On September 17, Carr threatened Disney with regulatory action regarding Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue about the Charlie Kirk murder, forcing major station affiliates to stop broadcasting and ABC to temporarily suspend the show.
Later that day, FCC West Coast Enforcement Director Lark Hadley emailed Carr and FCC Chief of Staff Scott Delacorte. The email obtained through the Freedom of Information Act was titled “Charlie Kirk personal note of support on ABC/Disney issue” and quoted Carr’s comments in an interview with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson: “This is a very serious issue right now for Disney. We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said during the interview.
Noting that he had been a broadcaster himself, Hadley wrote that “the complete lack of accountability has always confused (and sickened) me,” telling Carr and Delacorte: “Please, don’t give up, and let me know if I can help in any way.”
It is highly irregular for a career civil servant and enforcement chief to express support for a politically motivated pressure campaign, or to pledge services to a targeted retaliation effort against a broadcaster in his jurisdiction.
Federal ethics rules prevent government employees from participating in cases where their impartiality could reasonably be questioned.
Carr’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
While FCC headquarters generally handles television content complaints, Hadley’s office maintains direct enforcement authority over the physical ABC-owned stations in its jurisdiction, including KABC-TV in Glendale, whose broadcast original Jimmy Kimmel Live!
brief suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live! It became a decisive test of Carr’s ability to leverage the FCC’s regulatory mechanisms against political critics. Following Carr’s public threats, major affiliate networks Nexstar and Sinclair – both of which had billion-dollar mergers pending before the Commission – refused to air the program, forcing Disney to temporarily pull the show.
An ABC spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Will Creeley, legal director of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, tells WIRED that regional directors like Hadley take no pleasure in the FCC chairman’s regulatory threats against broadcasters the broadcasting president doesn’t like.
“Like Brandon Carr, he took an oath to uphold the Constitution — and that includes the First Amendment, which prevents the government from forcing private broadcasters to censor dissent,” Creeley says. “This is a public servant paid with our taxpayers’ money. Is it too much to ask of him not to appear so enthusiastic about the Chairman abusing the power of his office?”
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