Federal Communications Commission Chairman
Brendan Carr said Thursday that
ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel appeared to “mislead” the American public about facts regarding conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s killing in the days leading up to his show’s suspension.
Carr also told CNBC’s “
Squawk on the Street” that “we’re not done yet” with the changes in “the media ecosystem” that are consequences of President
Donald Trump’s election last fall.
ABC on Wednesday night said it was pulling “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” off the air “indefinitely” because of the host’s comments, which linked Kirk’s alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.
“The issue that arose here, where lots and lots of people were upset, was not a joke,” Carr said Thursday on CNBC.
“It was not making fun,” said Carr, who hours before Kimmel’s show was pulled off the air suggested the FCC might take action against ABC and its parent company,
Disney
“It was appearing to directly mislead the American public about a significant fact that probably one of the most significant political events we’ve had in a long time, for the most significant political assassination we’ve seen in a long time,” he said.
Utah court documents filed Tuesday in connection with the murder charge against Robinson say his mother told investigators, “Over the last year or so, her son had become more political and had started to lean more to the left, becoming more pro gay and trans-rights oriented.”
Those documents also say that when Robinson was asked why he killed Kirk, “Robinson explained there is too much evil, and [Kirk] spreads too much hate.”
A day before those documents were filed,
Kimmel, in his show’s opening monologue Monday, said, “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.”
...
“Our goal and our obligation here is to make sure that broadcasters are serving the public interest,” Carr said.
