Topline<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump threatened<\/a> Tuesday to sue ABC over its decision to resume \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d\u2014but while Trump claims that Kimmel\u2019s criticism of the president constitutes unlawful political \u201ccontributions,\u201d legal experts contend that\u2019s false, as anything the comedian says on his show is covered by an exemption under campaign finance law.<\/p>\n “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” returned to ABC on Sept. 23 following a week-long suspension that drew widespread controversy.<\/p>\n Disney via Getty ImagesKey Facts<\/p>\n Trump attacked ABC for its decision to resume<\/a> Kimmel\u2019s show after suspending it for a week, suggesting<\/a> on Truth Social he would sue the outlet and writing, \u201cLast time I went after [ABC], they gave me<\/a> $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative.\u201d<\/p>\n The president suggested he would specifically sue ABC for alleged campaign finance law violations, falsely claiming Kimmel is \u201cyet another arm of the DNC and, to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major Illegal Campaign Contribution.\u201d<\/p>\n But legal experts say that argument is wrong, with campaign finance attorney Brett Kappel telling Forbes Kimmel\u2019s comments are \u201cclearly covered by the \u2018media exemption\u2019\u201d in campaign finance law.<\/p>\n While federal campaign finance law<\/a> broadly bars corporations from making any monetary or non-monetary contributions in order to influence an election, it also carves out what\u2019s known as a \u201cmedia exemption\u201d or \u201cpress exemption,\u201d stating the prohibitions don\u2019t apply regarding \u201cany news story, commentary, or editorial\u201d distributed through a \u201cbroadcasting station\u201d or \u201cperiodical publication,\u201d as long as it\u2019s not owned by a political party or candidate.<\/p>\n As a result, the Federal Election Commission has repeatedly held it is fine for media and entertainment companies to broadcast content that talks about elections or political candidates, including when it clearly favors a certain candidate, as long as the speech is within the scope of the company\u2019s typical work as a \u201cpress entity.\u201d<\/p>\n That means Kimmel can explicitly make anti-Trump comments on his show, and ABC can pay him to do so, without running afoul of any federal laws or being considered in any way a contribution to the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n What To Watch For<\/p>\n While Trump suggested he\u2019ll sue Kimmel in his Truth Social post Tuesday night, no litigation has yet been filed. ABC moved forward with airing \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d on Tuesday after Trump posted his remark on social media, and has so far not shown any indication it will take further action against Kimmel in light of Trump\u2019s most recent comments.<\/p>\n Chief Critic<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no credible claim, despite Trump\u2019s insinuation, that ABC is \u2018owned or controlled by\u2019 the Democratic National Committee, just as there would be no credible claim that The New York Times or any other liberal-leaning media outlet is,\u201d election law expert Rick Hasen wrote in a blog post<\/a> early Wednesday responding to Trump\u2019s Truth Social post, describing the president\u2019s comments as \u201cincredibly alarming.\u201d Trump going after \u201ca media company in an effort to secure a \u2018lucrative\u2019 settlement just because the media company engages in speech critical of the President is extremely antithetical to how a system of self-government with free elections is supposed to work,\u201d Hasen argued.<\/p>\n When Does The \u2018media Exemption\u2019 Apply?<\/p>\n The media exemption was created in order to preserve the freedom of the press and ensure \u201cthe unfettered right of the newspapers, TV networks, and other media to cover and comment on political campaigns,\u201d the FEC has noted<\/a>, and allows media coverage to be exempted from being considered as political contributions or expenditures. That includes media content that\u2019s made for entertainment, rather than news coverage, and the FEC has held<\/a> it includes content on the internet and cable television in addition to more traditional media like newspapers and broadcast networks. In order to determine whether content fits into the media exemption, the FEC applies a two-part test. The first part asks whether the entity at issue is controlled by any political party, committee or candidate. If it\u2019s not, the FEC then determines whether the company \u201cis acting as a press entity in conducting the activity at issue,\u201d defining \u201cpress entity\u201d as a company \u201cthat disseminates news stories, commentary, and\/or editorials\u201d on a \u201cregular basis.