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Trump seeks media self-censorship

Natasha Chen/CNN

Imagine we're all stuck in an elevator together. The elevator is only moving in one direction — downward. Every time the doors open, we're at some new, lower level. No one knows how to reverse course. No one knows what awaits us at the very bottom.

The American media is on that ride right now. Every time President Trump sues a news outlet, or wins a settlement, or causes a network to self-censor, the elevator reaches a lower level. Every time a prominent Trump adversary is canned, or a critical documentary is edited, folks in the elevator look around and wonder: How much lower can this go?

This week's Jimmy Kimmel blackout felt different from, say, the defunding of public media or the denunciations of "fake news." It felt unique because of the fact pattern: the blatant threat from FCC chair Brendan Carr, the business motivations of the local station owners that need his blessing, and the instant acquiescence by ABC. CNN's Jamie Gangel said she couldn't even count "the number of calls that I got from people for the first time who said this is too far."

The New York Times captures this sense on Page One of today's paper with a two-column lead story by Jim Rutenberg, headlined "Trump Hits the Media With Everything He Has." The Wall Street Journal's front page has it too: "Trump Pushes to Silence Opponents."

Trump, of course, welcomes fights with liberal comedians. He seems to think Kimmel has already been fired. We don't know what's going to happen on that front. But what the president really seeks is media self-censorship. He doesn't have the power to kill news stories or stop local stations from broadcasting. (Please read on for a reality check about station licensing.) What he does have is the power to bully media companies into submission and silence.

Thus, "Kimmel's departure puts the country at a crossroads," as Jonathan Alter wrote here. "Will we move in the direction of restricting civil liberties and censoring criticism of the President, or will we stand up for free expression? Fear is contagious. Bending the knee is contagious. But courage is contagious, too."

I just keep thinking of that old protest message: "Use your rights, or lose your rights."

Still no word from Kimmel...

As CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister reports here, ABC is hoping to bring Kimmel back, as unlikely as that might sound. "Everyone deeply values him and wants him to come back," a source told her. "But he has to take down the temperature."

Kimmel's camp still hasn't made any public comment. He was photographed in Century City on Thursday while he was "headed to see his attorney," Page Six reported. Then, Puck's Matthew Belloni reported overnight that a meeting at the law office between Kimmel and Disney's Dana Walden "ended without a resolution of the standoff."

Another protest is planned today outside Disney's new building in NYC. I wouldn't be surprised to see additional protests in Burbank and Hollywood, too. There's even talk of a possible "rally for free speech" outside Disneyland in Anaheim.

Amid the boycott calls (which I don't expect will amount to much) and the widespread criticism of the Kimmel suspension, some Disney staffers have been dreading going to work; as one source remarked to me, "We feel like the company has let us down." But to be fair to Bob Iger, he's in a near-impossible position...

ABC's big scoop about Trump retribution

Here's something staffers should feel proud about: While ABC is clearly feeling the MAGA pressure, its news division published a big and important scoop about Trump's retribution campaign. The overnight headline: "Trump poised to fire US attorney for resisting effort to charge NY AG Letitia James."

ABC's Jon Karl, who highlighted the story on "GMA," said on X that "Trump has made it perfectly clear — he would like to use the power of the federal government to silence his critics." Karl knows that firsthand...

Reality check about license threats

Trump repeatedly brought up his desire to revoke station licenses on the campaign trail last year. I reviewed all those comments for this CNN article, and found that his anti-broadcasting broadsides were almost always in reaction to interview questions he dislikes or programming he detests.

He's back at it this week, and the threats are understandably getting more press attention in the wake of the Kimmel suspension. But let's be clear about how the licensing regime works. While renewals can be a time-consuming process for stations every eight years, they're typically not an uphill battle; the FCC hasn't denied any license renewal in decades.

"Taking away a broadcast license has so many legal obstacles and takes so long that the FCC doesn't even try," public interest lawyer Andrew Jay Schwartzman told me overnight. "The only exceptions are small radio stations and involve felonious conduct or severe misrepresentations in the application reports to the FCC, and never about program content. No large broadcaster has lost a license since the 1980s, and that was for bribery."

Trump and Carr could certainly try to do it, but the legal battle would drag on for years, and the "Communications Act gives licensees broad protection," he added. So again, this is about Trump using his bully pulpit — emphasis on bully — to pressure the media into self-censorship.

 >> Of course, there is one big way the FCC can flex its regulatory muscles, and that's whenever a merger or acquisition proposal is submitted for review. That's why the role of Nexstar (which needs the FCC to allow its Tegna deal) merits so much scrutiny this week...

'Jawboning' in action

I profiled FCC chair Brendan Carr for "AC360" last night, and acknowledged that Carr welcomes all the attention, because his public profile is a key part of his strategy. Carr is well aware of what I wrote up above — that the FCC's powers are limited, and its actions are subject to all sorts of legal challenges. But he certainly has the power of free speech. And he did a victory lap of sorts yesterday across CNBC, Fox and other channels.

