{"id":33903,"date":"2025-09-21T04:03:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T04:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/33903\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T04:03:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T04:03:17","slug":"ted-cruz-likens-threats-to-abc-over-jimmy-kimmel-comments-to-mafioso-tactics-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/33903\/","title":{"rendered":"Ted Cruz likens threats to ABC over Jimmy Kimmel comments to \u2018mafioso\u2019 tactics \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Republican<\/a> senator Ted Cruz has compared threats by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chief to revoke the broadcast licenses of ABC stations over late-night host Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s commentary<\/a> to \u201cmafioso\u201d tactics similar to those in the 1990 film Goodfellas.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, Jimmy Kimmel has been canned. He has been suspended indefinitely. I think that is a fantastic thing,\u201d the Texas politician said at the start of the latest episode of his podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz. <\/p>\n

However, there were \u201cfirst amendment implications\u201d to the FCC\u2019s role, added Mr Cruz, a Harvard Law School graduate who clerked for US supreme court chief justice William Rehnquist.<\/p>\n

Mr Cruz, once a fierce political rival of Donald Trump<\/a> but now a strong supporter, called FCC chief Brendan Carr\u2019s comments \u201cunbelievably dangerous\u201d and warned that government attempts to police speech could harm conservatives if Democrats return to power.<\/p>\n

Kimmel was taken off the air<\/a> following criticism of his Monday evening monologue in which he suggested the man charged with murdering conservative campaigner Charlie Kirk<\/a>, Tyler Robinson, might have been a pro-Trump Republican.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe decision to suspend ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ over his comments around the killing of Charlie Kirk has been described as an attack on free speech. Photograph: Samuel Corum\/The New York Times<\/p>\n

Mr Carr has argued that he can withhold licences that are not being used in the public\u2019s interest to crack down on speech that does not serve local viewers. This includes coverage that is biased against conservatives, a standard that many telecommunications experts and Democrats say is too broad.<\/p>\n

Mr Cruz added: \u201cHe threatens explicitly: \u2018We\u2019re going to cancel ABC\u2019s licence. We\u2019re going to take him off the air so ABC cannot broadcast any more.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cHe says: \u2018We can do this the easy way, but we can do this the hard way.\u2019 And I got to say, that\u2019s right out of Goodfellas. That\u2019s right out of a mafioso coming into a bar going, \u2018Nice bar you have here. It\u2019d be a shame if something happened to it.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate what Jimmy Kimmel said. I am thrilled that he was fired,\u201d he went on. \u201cBut let me tell you: if the government gets in the business of saying, \u2018We don\u2019t like what you, the media, have said. We\u2019re going to ban you from the airwaves if you don\u2019t say what we like,\u2019 that will end up bad for conservatives.\u201d<\/p>\n

During an Oval Office event on Friday, when Mr Trump was asked about Mr Cruz\u2019s comments on the FCC, the president raised the issue of licences and suggested stations might be \u201cillegally\u201d using the airwaves to broadcast critical coverage of him in news reports.<\/p>\n

\"USUS president Donald Trump speaks to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday. Photograph: Tierney L Cross\/The New York Times<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have networks that give somebody 97 per cent bad publicity,\u201d Mr Trump said, \u201cI think that\u2019s dishonesty.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Brendan Carr is a patriot. I think Brendan Carr is a courageous person. I think Brendan Carr doesn\u2019t like to see the airwaves be used illegally and incorrectly … So I disagree with Ted Cruz on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The president\u2019s claim that news coverage on ABC, NBC and CBS was almost entirely negative appears to have been based on a subjective analysis of \u201cthe networks\u2019 spin\u201d by NewsBusters, a conservative media watchdog group founded by Mr Trump\u2019s nominee to serve as US ambassador to South Africa, L Brent Bozell III. \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Republican senator Ted Cruz has compared threats by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chief to revoke the broadcast…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[13477,969,93,61,60,16621],"class_list":{"0":"post-33903","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-charlie-kirk","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-republican-party"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}