As Donald Trump and his FCC chairman have again threatened to pull network broadcast licenses for content they don’t like, one of their past targets, Jimmy Kimmel, took to the Oscars stage to deliver a few zingers.
Kimmel, presenting the documentary short and documentary feature Oscars, reminded the audience, “We hear a lot about courage at shows like this, but telling a story that could get you killed for telling it is real courage. As you know, there are some countries whose leaders don’t support free speech. I’m not at liberty to say which. Let’s just leave it at North Korea and CBS.”
The dig at CBS was a reference to Skydance’s concessions to the FCC as it sought to gain approval of its merger with Paramount. Among other things, Skydance agreed to hire an ombudsman to take complaints about CBS News. Just before the FCC signed off on the deal, the old owners of CBS canceled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Although they said the decision was financial, Kimmel sharply criticized the network for the move.
Just a couple months later, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr warned ABC stations about their licenses after citing one of Kimmel’s jokes about the MAGA reaction to the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Hours later, ABC pulled Kimmel’s show, but brought it back to the air several days later after a backlash.
On the Oscars, Kimmel also made a quip about Melania, the Amazon MGM documentary about he first lady Melania Trump. The documentary project was widely panned. As he read the nominees for documentary feature, Kimmel quipped, “Oh man, is he going to be made his wife wasn’t nominated for this.”
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