Sen. Jon Ossoff’s (D-GA) campaign said that the Trump administration threatened ABC’s broadcast license, claiming that Jimmy Kimmel’s statement that the Charlie Kirk assassination may have been part of the “MAGA gang” was “political satire.”
Ossoff said in a release:
The Trump administration didn’t approve of Jimmy Kimmel’s political satire, so it threatened ABC’s broadcast license, and ABC took Kimmel off the air.
As you no doubt recognize, this is what happens in authoritarian states, where disfavored political speech is met with official punishment.
You mustn’t offend the king!
Nick Puglia, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), said, “Jon Ossoff’s latest attempt to rage bait his far-left supporters into emptying their pockets is fear mongering about ‘authoritarian states’ and defending Jimmy Kimmel after he got canned for his disgusting smears.”
In April, speaking about the push to impeach Trump, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) said, “I have no doubt that this president, given his authoritarian impulses, his desire to rule as a king by decree, and his contempt for those who criticize and disagree with him, would relish the opportunity to try to invoke or wield emergency powers.”
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with 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,” Kimmel remarked.
FCC regulations bar the broadcasting of “hoaxes,” prohibiting false information on the public airwaves. It can be considered a crime if:
- “The licensee knows this information is false;
- it is foreseeable that broadcast of the information will cause substantial public harm; and
- broadcast of the information does in fact directly cause substantial public harm.”
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr said, “The FCC could make a strong argument that this is sort of an intentional effort to mislead the American people about a very core fundamental fact, a very important matter.”
ABC, Disney, and Nexstar ultimately pulled Kimmel’s show after he spread disinformation about Kirk’s assassination.
