Press Freedom — Week of Sep 15, 2025

This week saw a notable escalation in government pressure on broadcast media. On September 17, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr publicly warned ABC and Disney over a political monologue by late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, saying "we can do this the easy way or the hard way" — a reference to the FCC's power over broadcast licenses. Within days, ABC's largest affiliate pulled Kimmel's show and ABC suspended him. Two senators introduced a resolution condemning Carr's actions as unconstitutional. Three days later, President Trump was asked whether negative coverage could be grounds for revoking a broadcast license and said yes. The President also stated that Kimmel's suspension was due to poor ratings and talent, not government pressure.

This might matter because the FCC's broadcast licensing power exists to manage public airwaves in a content-neutral way — not to punish speech the government dislikes. If broadcasters come to believe their licenses could depend on avoiding criticism of the administration, that could compromise the ability of television journalists and commentators to hold the government accountable.

Separately, the U.S. Agency for International Development published a notice requiring anyone who filed a public records request before January 20, 2025 to reconfirm their interest within 45 days or have their request closed. The agency acknowledged that nearly all its staff have been let go, meaning the people who would normally find and review records are gone. While agencies are allowed to check if requesters still want their records, applying this across the board to all pre-inauguration requests — after the agency itself eliminated its workforce — effectively uses self-created incapacity to clear the backlog.

There are alternative explanations worth considering. On the FCC matter, no formal enforcement action has been taken — Carr's statement may amount to political bluster rather than a genuine threat, and courts have consistently blocked content-based FCC enforcement. It is also possible his remarks were misinterpreted or taken out of context. ABC's decision to suspend Kimmel may have been driven by ratings and business considerations, as the President himself has claimed. However, the speed with which ABC acted after the statement, combined with the President's public endorsement of content-based license revocation days later, may make the purely commercial explanation less convincing.

Limitations: This analysis is based on AI review of public government documents and cannot account for private conversations between administration officials and media companies, or for the full business context behind ABC's programming decisions.