Republican senator Ted Cruz has compared threats by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chief to revoke the broadcast licenses of ABC stations over late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s commentary to “mafioso” tactics similar to those in the 1990 film Goodfellas.
“Look, Jimmy Kimmel has been canned. He has been suspended indefinitely. I think that it a fantastic thing,” the Texas politician said at the start of the latest episode of his podcast Verdict with Ted Cruz.
However, there were “first amendment implications” to the FCC’s role, added Mr Cruz, a Harvard Law School graduate who clerked for US supreme court chief justice William Rehnquist.
Mr Cruz, once a fierce political rival of Donald Trump but now a strong supporter, called FCC chief Brendan Carr’s comments “unbelievably dangerous” and warned that government attempts to police speech could harm conservatives if Democrats return to power.
Kimmel was taken off the air following criticism of his Monday evening monologue in which he suggested the man charged with murdering conservative campaigner Charlie Kirk, Tyler Robinson, might have been a pro-Trump Republican.
Mr Carr has argued that he can withhold licenses that are not being used in the public’s interest to crack down on speech that does not serve local viewers. This includes coverage that is biased against conservatives, a standard that many telecommunications experts and Democrats say is too broad.
Mr Cruz added: “He threatens explicitly: ‘We’re going to cancel ABC’s license. We’re going to take him off the air so ABC cannot broadcast any more’
“He says: ‘We can do this the easy way, but we can do this the hard way.’ And I got to say, that’s right out of Goodfellas. That’s right out of a mafioso coming into a bar going, ‘Nice bar you have here. It’d be a shame if something happened to it.’
“I hate what Jimmy Kimmel said. I am thrilled that he was fired,” he went on. “But let me tell you: if the government gets in the business of saying, ‘We don’t like what you, the media, have said. We’re going to ban you from the airwaves if you don’t say what we like,’ that will end up bad for conservatives.”
During an Oval Office event on Friday, when Mr Trump was asked about Mr Cruz’s comments on the FCC, the president raised the issue of licenses and suggested stations might be “illegally” using the airwaves to broadcast critical coverage of him in news reports.
“When you have networks that give somebody 97 per cent bad publicity,” Mr Trump said, “I think that’s dishonesty.”
“I think Brendan Carr is a patriot. I think Brendan Carr is a courageous person. I think Brendan Carr doesn’t like to see the airwaves be used illegally and incorrectly ... So I disagree with Ted Cruz on that.”
The president’s claim that news coverage on ABC, NBC and CBS was almost entirely negative appears to have been based on a subjective analysis of “the networks’ spin” by NewsBusters, a conservative media watchdog group founded by Mr Trump’s nominee to serve as US ambassador to South Africa, L Brent Bozell III. – Guardian
