Tackling the thorny Jimmy Kimmel situation, the head of the National Association of Broadcasters said “government pressure on media” also happened during the Obama and Biden administrations.
Weighing in after Kimmel’s suspension in a blog post that did not mention ABC, Disney or President Trump by name, NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt called this “an unprecedented time in media history” requiring “a direct conversation about what’s at stake.”
Kimmel’s show was suspended indefinitely by ABC after major station owners Nexstar and Sinclair removed it, citing jokes by the late-night host about the reaction to conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s death. The removal of the show followed open threats to Disney by FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. Talks are ongoing among stakeholders to seek a resolution to the impasse, with indications in recent days that a path for the show to return was more likely than it being dropped for good.
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LeGeyt affirmed the First Amendment rights of broadcasters, who “must be able to make decisions about the content on our airwaves free from government influence.” Even the perception that broadcasters are being affected by government pressure “is a problem for our credibility and the trust we have built with our audiences.”
At the same time, LeGeyt notes that government pressure on media “to cover events in a particular way is not new and it has come from both political parties. During the Obama administration, journalists decried the use of the Espionage Act to investigate reporters and demand their confidential sources. Under the Biden administration, reporters faced growing barriers to access, and local affiliate stations were targeted based on the actions of cable news networks. Today, we continue to see veiled threats suggesting broadcasters should be penalized for airing content that is contrary to a particular point of view.
“These attempts were wrong then, and they are wrong now.”
The NAB is the main lobbying organization for TV and radio broadcasters.
The Washington-based group, whose power has ebbed amid cord-cutting and the shift to streaming, has been in an awkward position for decades when it comes to the FCC and its members. That tension came into striking view in recent months, as Deadline’s Ted Johnson has reported.
The organization ran social media ads praising FCC Chairman Brendan Carr for helping “empower our members” by fighting to loosen regulations limiting the business activities of broadcasters. The praise for him came as Carr had launched investigations or inquiries into broadcast networks, some of their owned stations and other outlets, including members of NAB. Those probes were sparked by issues ranging from diversity, equity and inclusion practices to newsroom decision-making.
Along with the “the obvious constitutional issues” raised by the Kimmel situation, LeGeyt continued in the blog post, there is the difficult state of financial affairs for the industry. “Broadcasters are already fighting for our future, facing extraordinary disruption in the media ecosystem from Big Tech,” he wrote. “If the very act of owning or transferring a broadcast license carries the risk of political interference, it will drive investment further away from local stations at the very moment we need more resources to sustain local journalism.”
The NAB’s efforts to back its members as they face myriad business challenges, the exec concluded, will be “futile if we cannot fulfill our most sacred responsibility: reporting to our communities without fear of government retribution.”