Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, on Thursday stressed that the commission’s early review of licenses for eight ABC stations is not about a spat between President Donald Trump and late night host Jimmy Kimmel.
Instead, Carr stated the review was tied to a year-long complaint about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) “discrimination” practices, which the administration tackled from the first days following Trump’s return to office last year.
“The investigation’s all about diversity,” Carr said in response to reporter questions at a press conference, adding, “The FCC shouldn’t be in the business of being the speech police. What we have to do as an agency is to enforce our rules and regulations and there are rules about non-discrimination that are unrelated to speech that we have been pushing across the board and that’s the basis for the early renewal in the Disney case.”
The early renewal review is targeting eight Disney-owned ABC stations, and the timing has raised questions and suspicions of retaliation as it comes just days after Trump lashed out at Kimmel and tried to connect the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner over the previous weekend to a joke Kimmel made.
This is a breaking news story. Updates will follow.
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