Jimmy Kimmel Yankees James Talarico TV Interview Regarding Trump’s FCC Threats

Jimmy Kimmel will not broadcast a live interview with Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, thanks to Donald Trump’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Jimmy Kimmel Live! The interview will instead be broadcast on YouTube, Ars Technica reported, and the decision, which Kimmel announced to his audience on Wednesday, was aimed at protecting the broadcast licenses of ABC affiliates.

Trump’s FCC “threatened me, threatened our show, threatened our network, ABC, our affiliates, our local stations, based on simple, traditional editorial decisions and inviting guests they don’t seem to like,” Kimmel said. Trump appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2015 and 2016.

Last year, ABC owner Disney temporarily suspended Kimmel from the air after Trump-appointed FCC Chairman Brendan Carr threatened to revoke the ABC affiliate’s broadcast licenses after Kimmel criticized the GOP spin on the Charlie Kirk murder. Subsequently, the Federal Communications Commission began reviewing the licenses and investigating ABC’s The View for “fake news” (seriously).

The FCC regulates radio, television, wire, satellite and cable communications throughout the country. While it mainly focuses on issues such as spectrum allocation, competition and fraudulent call/text messages, it can fine radio and television broadcasters for “obscene” content. The Federal Communications Commission is responsible for enforcing the Equal Time Rule, which requires broadcasters to provide equal access to political candidates. It also has little-known and admittedly “narrow” powers to regulate “news distortion” on air. It was in these powers that Carr found nifty little (alleged) loopholes in the First Amendment.

The Equal Time Rule contains an exception for “fair” news programs, a term that the FCC has interpreted broadly to apply to related content such as talk shows since about 1959. That’s because the news industry threw a fit by pointing out that it was basically impossible to provide comparable time for every candidate. The equal time rule still applies to non-news programs such as Saturday Night Liveas well as commercials.

Solution? Simple. Just make an arbitrary conclusion that Kimmel and other talk shows are not “reliable” news. By this logic, every time a Democratic candidate is interviewed on a talk show, his Republican opponent can request equal time. In this case, it’s scandal-plagued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. If the network refuses, they face government retribution.

This obviously doesn’t apply the other way around, as the FCC is just another lever that a desperate Trump is pulling to swing the upcoming November election in his favor. Although Carr sent notices to broadcast stations in January warning that the equal time rule applied to talk shows with “partisan purposes,” Ars Technica reported, Carr has shown no interest in applying the equal time rule equally and has not issued similar directives to predominantly right-wing radio stations.

Disney is currently suing the Federal Communications Commission over censorship, saying the company “must now evaluate any invitation to a political candidate for its potential consequences.” Ars Technica noted that the Federal Communications Commission is currently trying to get the case dismissed.