Trump administration ‘weaponizing’ FCC authority, commissioner says
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner Anna Gomez said Thursday the Trump administration, via the FCC, is “weaponizing its licensing authority in order to bring broadcasters to heel.”
“I see this as a part of this administration’s campaign of censorship and control,” Gomez, who was appointed by former President Biden, said at the Axios Media Trends Live event. “And what it’s doing is it’s weaponizing its licensing authority in order to bring broadcasters to heel, and to really think twice about what they say about this administration.”
Gomez’s comments come one day after ABC indefinitely suspended late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel, amid pressure from FCC Chair Brendan Carr. Kimmel garnered criticism from President Trump and Republican lawmakers for his comments about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk during a recent “Jimmy Kimmel Live” episode.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said.
The late-night comedian also said Trump was mourning Kirk, who was fatally shot last week, “the way a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish.”
Carr, speaking on conservative commentator Benny Johnson’s podcast Wednesday, called on broadcasters “to step up and say this garbage to the extent that that’s what comes down the pipe in the future isn’t something that we think serves the needs of our local communities.”
Gomez pushed back against those comments, saying in a post on social platform X that “we must stand firm against every attempt to silence dissent, punish satirists and government critics, and erode individual liberty.”
The FCC commissioner was appointed by Biden to the agency in May 2023. Her term ends on July 1, 2026.
Kimmel was suspended by ABC shortly after Nexstar Media Group, which owns The Hill, announced its local affiliates would preempt Kimmel’s show. Carr praised the decisions from ABC and Nexstar, saying on X that “broadcasters have long retained the right to not air national programs that they believe are inconsistent with the public interest, including their local communities’ values.”
In a statement in response to Kimmel’s suspension, Gomez said, “We cannot allow an inexcusable act of political violence to be twisted into a justification for government censorship and control.” She called ABC’s decision to take Kimmel off the air a “cowardly corporate capitulation” that “has put the foundation of the First Amendment in danger.”
Gomez told Axios that by pressuring broadcasters that are “speaking about this administration in a way that it does not like,” the FCC and the White House are violating the First Amendment and the Communications Act of 1934.
The law, which established the FCC, asserts that the commission does not have censorship power over broadcasters and that “no regulation or condition shall be promulgated or fixed by the Commission which shall interfere with the right of free speech.”
“So, any pressure on these broadcasters to alter their broadcast because of their content is in fact inappropriate,” Gomez added. “And I think it’s important to keep in mind the FCC doesn’t have the authority, the ability, or the constitutional right to revoke a license because of content like this.”
In a statement, a White House spokesperson said the suspension “has nothing to do with free speech – low-ratings loser Jimmy Kimmel is free to spew whatever bad jokes he wants, but a private company is under no obligation to provide him a platform to do so.”
“And a private company deciding not to give someone a TV show, is incomparable to the Biden Administration’s censorship regime where they pressured social media companies to prevent Americans from speaking out with opinions they didn’t like,” spokesperson Abigail Jackson added.
The Hill has reached out to the FCC for comment.