\u201d The FEC considers whether the political speech at issue is publicly available and whether it\u2019s \u201ccomparable in form to [materials] ordinarily issued\u201d by the company. Since Kimmel\u2019s monologues criticizing Trump are within the scope of his usual comedy program, that means his comments fall under the media exemption. <\/p>\n When Doesn\u2019t The \u2018media Exemption\u2019 Apply?<\/p>\n The FEC has ruled the media exemption doesn\u2019t apply in cases where a media company is using money for political content that goes beyond its typical news or entertainment function. For instance, when comedian Stephen Colbert created his own super PAC as part of his former late night show \u201cThe Colbert Report,\u201d which was produced by Viacom, the FEC ruled<\/a> Colbert could discuss the super PAC on his show under the media exemption, as this was part of the show\u2019s usual programming. If Viacom paid for any ads about the super PAC that aired outside \u201cThe Colbert Report,\u201d or spent money actually running the super PAC, that would not be exempted and would count as contributions to the PAC, however, because it\u2019s outside the scope of the show\u2019s usual work. <\/p>\n Key Background<\/p>\n Kimmel returned to ABC<\/a> on Tuesday night after the network controversially suspended his program last week, making the decision after Nexstar, which runs many ABC affiliate stations, said it would preempt Kimmel\u2019s show due to comments the comedian made about the murder of right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk. The suspension drew widespread outrage as critics contended ABC\u2019s response appeared to be an effort to appease<\/a> the Trump administration, coming after Trump had repeatedly criticized Kimmel. Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr also suggested hours before Kimmel\u2019s suspension that he could revoke ABC\u2019s broadcast license over the host\u2019s comments about Kirk\u2019s death. ABC announced<\/a> Monday that Kimmel\u2019s program would return on Tuesday, after the network said it had \u201cthoughtful conversations\u201d with the late night host. Trump\u2019s comments threatening ABC with litigation come after media companies including ABC have recently repeatedly shown a willingness to settle with the president when he\u2019s taken action against the press, with ABC settling<\/a> with Trump over comments host George Stephanopoulos made about writer E. Jean Carroll\u2019s litigation against the president, and CBS News and parent company Paramount settling<\/a> a lawsuit over \u201c60 Minutes\u201d by paying the president $16 million. Kimmel\u2019s suspension also came after CBS decided to cancel \u201cThe Late Show with Stephen Colbert,\u201d a decision the company contended was purely financial, but has raised controversy due to Colbert\u2019s criticism of Trump and Paramount\u2019s settlement with the president.<\/p>\n Further ReadingForbesTrump Calls Jimmy Kimmel \u2018Arm Of The DNC\u2019\u2014Signals He May Sue ABC As Comedian Returns To AirBy Siladitya Ray<\/a>ForbesJimmy Kimmel Calls Out FCC Chair And Trump As He Returns To ABCBy Siladitya Ray<\/a>Forbes\u2018Jimmy Kimmel Live!\u2019 Returns Tuesday\u2014But Not On Sinclair-Owned StationsBy Antonio Peque\u00f1o IV<\/a>ForbesLegal Experts Accuse Trump Administration Of Unconstitutionally Influencing Kimmel Suspension\u2014Here\u2019s WhyBy Alison Durkee<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Topline President Donald Trump threatened Tuesday to sue ABC over its decision to resume \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d\u2014but while…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[2086,49,86031,86034,48,1376,75,86032,4592,86035,8127,86033,86030,348],"class_list":["post-166893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-abc","tag-ca","tag-campaign-finance-law","tag-can-trump-sue-jimmy-kimmel","tag-canada","tag-donald-trump","tag-entertainment","tag-illegal-campaign-contribution","tag-jimmy-kimmel","tag-jimmy-kimmel-live-returns","tag-lawsuit","tag-media-exemption","tag-trump-threatens-to-sue-abc","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}