{"id":36002,"date":"2025-09-22T08:13:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T08:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/36002\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T08:13:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T08:13:17","slug":"amid-jimmy-kimmel-controversy-head-of-broadcast-tv-lobby-says-democrats-also-pressured-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/36002\/","title":{"rendered":"Amid Jimmy Kimmel Controversy, Head Of Broadcast TV Lobby Says Democrats Also Pressured Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tTackling the thorny Jimmy Kimmel<\/a> situation, the head of the National Association of Broadcasters said \u201cgovernment pressure on media\u201d also happened during the Obama and Biden administrations.<\/p>\n

\n\tWeighing in after Kimmel\u2019s suspension in a blog post<\/a> that did not mention ABC<\/a>, Disney<\/a> or President Trump by name, NAB<\/a> CEO Curtis LeGeyt called this \u201can unprecedented time in media history\u201d requiring \u201ca direct conversation about what\u2019s at stake.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tKimmel\u2019s show was suspended indefinitely by ABC after major station owners Nexstar and Sinclair removed it, citing jokes by the late-night host about the reaction to conservative activist Charlie Kirk\u2019s death. The removal of the show followed open threats to Disney by FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. Talks are ongoing<\/a> among stakeholders to seek a resolution to the impasse, with indications in recent days that a path for the show to return was more likely than it being dropped for good.<\/p>\n

\n\tLeGeyt affirmed the First Amendment rights of broadcasters, who \u201cmust be able to make decisions about the content on our airwaves free from government influence.\u201d Even the perception that broadcasters are being affected by government pressure \u201cis a problem for our credibility and the trust we have built with our audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the same time, LeGeyt notes that government pressure on media \u201cto cover events in a particular way is not new and it has come from both political parties. During the Obama administration, journalists decried the use of the Espionage Act to investigate reporters and demand their confidential sources. Under the Biden administration, reporters faced growing barriers to access, and local affiliate stations were targeted based on the actions of cable news networks. Today, we continue to see veiled threats suggesting broadcasters should be penalized for airing content that is contrary to a particular point of view.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThese attempts were wrong then, and they are wrong now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe NAB is the main lobbying organization for TV and radio broadcasters.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe reference to Biden administration pressure on affiliate stations appeared to be a reference to a petition brought by the Media and Democracy Project that challenged the renewal of the broadcast<\/a> license of Fox\u2019s Philadelphia affiliate, WTXF-TV. It focused on the character of Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch in lights of revelations from the Dominion Voting Systems case against Fox News, a cable network that is outside of the FCC\u2019s oversight. In 2023, Fox settled the case for $787.5 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tJessica Rosenworcel, who was chair of the FCC under Biden, faced criticism from conservatives for opening up a public comment period on the Fox station renewal, delaying action. Just before leaving office in January, she dismissed the Media and Democracy Project petition, along with three other complaints brought by a conservative group. \u201cThe facts and legal circumstances in each of these cases are different,\u201d Rosenworcel said at the time.\u00a0\u201cBut what they share is that they seek to weaponize the licensing authority of the FCC in a way that is fundamentally at odds with the First Amendment.\u201d Shortly after he took office, Carr restored three of the complaints, including one over the way that 60 Minutes edited an interview with Kamala Harris, but he did not revive the WTXF petition.<\/p>\n

\n\tNAB, based in Washington, has seen its power ebb amid cord-cutting and the shift to streaming, has been in an awkward position for decades when it comes to the FCC and its members. That tension came into striking view in recent months, as Deadline\u2019s Ted Johnson has reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe organization ran social media ads praising FCC Chairman Brendan Carr for helping \u201cempower our members\u201d by fighting to loosen regulations limiting the business activities of broadcasters. The praise for him came as Carr had launched investigations or inquiries into broadcast networks, some of their owned stations and other outlets, including members of NAB. Those probes were sparked by issues ranging from diversity, equity and inclusion practices to newsroom decision-making.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlong with the \u201cthe obvious constitutional issues\u201d raised by the Kimmel situation, LeGeyt continued in the blog post, there is the difficult state of financial affairs for the industry. \u201cBroadcasters are already fighting for our future, facing extraordinary disruption in the media ecosystem from Big Tech,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIf the very act of owning or transferring a broadcast license carries the risk of political interference, it will drive investment further away from local stations at the very moment we need more resources to sustain local journalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe NAB\u2019s efforts to back its members as they face myriad business challenges, the exec concluded, will be \u201cfutile if we cannot fulfill our most sacred responsibility: reporting to our communities without fear of government retribution.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTed Johnson contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tackling the thorny Jimmy Kimmel situation, the head of the National Association of Broadcasters said \u201cgovernment pressure on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[2976,3279,9618,93,61,60,3484,27976,282],"class_list":["post-36002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-abc","tag-broadcast","tag-disney","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jimmy-kimmel","tag-nab","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36002","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=36002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}