Defending the inalienable right to free speech means defending those with whom you disagree, no matter how many times they call Donald Trump the “Cheeto in Chief.”
Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr appeared in front of the Senate Committee on Commerce yesterday. Among many other concerns with Carr’s custodianship of American media, a few senators pressed Carr about his attempt to remove Jimmy Kimmel Live! from broadcast by publicly threatening the FCC licenses of ABC affiliates back in September. Predictably, Carr was evasive about the issue, speaking much less strongly on Kimmel than he did when he threatened to “take action” against local ABC stations, telling them that they could do things “the easy way or the hard way”.
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On the other hand, Kimmel’s most surprising “ally” from across the aisle directly called out Carr’s wanton attack on the First Amendment to the Trump crony’s face – Senator Ted Cruz chewed Carr up like he was a Cancun fish taco during a Texas cold snap.
“Jimmy Kimball (sic) is angry, overtly partisan and profoundly unfunny,” Cruz said of the late-night host whose one-week suspension from ABC stations stirred up a political firestorm for Carr and the entire FCC, “That, sadly is true for most late-night comedians today, who seem to have been collectively broken by President Trump’s election.”
Cruz went on to call the offending monologue that led to Carr’s attempt to silence Kimmel “tasteless,” suggesting that ABC would be well within their rights to cancel Jimmy Kimmel Live! over it – but not because the feds told them to. Said Cruz, “What government cannot do is force private entities to take actions that the government cannot take directly.”
“Government officials threatening adverse consequences for disfavored content is an unconstitutional coercion that chills protected speech,” Cruz continued, and, after going on a brief detour to rehash his complaints about Joe Biden’s handling of the COVID crisis, Cruz stated, “Democrat or Republican, we cannot have the government arbitrating truth or opinion.”
Of course, Carr took the out provided by Cruz to ramble on about how he thinks the FCC was mishandled during the Biden administration, dodging any responsibility for spooking Disney CEO Bob Iger into suspending Jimmy Kimmel Live! before going on a GIF-filled victory lap on Twitter.
Make no mistake – Cruz’ posturing yesterday doesn’t necessarily make him a true defender of free speech, and his loyalty will always be to Trump and his officials. But, in establishing himself as “one of the good ones,” at least in the eyes of moderate conservatives who are growing increasingly antsy about President Trump’s war on the Constitution, Cruz laid out the exact truth about what the FCC under Carr is trying to do.
Carr and Trump want to decide what is or isn’t “protected” speech, and any joke, comment or late-night monologue that’s critical of the conservative power structure will inevitably find itself on the naughty list, so to speak. But they cannot be the ultimate authority on what political speech is or isn’t true, just like they can’t determine what is or isn’t funny – that much is up to the audience, and for reasons that escape Cruz, Carr and millions of other Americans, Kimmel’s still got the vote of ABC viewers.
