Nexstar and Sinclair Broadcasting are the two largest owners of ABC television stations in the United States. After FCC Chairman Brendan Carr blasted ABC for Jimmy Kimmel suggesting Charlie Kirk's assassin was "MAGA," Nexstar and Sinclair decided to stop airing Jimmy Kimmel and demanded that ABC take action.
ABC and Disney acted after Nexstar and Sinclair declared they were taking off Kimmel, not after Carr's statements. Progressives claim Nexstar has business before the FCC and Sinclair is a President Donald Trump-friendly organization. The implication is that Nexstar acted to ingratiate itself to the Trump administration due to a pending business deal. There is no proof, but the left believes it.
The FCC Chairman, Brendan Carr, suggested the FCC could look into ABC/Disney for Jimmy Kimmel's content. What Kimmel said on Monday was, "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." By Monday, as it became clearer that Tyler Robinson, the assassin, was a radicalized progressive in a same-sex relationship, progressives had started loudly claiming Robinson was most likely on the far right. Kimmel played into that.
Kimmel has a host of problems. His ratings have declined significantly over time and he now uses his show as a mouthpiece for progressives that make half the country the butt of jokes for the other half of the country. Also, the majority owners of ABC affiliates are conservatives with conservative audiences who struggle to sell ads on a show that caters to the antithesis of their viewers.
A great many people argue that this was a business decision, and all Brendan Carr did was distract from that. Others are loudly denouncing the Chairman of the FCC, claiming he put undue government pressure on ABC and its affiliates to dump Kimmel. For the sake of argument, let us say it is true that the FCC Chairman applied pressure. How then do we de-escalate?
First, we should be honest about the situation. Democrats have, for a number of years, used government pressure against their critics. Former President Barack Obama sued nuns. Congressional Democrats called for investigations into Fox News. Progressive groups and Democrats at the FCC targeted Rush Limbaugh and conservative talk stations. The rule seems to be that Democrats like to use the FCC to threaten conservatives, but conservatives are not allowed to reciprocate.
Now, in a strange turn of events, Democrats who spent the last four years demanding restrictions on free speech are suddenly screaming about free speech. The Trump administration's attorney general has embraced the left's dichotomy of free speech and hate speech. Republicans are cheering on the targeting of ABC and Kimmel. Roles have reversed, and they will, undoubtedly, reverse again when Democrats take back the executive branch.
There is a better way. Restrain the power of government. Roll back the powers of the FCC. Conservatives have, for years, argued that a government big enough to give you everything is a government big enough to take it all away. Progressives, in office, have also used the power of government to go after their enemies.
In July 2012, Mark Basseley Youssef produced a video on YouTube called "Innocence of Muslims." It went unnoticed for quite some time until a clip of it aired on Egyptian television in September of 2012. Obama and others blamed Youssef's video for sparking the riots that led to the American losses in Benghazi. The Justice Department subsequently arrested Youssef, charging him with violating his probation. Only later, after his imprisonment, did the Obama administration walk back their blame game. Spare me the righteousness from the left.
If you do not like the Trump administration using power the Democrats have used, end that power. The only way to de-escalate American politics right now is to deprive both sides of the power used to attack the other. I will gladly help you restrain and restrict the powers of the federal government, but something tells me the progressive left is fine with the government having that much power. They just resent and oppose the government using that power against the left.
To find out more about Erick Erickson and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
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