James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for Texas’ general election for U.S. Senate, slammed the Federal Communications Commission for “government censorship” after Jimmy Kimmel alleged on-air that ABC wouldn’t be broadcasting his interview with the politician after receiving threats from the regulatory agency.
“We found out about this very recently, and I guess we’ll see what happens tonight. But government censorship should be a concern to all of us, regardless of our political party,” Talarico told MS Now’s Symone Sanders-Townsend in an interview that broadcast Thursday morning. When asked whether he would consider himself “censored” if his interview is not broadcast as originally planned, Talarico said, “Absolutely.”
“It’s the most dangerous form of cancel culture: people at the top, powerful politicians, powerful media executives, censoring what we watch, what we read (and) what we what we say,” Talarico continued. “And that, again, should be a concern to everyone who believes in the First Amendment and believes in the freedom of speech.”
The nominee added that he was “hopeful” that the decision could be reversed so his interview would make it to air.
On Wednesday’s broadcast of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” the late-night host used his monologue to share that he had agreed to not air his upcoming interview with Talarico, citing threats by the FCC.
“Now that (Donald Trump) is president, his FCC has threatened me, threatened our show, threatened our network, ABC, our affiliates, our local stations based on simple traditional editorial decisions, guest bookings it would seem they don’t like,” Kimmel said.
The late-night host went on to explain that his Talarico interview wouldn’t make it to air, but would be posted on YouTube. Kimmel said the decision was made out of “consideration for our local stations, especially our ABC affiliates in Texas, who would have to deal with this nonsense.”
“So if you want to learn about a candidate for the Senate tomorrow, you will have to go to the Jimmy Kimmel Live YouTube channel where you will see it in its entirety,” he noted. “And thank goodness we have that because, in the America we live in right now, that is the best that we can do until November.”
Kimmel’s comments come amid Disney’s ongoing First Amendment lawsuit against the FCC, which claims Trump’s administration has “waged a retaliatory campaign” against the network over its broadcasts. The suit, filed in August, seeks to block the FCC “from taking or threatening to take any action” against Disney, ABC and the studio’s other owned-and-operated television stations in connection with license renewal applications enforced prior to their initially agreed-upon date. On Sept. 3, the FCC asked a federal court to dismiss the lawsuit.
