FCC pressure and the Kimmel suspension: 'the easy way or the hard way'

Editor's note: the FCC chairman's own public words threatened regulatory consequences unless the broadcaster acted against the host.

On September 17, 2025, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr publicly threatened Disney/ABC over a Jimmy Kimmel monologue about Charlie Kirk's death, telling a podcast host, 'we can do this the easy way or the hard way,' and naming ABC affiliate owners Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group, Nexstar was at that moment seeking FCC approval for a $6.2 billion merger. Both companies preempted Kimmel's show within hours; ABC suspended him indefinitely that evening. He was reinstated six days later, on September 23.

No formal FCC action was ever taken against ABC, Nexstar, or Sinclair, no license was revoked, no fine issued. The coercion, if it occurred, was rhetorical rather than a formal sanction, which is precisely the category of government pressure the Supreme Court addressed unanimously in NRA v. Vullo: officials using regulatory leverage to induce private parties to punish disfavored speech, without ever issuing a formal order.

At a December 17, 2025 Senate hearing, Carr denied threatening any station's license; Commissioner Anna Gomez, the FCC's sole Democratic appointee, testified that the agency was being used to 'intimidate government critics' and separately launched a public 'First Amendment tour' contesting the agency's direction. House Energy and Commerce Committee Democratic staff filed a formal letter in September 2025 requesting an FCC Inspector General review of Carr's conduct, and the Freedom of the Press Foundation filed a DC Bar ethics complaint against Carr.