Bonta asks the president of the FCC “ to stop his censorship campaign ” after the suspension of Kimmel
California Atty. General Rob Bonta accused the president of the Federal Commission for Communications Brendan Car on the illegal intimidation of television broadcasters to follow a conservative line in favor of President Trump on Monday, and urged him to reverse the course.
In a letter to Carr, Bonta specifically quoted ABC’s decision to take “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Out of the air after Kimmel made comments on the murder of Close Trump Ally Charlie Kirk, and Carr demanded the parent company of ABC, Disney, “act” against the end of the evening.
Bonta has written that California “houses a large number of artists, artists and other people who exercise their right to freedom of expression and freedom of expression every day and that Disney Carr demands threatened their rights to the 1st amendment.
“As the Supreme Court held over sixty years ago and reaffirmed unanimously last year”, the first amendment prohibits government officials from relying on the threat of invoking legal sanctions and other means of constraint to carry out the abolition of disadvantaged discourse “, Bonta wrote.
Carr and Trump both denied having played a role in the suspension of Kimmel, alleging rather than this was due to his bad note show.
After Disney announced on Monday that Kimmel’s show would return to ABC, Bonta said that he was “happy to learn that the Courses on his Capitulation with the illegal threats of the FCC”, but that his “concerns stand”.
He rejected the denials of Trump and Carr’s participation and accused the administration of “carrying out a dangerous attack on those who dare to express themselves”.
“Censor and silence criticisms because you don’t like what they say – whether it is an actor, a lawyer or a peaceful demonstrator – is fundamentally non -American”, while such a censorship of the American government is “absolutely frightening,” said Bonta.
Bonta called Carr to “stop his campaign of censorship” and to undertake to defend the right to freedom of expression in the United States, which, according to him, would require “an express disavowal” of his previous threats and “an unambiguous commitment” that he will not use the FCC “to bow down against the private parts” for the word that he disagrees with the inconvenience.
“The media reported today that AUC would make Mr. Kimmel’s program to its dissemination tomorrow evening. Although it is comforting to see the exercise of freedom of expression finally prevail, this does not erase your threats and the abolition resulting from the freedom of expression of last week or the prospect that your threats will relax the freedom of expression in the future,” said Bonta.
After Kirk’s murder, Kimmel said in a monologue that the United States had “struck new stockings during the weekend, the Gang Maga trying desperately to characterize this child who murdered Charlie Kirk as something other than one of them and do everything he can to score political points.”
Carr replied on a conservative podcast, saying: “These companies can find ways to change driving, take measures, frankly, on Kimmel, or, you know, there will be additional work for future FCC.”
Two major owners of the ABC affiliates abandoned the show, after which ABC said that it would be “pre -empted indefinitely”.
Kirk’s murder and Kimmel’s suspension – who followed the cancellation of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” by CBS – launched a tense debate on freedom of expression in the United States, Kimmel and Colbert are Trump criticisms, while Kirk was an ardent supporter.
Constitutional researchers and other defenders of the 1st amendment said that the administration and the CARR have clearly exerted inappropriate pressure on media companies.
Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the Faculty of Law of UC Berkeley, said that Carr’s actions were part of a broad assault against freedom of expression by the administration, which “shows ignorance and surprising contempt for the 1st amendment”.
Summer Lopez, the acting co-head of Pen America, said that it is “a dangerous moment for freedom of expression” in the United States due to a multitude of Trump administration actions which are “fairly clear violations of the 1st amendment”-including the threats of Carr but also declarations on the “hate speech” by Atty. General Pam Bondi and the new Pentagon restrictions on journalists reporting on the US military.
She said that Kimmel’s return to ABC has shown that “public indignation made a difference”, but that “it is important that we generate this level of public indignation when targeting is people who do not have the same importance”.
Carr has also criticized the conservative corners, notably Senator Ted Cruz (R -Texas) – which is president of the Senate Commerce Committee, which supervises FCC. He recently declared on his podcast that he had found “incredibly dangerous for the government to put himself in position to say that we will decide what we like and what we do not like, and we will threaten to withdraw from the air if we do not like what you say.”
Cruz said he was working closely with Carr, that he loves, but what Carr said was “dangerous like hell” and could be used on the line “to silence each preservative in America”.
