Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr should not be in the business of chilling Jimmy Kimmel's speech, even if it is "despicable comments," but indignant leftists must understand TV hosts have standards to follow on libel and defamation, according to Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.
Speech on TV is not "free" if it costs your employer money.
"You can be fired for not being popular," Paul told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday.
"This is television for goodness' sakes," he said. "You have to sell sponsorships. You have to sell commercials, and if you're losing money, you can be fired. But the government's got no business in it, and the FCC was wrong to weigh in."
The FCC is the federal government regulator of U.S. airwaves, but Carr has warned that federal licenses are subject to approval if speech violates FCC standards.
"I mean, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way," Carr said. "These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or you know, there's going to be additional work for the FCC ahead."
Paul warned Carr from following the Biden administration's overreach on chilling speech under the threat of federal retaliation.
"Brendan Carr's got no business weighing in on this, but people have to also realize that despicable comments, you have the right to say them, but you don't have the right to employment," Paul told NBC.
The controversy follows Kimmel's monologue in which he suggested that conservatives were trying to deflect from claims that Charlie Kirk's assassin had MAGA ties — a claim fueled by liberals seeking to deflect from a spate of gun violence committed by transgender individuals.
Nexstar — a major owner of ABC affiliates — pulled "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" from its stations, and ABC suspended the show indefinitely. Critics, including Paul, have questioned whether Carr's stance constitutes governmental overreach and threatens free speech.
President Joe Biden set a bad precedent, according to Paul.
"We need to get politics out of the judicial system as much as we can, but we can't do it without acknowledging that the king of lawfare was Biden and so, yeah, it's wrong if we do it, but it certainly was wrong when Biden and the Democrats were doing it throughout the country," Paul concluded.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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