During today’s Senate hearing, Donald Trump’s hand-picked FCC Chairman, Brendan Carr, admitted to Sen. Amy Klobuchar that he is investigating all major news outlets except for Fox News.
Senator Klobuchar used Carr’s own words against him: he attacked Jimmy Kimmel after the shooting of Charlie Kirk and used his position at the FCC to try to have him removed from the airwaves.
KLOBUCHAR: Well, I believe too that there is no place in chilling political satire, but after Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue, you went on a podcast and suggested that ABC should take Kimmel off the air, saying, ‘We can do this the easy way or the hard way.’
Those were your words. Do you think it is appropriate to use your position to threaten companies that broadcast political satire?
CARR: I think any licensee that operates on the public airwaves has a responsibility to comply with the public interest standard, and that’s been the case for decades.
KLOBUCHAR: I asked if you think it’s appropriate for you to use your position to threaten companies. And this incident with Kimmel wasn’t an isolated event. You’ve launched investigations into every major broadcast network except Fox.
Is that correct?
CARR: I don’t know if that’s true or not.
We do have investigations going on at NPR and PBS. We have a number of investigations that are ongoing.
