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Title: ABC Show Won't Air Interview With Democrat Because of FCC Threats

Link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/09/10/19142...

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: ABC's Jimmy Kimmel
said he will be interviewing a Democratic candidate for Senate tonight, but
the interview will be on YouTube only and not broadcast on TV because of
threats made by the Federal Communications Commission. Kimmel has been a
prime target in the Trump FCC's attacks on ABC and its owner, Disney. In his
monologue last night, Kimmel said he'll be interviewing Democrat James
Talarico, a state representative who is running against Texas Attorney
General Ken Paxton for a seat in the US Senate. In previous years, such an
interview would have aired on the broadcast show via local stations
throughout the country, Kimmel said. This time, it will only be on the Jimmy
Kimmel Live YouTube channel in order to prevent further trouble for
individual stations that hold FCC licenses, he said. "I'll be interviewing
James Talarico tomorrow night under unusual circumstances," Kimmel told the
audience on Wednesday. "For a lot of years, for the whole 20-plus years of
our show, in fact, I've been interviewing Americans who are running for
office with no problem at all, just like Letterman did, Leno did, Arsenio, et
cetera, et cetera. I've interviewed a lot of political candidates, from
Hillary Clinton to Ted Cruz to Donald Trump himself." But as Kimmel said,
"something has changed." Disney suspended Kimmel briefly last year after FCC
Chairman Brendan Carr threatened to revoke the licenses of ABC stations for
"news distortion" if they continued to air Kimmel's show. [...] Kimmel said
the decision to put the interview on YouTube was made out of consideration
for local stations that could face FCC threats to their broadcast licenses.
"And so out of consideration for our local stations, especially our ABC
affiliates in Texas who would have to deal with this nonsense, my interview
tomorrow with James Talarico will not air on television," Kimmel said. "It
will be posted on YouTube instead. It will not be on TV. So if you want to
learn about a candidate for the Senate tomorrow, you will have to go to the
Jimmy Kimmel Live YouTube channel where you will see it in its entirety, and
thank goodness we have that because in the America we live in right now, that
is the best that we can do, until November, of course." "Jimmy Kimmel's
decision to keep his interview with a Senate candidate off the air shows just
how far this administration's campaign of censorship and control has gone,"
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, the commission's only Democrat, said today.
Gomez said the FCC "has no lawful authority to threaten broadcast licenses
over guest bookings or editorial decisions," and that "no host, local
affiliate, or network should have to weigh federal retaliation before booking
a guest for a newsworthy interview. Any attempt to pressure broadcasters into
self-censorship undermines both press freedom and the public's right to hear
from candidates in their communities seeking public office." The report notes
a similar controversy that occurred in February when Stephen Colbert said CBS
forbade him from interviewing Talarico. CBS denied prohibiting the interview
but said it gave Colbert "legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the
FCC equal-time rule for two other candidates [...] and presented options for
how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled." That interview
also ended up being published on YouTube.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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