{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/icymi-warren-slams-attack-by-trump-carr-on-kimmel-free-speech-free-press-at-spotlight-forum", "ICYMI: Warren Slams Attack by Trump, Carr on Kimmel, Free Speech, Free Press At Spotlight Forum", "2025-09-30", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "MA", "Elizabeth Warren", "W000817", "www.warren.senate.gov", "warren", "https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases", "scraper", "ICYMI: Warren Slams Attack by Trump, Carr on Kimmel, Free Speech, Free Press At Spotlight Forum\n\nWarren: \u201cIf [media giants] are bending the knee so they can get handouts from the government, they need to have a serious conversation with their lawyers.\u201d\n\nOpening Remarks (YouTube) | Video of Exchange (YouTube)\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) delivered opening remarks and questioned witnesses at a spotlight forum slamming President Trump and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr's abuse of government authority to restrict First Amendment-protected speech and independent, fact-based news reporting. She also warned giant media corporations against bending to Trump's demands in exchange for government handouts or approval of business deals.\n\nThis spotlight forum follows months of the Trump Administration\u2019s abuse\u2014including threats of FCC regulatory action to restrict free speech. The Administration has attempted to censor Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, and others, and the FCC has engaged in sham investigations of media perceived to be opposed to President Trump. Last week, Senator Warren pressed Chairman Carr directly on his undermining of free speech in the media.\n\nIn the forum, Senator Warren also criticized big media companies that appear to be bowing to President Trump and his administration by taking programs off the air, making large donations to Trump's Presidential Library, and making other concessions potentially in exchange for regulatory favors, which give the appearance of quid-pro-quo arrangements. She questioned whether these actions constitute bribery under the law. Bribery is defined as someone intending to corruptly influence \u201cany official act\u201d by giving a public official \u201canything of value.\u201d\n\nFCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, who serves alongside FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, confirmed that the FCC approving a mega-merger qualifies as an \u201cofficial act.\u201d Conor Gaffney, Counsel at Protect Democracy, testified as to the political value for President Trump of taking critics off the air, stating that media companies\u2019 censoring of potential Trump critics \u201cboth removes an important accountability mechanism that may be critical of this administration, and it also closes down civic space that allows political opposition to develop, to organize, and to form\u2026 That's why aspiring authoritarians around the world all go after independent media.\u201d\n\nSenator Warren highlighted the public's role in pressuring companies to reverse harmful actions, noting Disney, Nexstar, and Sinclair\u2019s decision to bring back Kimmel\u2019s show as an example, and emphasizing the need to hold both the Trump administration and media companies accountable for their actions.\n\n\u201cWe need to call out the Trump administration, but we need to call out the media companies that bend a knee and preemptively censor the very people that they provide the platforms for,\u201d concluded Senator Warren.\n\nSenator Warren continues to fight against corporate media consolidation and the Trump administration\u2019s disturbing efforts to silence free speech:\n\nOn September 23, 2025 Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), along with Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), pressed broadcasters Nexstar and Sinclair for answers as to why Jimmy Kimmel was pulled off the air\n\nOn September 23, 2025, Senator Warren released a statement after Nexstar Media Group\u2019s and Sinclair\u2019s decisions to continue to preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC affiliate stations.\n\nOn August 1, 2025, Senator Warren released a statement following Paramount\u2019s and Skydance\u2019s responses to her recent letters.\n\nOn July 24, 2025, Senator Warren responded to the Trump administration\u2019s approval of the Paramount-Skydance megamerger, saying \u201cbribery is illegal no matter who is president.\u201d\n\nOn July 23, 2025, Senator Warren published an op-ed in Variety: \u201cElizabeth Warren on Colbert\u2019s \u2018Late Show\u2019 Cancellation: Is the Paramount Trump Payoff a Bribe?\u201d\n\nOn July 21, 2025, Senators Warren, Sanders (I-Vt.), and Wyden (D-Ore.) pressed David Ellison, CEO of Skydance, about reports of a secret deal between Skydance and President Trump \u2014 and how it may be related to Paramount\u2019s recent multi-million-dollar settlement agreement with Trump.\n\nOn July 17, 2025, Senators Warren and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), along with Representatives Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), and lawmakers in Congress, unveiled the Presidential Library Anti-Corruption Act to close loopholes that allow presidential libraries to be used as tools for corruption and bribery.\n\nOn July 2, 2025, Senator Warren called for an investigation into Paramount\u2019s settlement with Trump.\n\nOn February 19, 2025, Senator Warren wrote to Omeed Assefi, acting DOJ assistant attorney general, asking the agency to look into, and potentially block, a Jan. 6 deal that would have Disney merge its Hulu+ Live TV business with Fubo.\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.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/icymi-warren-slams-attack-by-trump-carr-on-kimmel-free-speech-free-press-at-spotlight-forum"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.6187398470938206, "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"}