{"id":44110,"date":"2025-09-22T11:51:52","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T18:51:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=44110"},"modified":"2025-09-22T11:51:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T18:51:53","slug":"heres-why-democrats-must-impeach-fcc-chair-brendan-carr-over-jimmy-kimmel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/09\/22\/heres-why-democrats-must-impeach-fcc-chair-brendan-carr-over-jimmy-kimmel\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s why Democrats must impeach FCC chair Brendan Carr over Jimmy Kimmel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This is how we get media coverage that helps us!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
DEAN OBEIDALLAH<\/a> SEP 21, 2025<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Let me address something right off the bat before the comments section for this article are flooded with people stating the obvious. Yes, I know that Democrats don\u2019t have the votes to impeach FCC chair Brendan Carr in the House\u2014and certainly don\u2019t have the 67 votes in the Senate to remove him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reason Democrats must loudly and repeatedly call for Carr\u2019s impeachment for his unconstitutional and illegal pressuring<\/a> of ABC to suspend Jimmy Kimmel is to continue to drive home the point that Trump and his regime are a dangerous threat to our freedoms. This is how we get press that helps us heading into 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a reminder, the House GOP used the threat and impeachment<\/a> of Biden\u2019s Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over border security to further the media narratives they wanted to amplify heading into the 2024 election. House Republicans knew that they didn\u2019t have the votes in the Senate to remove him, but they were able to use the threat of impeachment in the media to hammer Democrats on immigration and the border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, the impeachment articles that had been approved by the House GOP were dismissed<\/a> by the then Democratically controlled Senate in April 2024 after a few hours of debate. However, not before the House GOP garnered a tsunami of media attention one the issue that became one of the key reasons Trump won in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what makes the House Democrats mission here in pursuing the impeachment of Carr different than the BS of the House GOP with Mayorkas is that Carr violated the Constitution and the law. In other words, it\u2019s not only merited, it\u2019s demanded!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carr\u2014one of the authors of Project 2025\u2014has repeatedly abused his power as FCC chair during Trump\u2019s first nine months. As I wrote<\/a> about back in February, Carr was already weaponizing the FCC to target media outlets viewed as critical of Trump. Within weeks in office, he began targeting PBS and NPR for investigations and demanded they lose funding in an effort to bully them into changing their content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carr also reinstated three complaints<\/a> made by the Trump loving \u201cCenter for American Rights\u201d against ABC, CBS and NBC which had been deemed frivolous in the past. There had been another complaint versus Fox News for lying on air about the 2020 election, but Carr, of course, did not reinstate that one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response, Former FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel\u2014who served as chair immediately before Carr\u2014warned<\/a> that Carr is trying \u201cto weaponize the licensing authority of the FCC in a way that is fundamentally at odds with the First Amendment.\u201d <\/strong>She rightly added that the FCC \u201cshould not be the president\u2019s speech police.\u201d But that is exactly what Carr and Trump wanted it to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carr\u2014again even before the Kimmel incident\u2014utilized the FCC to<\/a> pressure CBS to settle with Trump over his BS lawsuit that \u201c60 Minutes\u201d had engaged in some type of \u201celection interference\u201d by opening an investigation<\/a> into the network. And it worked. In July, CBS paid Trump $16 million to settle that lawsuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And in July, we learned<\/a> CBS was ending Stephen Colbert\u2019s show\u2014a longtime critic of Trump. There is little doubt the termination of Colbert\u2019s show while Carr was considering a merger between CBS\u2019s parent company and Skydance was a way to incentivize Trump to approve the merger. And weeks later, Carr\u2019s FCC<\/a> did approve that very merger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did Carr respond to Colbert being cancelled? He took a victory lap on CNBC defending<\/a> it and warning that other late night hosts also need a \u201ccourse correction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That brings us to Carr last week openly demanding that ABC\/Disney punish Kimmel for a joke that mocked<\/a> Trump and MAGA or suffer the wrath of the FCC. On Wednesday, Carr stated on a popular MAGA podcast point blank that at a minimum he wanted to see a \u201csuspension\u201d of Kimmel over the joke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then Carr showed us what abuse of power looks like when he threatened ABC, declaring, \u201cI mean look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way.\u201d<\/strong> He then laid out the options for ABC: \u201cThese companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or<\/strong> there\u2019s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no need for any speculation here. Carr threatened ABC to either suspend Kimmel for a joke that he and MAGA did not approve of or the FCC was going to use its vast powers to punish the network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even Carr\u2019s spin that Kimmel said something factually inaccurate about the alleged killer of Charlie Kirk is not actionable by the FCC under federal law. Kimmel was giving his opinion\u2014which is protected speech\u2014and falsehoods are only actionable by the FCC per federal law if knowingly made and part of news programing<\/a>. Kimmel is a comedian\u2014not a news anchor!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is why FCC commissioner Ana Gomez<\/strong>\u2014a Democrat\u2014on Wednesday wrote<\/a> in response to Carr remarks that, \u201cThis Administration is increasingly using the weight of government power to suppress lawful expression.\u201d<\/strong> And organizations that advocate for free speech have slammed<\/a> Carr\u2019s actions as being unconstitutional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Carr did was not just take a page form the fascist playbook, it\u2019s an impeachable offence. This is without a doubt \u201cabuse of power\u201d that has been the basis to impeach federal officials in the past. As a reminder, in 2019, Trump was impeached<\/a> for \u201cabuse of power\u201d when he pressured Ukrainian President Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden as a condition to receive millions in funding the nation needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the case of Carr, he has repeatedly used his offices to target media outlets because he didn\u2019t approve of their content. That is an express violation of federal law<\/a> that controls the FCC which states point blank, \u201cNothing in this chapter shall be understood or construed to give the Commission the power of censorship.\u201d <\/strong>The statute continues<\/a>, \u201cand no regulation or condition shall be promulgated or fixed by the Commission <\/a>which shall interfere with the right of free speech.\u201d <\/strong>It\u2019s also a flagrant violation of the First Amendment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some Democrats in Congress have responded<\/a> to Carr\u2019s illegal and unconstitutional actions by calling for him to resign. Others have threatened to investigate Carr when Democrats take control of Congress\u2014assuming they win in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what Democrats can do now in one voice is call for the impeachment of Carr. They can draft articles of impeachment. They can try to force a vote so that House Republicans are forced to go on record on whether they support free speech or support censorship?!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the impeachment articles are approved is not the issue. Will talking impeachment get press that furthers the media narrative we want heading into 2026 that Trump and the GOP are coming for your freedoms? Absolutely. That is why Democrats should lean into this now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is how we get media coverage that helps us! DEAN OBEIDALLAH SEP 21, 2025 Let me address something right off the bat before the comments section for this article are flooded with people stating the obvious. Yes, I know that Democrats don\u2019t have the votes to impeach FCC chair… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44110"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44110"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44113,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44110\/revisions\/44113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}