ABC programming for putting the network’s owner, Disney, under pressure to take Kimmel off the air.

“We’re going to go back to that era when local TV stations, judging the public interest, get to decide what the American people think,” Carr said.

“These were local TV stations under FCC licensing with a duty to serve their community’s interests; they resisted Disney’s influence,” it was noted.

Carr said the federal regulator would be “constraining the power” of large media networks, singling out Disney and Comcast. But in reality, the FCC does not regulate programming on national networks such as ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox — its authority lies in issuing licences to local broadcast affiliates that use the public airwaves.

Comcast, which owns NBC, hosts other late-night programs, including The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers, both of whom Trump called “total losers” in a Truth Social post, calling for their cancellation.

“Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!!”

Trump administration ‘silencing its critics’

Walt Disney-owned ABC said it was pulling the show after Kimmel’s comments that conservatives were using Kirk’s killing to score political points.

Former US president Barack Obama urged media companies not to capitulate to government coercion.

“After years of opposing cancel culture, the administration has dangerously escalated it by consistently threatening media outlets with regulatory action if they don’t silence or dismiss reporters and commentators it disapproves of,” Obama remarked in a statement.

Writers’ and actors’ labour unions called the targeting of Kimmel an unconstitutional attack on the right to disagree. The American Civil Liberties Union called it an unconstitutional attempt by the Trump administration to “silence its critics and control what the American people watch and read”.

The longest-serving talk show host in the US, David Letterman, also condemned Kimmel’s suspension and said ABC was “trying to suck up to an authoritarian criminal administration”.

Kimmel is set to meet with Walt Disney executives to discuss the show’s future, according to Bloomberg News. The parties will discuss whether there is a way to return “Jimmy Kimmel Live” to the air, the report said.

— Additional reporting by Reuters