Legal expert says Kimmel removal is not a First Amendment violation
Olivia Hayes
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
A legal expert claims the removal of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” by ABC Network executives is not a violation of his First Amendment rights.
Kimmel’s show was pulled after he made comments about supporters of President Donald Trump in the opening of his show on Monday. Kimmel called them the “MAGA Gang” and said they were trying to “score political points” from the death of Charlie Kirk. The decision by the network to preempt the show was made on Wednesday.
Jared Schroeder, an associate professor at the University of Missouri, claims Kimmel’s rights were not violated because the government didn’t make the final call and that FCC Chairman Brendan Carr only applied pressure to the network with comments he made on a podcast. Still, it’s the course of action that Schroeder says is a threat to democracy.
“You look at any authoritarian country, one of the first things they’re going to do is shut down voices,” Schroeder said.
Public pressure from media companies Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcasting also played a role. Nexstar said in a statement that continuing to give Kimmel a platform is not in the public interest of the communities that they serve. Sinclair called on Kimmel to apologize to Kirk’s family and make a personal donation to Turning Point USA.
Nexstar was the first group to announce it would preempt Kimmel’s late night show before ABC made the decision to suspend the program indefinitely.
Nexstar is currently seeking FCC approval for its planned $6.2 billion merger with media group Tegna.
Gregg Skall, a communications lawyer, said these actions are not out of the blue for the FCC.
“The FCC has used a variety of types of pressure to bring its regulatees to do things that it thought was appropriate or ought to be done,” Skall said.
The network’s move notably praised by the Trump and U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO).
“Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person. He had very bad ratings, and they should have fired him a long time ago,” Trump was quoted in national media.
“I thought them saying listen we think that this is gross and we’re not gonna have it on our air. I thought that was a good choice,” Hawley said.
However, Anna Gomes, an FCC Commissioner, called ABC’s move “cowardly” and said it puts the foundation of the first amendment in danger.