Not that the FCC had anything to do with that, according to Carr. In a pinned post on Twitter/X (because U.S. policy is now announced exclusively on social media), the noted Trump loyalist claimed that Talarico and Kimmel’s censorship claims were a “hoax” intended to drive both the talk show host’s ratings and the poll-leading candidate’s donations. (Carr also posted that meme of the stick in the bicycle spokes, since trolling is also standard Trump administration practice.)
“The Equal Time statute does not prohibit anyone from interviewing anyone on broadcast tv,” Carr’s rebuttal began. “It is about more speech, not less. Congress wanted to ensure that voters would decide elections, not media gatekeepers picking winners and losers by providing preferential airtime to some candidates and not others.” ABC is currently suing Carr’s agency for selectively enforcing broadcast policy, among other First Amendment issues.
Neither Kimmel nor Talarico has commented on Carr’s tetchy response as yet. But Kimmel, prior to his interview with the man seeking to oust scandal-ridden Republican Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton in November, was unequivocal, stating, “The FCC has threatened me, or threatened my show or network, even our local ABC stations because they want to make our editorial decisions for us, which of course we cannot accept.” A year ago, Kimmel was suspended by ABC parent company Disney after Carr personally directed viewers to complain about Kimmel’s comments concerning the shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
And while the “I’m not touching you” strategy of shaky plausible deniability reigns at the FCC under Carr’s leadership, pressures from the administration have seen networks make choices clearly intended to placate notoriously thin-skinned TV addict Donald Trump. Meanwhile, Carr’s plan to silence Talarico has gone about as well as it did the last time he tried it, as the Jimmy Kimmel Live! interview has been viewed nearly 8 million times as of this morning.
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