 >> Carr's harangue against Kimmel and ABC is "what's known as jawboning—when state actors use threats to inappropriately compel private action," Bari Weiss and the editors of The Free Press wrote yesterday. The editors took a strong stand against FCC "coercion." The WSJ editorial board is out with a similar piece...

About that 'free market' claim...

David Goldman writes: Carr and the administration have rallied behind a new dollars-and-cents message: Kimmel's speech may be protected, but the market has spoken and is rejecting him, they say — with low ratings, poor financials and affiliates who said he doesn't serve their customers' interests. But his ratings are relatively high (he took the No. 1 spot in the 25- to 54-year-old demo recently), his show is cheaper than Colbert's, and he is a key face of ABC. At least, he was...

Last night on late night

Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart both defended Kimmel and free speech in really powerful fashion last night. CNN's John Liu and Megan Thomas recapped the episodes here.

CNN's Jake Tapper was one of Colbert's guests, and he said "if we do not have the ability to criticize, mock, investigate our leaders, then we are no longer the United States of America." Tapper urged viewers to follow the money, observing that "this is, in so many ways, because of corporate chieftains who have $900 million but want $950 million. Or have $1 billion and want $2 billion." Tapper pointed out that Iger is seeking Justice Department approval for Disney's acquisition of Fubo. "So what do you think he's going to do with Jimmy Kimmel?" Here's part one of the segment, and here's part two...

More Kimmel notes and quotes

 >> For a second straight night, ABC ran a "Celebrity Family Feud" rerun instead of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" last night.

 >> "We see where this is all going, correct? It's managed media. And it's no good," David Letterman said on stage to Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic Festival. 

 >> Anna Gomez, the lone Democratic commissioner on the FCC, continues to speak out against Carr's conduct, as Liam Reilly reports here.

 >> Reilly also notes that Carr said yesterday "that it might be ‘worthwhile’ for his agency to target another ABC show: 'The View.'"

 >> "Damon Lindelof has vowed not to work with Disney until ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ is reinstated." (Variety)

IN OTHER NEWS...

IRS employee sues over Fox News leaks

Marshall Cohen reports: A senior career IRS employee is suing the agency, claiming that officials “sought to smear her name” by “unlawfully leaking information” to Fox News and other outlets about their attempts to fire her.

The lawsuit comes one week after the outlets inaccurately reported that the employee, Holly Paz, had been terminated for targeting Republicans. In truth, her bosses initiated a process to potentially fire her later this year. A Fox rep didn’t respond to a request for comment. The right-wing network corrected its story after Paz's lawyers publicly threatened a defamation suit...

Briefly…

 >> Erika Kirk is the new CEO of Turning Point USA. (CNN)

 >> "Boston Globe columnist Renée Graham has quit the paper's editorial board over last week's editorial praising the slain right-wing activist Charlie Kirk’s commitment to free speech." She will "remain as a columnist and will continue to write her Globe newsletter, Outtakes.” (Dan Kennedy)

 >> "Russian state-controlled media outlets and allied social media accounts have seized on" Kirk's killing "to push narratives that favor the Kremlin and aim to divide Americans," Joseph Menn reports. (WaPo)

 >> Among Vanity Fair's big new hires: Olivia Nuzzi as West Coast editor and Aidan McLaughlin as Washington correspondent. (Vanity Fair)

 >> The Guardian has poached WaPo's Jeremy Barr to be the publication's first "media and power" beat reporter. (Status)  

Today's tech talk

 >> Yesterday Trump told Fox News "that it sounded like China had approved a deal on TikTok." Trump and China's President Xi Jinping are said to be speaking about the matter right now. (Reuters)

 >> Google is "weaving Gemini further into the popular Chrome browser," an "inflection point for AI in our software." (WIRED)

 >> Librarians "are being asked to find AI-hallucinated books." (404 Media)

Another Taylor Swift theatrical event

"Taylor Swift is prepping to return to theaters," THR's team scooped last night. "The content of the theatrical event is unclear, but sources say that it will be tied to The Life of a Showgirl, Swift's new studio album that drops on Friday, Oct. 3. Multiple sources say the theatrical event will also drop that weekend..."

Entertainment notes and quotes

 >> The US and seven states "are suing Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, for failing to crack down on ticket resellers, which is forcing customers to 'pay substantially more than face value' for popular concerts and events." (CNN)

 >> "SNL" "has set its lineups for the first three episodes of Season 51.” (Variety)

 >> Madonna "is dropping a new album next year." (Vulture)

This edition of Reliable Sources was edited by Andrew Kirell and produced with Liam Reilly. Email us your feedback and tips here.