Former counselor to the chairman of the FCC, Gigi Sohn gave her view on the future America’s television industry amid controversy over Jimmy Kimmel’s remarks about Charlie Kirk’s death

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Kimmel’s show was cancelled after his remarks about Charlie Kirk’s death(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

After Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show returned to the air, Donald Trump threatened to revoke licenses from networks that run negative programming about him.

On the Sept. 15 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Kimmel suggested that Tyler Robinson, who is accused of shooting Charlie Kirk at his Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10, was “one of” Trump’s MAGA — Make America Great Again — movement and Republicans were using his death to score political points. Shortly after, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr labeled Kimmel’s comments as “truly sick,” and suggested he should be suspended, adding “we could do this the easy way, we could do this the hard way,” as well as clarifying that networks must hold a license to broadcast granted by the FCC.

Trump then hit out at networks, saying “They’re getting a licence. I would think maybe their license should be taken away.” Following uproar about Kimmel’s show being axed, Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC announced the show was returning in a statement and said it was suspended to “to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country.”

After the show returned, Trump criticized ABC for bringing it back and suggested he might pursue legal action against the network. Trump said, “I think we’re going to test ABC out on this. Let’s see how we do. Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative. A true bunch of losers! Let Jimmy Kimmel rot in his bad Ratings.”

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Trump threatened to sue ABC(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

In the Financial Times Swamp Notes podcast, former counselor to the chairman of the FCC during the Obama administration, Gigi Sohn broke down what she thinks this means for the America’s television industry. Host Marc Filippino chatted with Sohn and the paper’s Los Angeles bureau chief Christopher Grimes.

Filippino asked Sohn “what action the FCC was Disney trying to avoid by taking Kimmel off the air?” Sohn said she thought Disney could have been trying to avoid the FCC revoking its licence, but is doubtful they would have successfully been able to do this.

Sohn, who is now the Benton Institute’s senior fellow and public advocate, said, “So let me say first that I’m highly dubious of Disney’s professed reason for taking Jimmy Kimmel off the air, because they did so just hours after Brendan Carr threatened them on the Benny Johnson podcast. So, you know, things were already hot, but it wasn’t until Brendan Carr came in and said, we could do this the easy way, we could do this the hard way, before that they actually suspended him.”

She added, “So I think that’s kind of behind covering, let’s put it that way. But what can the FCC do? They have a lot of power. They could revoke Disney’s licenses, broadcast licenses. They could deny the renewal of the licenses when those licenses come up for renewal every seven years. They can fine Disney as well. But I’m not so sure … I mean, I think Brendan Carr knows that to revoke a licence, particularly over something like this, it would never stand up in court if Brendan Carr tried to revoke or deny the license renewal of Disney’s licenses.”

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FCC Chairman Brendan Carr labeled Kimmel’s comments as ‘truly sick’(Image: ABC/AFP via Getty Images)

Sohn said she also thought it was likely Disney was trying to avoid the Department of Justice stopping it buying FuboTV and prevent the Disney owned ESPN network selling a share of its company to National Football League. She said, “Disney does have two transactions in front of the Department of Justice right now. And while it’s a different agency, the agencies talk to each other, and they’re all part of the same administration. So Disney is seeking to buy FuboTV, a purchase that’s been pending now for nine months, which is a long time. “

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Sohn said she also thought it was likely Disney was trying to avoid the Department of Justice stopping it buying FuboTV (Image: Getty Images)

Sohn added, “And also, ESPN is trying to sell a share of its company, of that company, to the National Football League, and we can argue whether DoJ has any role, but DoJ could certainly insert itself. So one of the issues is, when these companies get so big and they wanna get bigger, they always have a transaction in front of either the FCC or the DoJ or somebody else. And that’s the leverage point. So the revocation of the license is not as much the leverage point as the fact that Disney is seeking a transaction, two transactions, and probably would be seeking more transactions in the future.”

Filippino asked the pair about Trump putting pressure on broadcasters over the past two week by threatening them with lawsuits against and taking away broadcast licenses.

He said, “Disney’s a big company and can flex its muscle because it is one of the largest media companies in the world, but what are other broadcasters supposed to do? What are they seeing here in this instance and taking away from it?”

Sohn replied, “I think they’re seeing a lack of courage. I mean, we’ve already seen two of the big four networks bend the knee very quickly and at a very great expense, so they’re not setting a terrific example.”

Sohn also said that because there are five or six companies that own all the mass media in the United States, it “becomes much easier for an authoritarian government to threaten them and threaten them successfully for the reasons we talked about.”