{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.baldwin.senate.gov/news/press-releases/baldwin-colleagues-demand-answers-from-trump-administration-on-censoring-critics-and-limiting-free-speech", "Baldwin, Colleagues Demand Answers from Trump Administration on Censoring Critics and Limiting Free Speech", "2025-09-19", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "www.baldwin.senate.gov", "baldwin", "https://www.baldwin.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) joined a group of her colleagues in demanding answers from the Trump Administration for censoring critics and infringing on Americans\u2019 First Amendment right to free speech. The Senators specifically called out Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr for censoring Jimmy Kimmel and demanded the FCC to stop trying to silence media organizations. The Senators sent the letter following comments from Carr on a right-wing podcast suggesting that the FCC would take action against ABC and its parent company, Disney, over a monologue this week by comedian Jimmy Kimmel on his late-night show.\n\n\u201cWe are outraged by your comments yesterday on a podcast suggesting that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would take action against ABC, its parent company Disney, and its affiliates, over comments made by comedian Jimmy Kimmel on his late-night show. It is not simply unacceptable for the FCC Chairman to threaten a media organization because he does not like the content of its programming\u2014it violates the First Amendment that you claim to champion. The FCC\u2019s role in overseeing the public airwaves does not give it the power to act as a roving press censor, targeting broadcasters based on their political commentary. But under your leadership, the FCC is being weaponized to do precisely that,\u201d wrote the Senators.\n\n\u201cUnder your leadership, the FCC appears to be discarding Congress\u2019s clear directive in the Communications Act to ensure broadcasters act in the \u201cpublic interest\u201d\u2014and is instead requiring them to act in \u201cTrump\u2019s interest.\u201d This approach is an anathema to the Constitution. The consequences of your comments were quickly apparent. Hours later, Nexstar\u2014a major owner of ABC affiliates that has a significant merger pending before the FCC\u2014announced that it would take Kimmel off the air. Soon thereafter, Disney announced it was indefinitely suspending his show altogether. This is precisely what government censorship looks like,\u201d the Senators continued.\n\n\u201cWe urge you to immediately stop threatening media organizations due to their programming and return to the FCC\u2019s mission of ensuring all Americans have access to affordable, efficient communication services,\u201dthe Senators concluded.\n\nThe senators requested answers by September 25, 2025, to the following questions:\n\nHow is the FCC defining the \u201cpublic interest\u201d standard to which broadcasters must adhere? To the extent that the FCC has adopted some new ideological or political neutrality test, how is the FCC defining ideological or political bias?\n\nDid you, your staff, or any FCC staff have any communication with Disney or ABC about Jimmy Kimmel, his Monday monologue, or his show between Monday, September 15 and today?\n\nYou publicly stated that ABC and Disney could \u201cdo this the easy way or the hard way.\u201d Please detail the \u201ceasy way\u201d and the \u201chard way\u201d you were referencing in making this statement.\n\nThe letter was led by Senator Edward J. Markey (D-MA) and also co-signed by Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n (D-NM), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Brian Schatz (D-HI), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Gary Peters (D-MI).\n\nThe full text of the letter is available here and below.\n\nDear Chairman Carr,\n\nWe are outraged by your comments yesterday on a podcast suggesting that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would take action against ABC, its parent company Disney, and its affiliates, over comments made by comedian Jimmy Kimmel on his late-night show. It is not simply unacceptable for the FCC Chairman to threaten a media organization because he does not like the content of its programming\u2014it violates the First Amendment that you claim to champion. The FCC\u2019s role in overseeing the public airwaves does not give it the power to act as a roving press censor, targeting broadcasters based on their political commentary. But under your leadership, the FCC is being weaponized to do precisely that.\n\nDuring an appearance on the Benny Johnson podcast on Wednesday, you suggested the FCC would consider revoking the broadcast licenses of ABC affiliates in response to comments made by Kimmel on his late-night talk show following the assassination of Charlie Kirk. You proceeded to threaten that the FCC \u201ccan do this the easy way or the hard way,\u201d and telegraphed that \u201cthere\u2019s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead\u201d unless ABC affiliates \u201cfind ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel[.]\u201d\n\nThese statements are outrageous and a betrayal of the FCC\u2019s mission. Although broadcasters are obligated to act in the public interest\u2014in return for receiving access to the public airwaves\u2014this requirement does not give the FCC Chairman the authority to act as the speech police and force broadcasters to adopt political viewpoints that you favor. Under your leadership, the FCC appears to be discarding Congress\u2019s clear directive in the Communications Act to ensure broadcasters act in the \u201cpublic interest\u201d\u2014and is instead requiring them to act in \u201cTrump\u2019s interest.\u201d This approach is an anathema to the Constitution.\n\nThe consequences of your comments were quickly apparent. Hours later, Nexstar\u2014a major owner of ABC affiliates that has a significant merger pending before the FCC\u2014 announced that it would take Kimmel off the air. Soon thereafter, Disney announced it was indefinitely suspending his show altogether. This is precisely what government censorship looks like.\n\nIn fact, before assuming your role as President Trump\u2019s FCC Chairman, you publicly condemned perceived attempts \u201cby government officials to silence political speech they don\u2019t like.\u201d You also defended comedians and talk show hosts\u2019 right to incorporate politics into their acts, posting: \u201cFrom Internet memes to late-night comedians, from cartoons to the plays and poems as old as organized government itself - Political Satire circumvents traditional gatekeepers & helps hold those in power accountable. Not surprising that it\u2019s long been targeted for censorship.\u201d And you rightly rejected government censorship as a threat to our First Amendment protections, posting: \u201cFree speech is not a threat to democracy\u2014censorship is.\u201d But as FCC Chairman, you now have apparently forgotten these principles.\n\nWe urge you to immediately stop threatening media organizations due to their programming and return to the FCC\u2019s mission of ensuring all Americans have access to affordable, efficient communication services.\n\nAdditionally, to ensure we fully understand the implications of your recent comments, we expect you to respond in writing to the following questions by September 25, 2025:\n\nHow is the FCC defining the \u201cpublic interest\u201d standard to which broadcasters must adhere? To the extent that the FCC has adopted some new ideological or political neutrality test, how is the FCC defining ideological or political bias?\n\nDid you, your staff, or any FCC staff have any communication with Disney, ABC, or their affiliates about Jimmy Kimmel, his Monday monologue, or his show between Monday, September 15, and today? If yes, we expect you to produce copies of all such communications.\n\nYou publicly stated that ABC and Disney could \u201cdo this the easy way or the hard way.\u201d Please detail the \u201ceasy way\u201d and the \u201chard way\u201d you were referencing in making this statement.\n\nSincerely,\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.baldwin.senate.gov/news/press-releases/baldwin-colleagues-demand-answers-from-trump-administration-on-censoring-critics-and-limiting-free-speech"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.3497259933501482, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}