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What, exactly, was the FCC action here? Not comments by people at the FCC, what specific actions did the FCC take?

hypeatei 1y ago
https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/18/media/brendan-carr-jimmy-kimmel-fcc-first-amendment https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/18/media/brendan-carr-jimmy-kimm... When Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr suggested Jimmy Kimmel should be suspended and said, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” ABC and its local affiliates were listening. On Wednesday afternoon, Carr tapped into preexisting MAGA media anger about a Monday night Kimmel monologue and used a right-wing podcaster’s platform to blast Kimmel and pressure ABC’s parent company Disney. Those are the actions he took as an official at the FCC.
- strictnein 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
    > so no actions, just statements This is mind-numbing goal-post reconstruction. If they'd issued an order, it wouldn't be final until it reached SCOTUS! Most regulatory interaction happens informally. A regulator tells a regulated entity to do something, and they do it. Public statements by the FCC commissioner are significant enough to make it into court cases as evidence of the Commision's intent.
    - strictnein 1y ago
      That's not "goal post reconstruction". Someone said the FCC took actions. I thought I might have missed them actually _doing_ something, so I was asking about it. The response was to highlight the statements they said.
      - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
        The point is the FCC Chair making public statements threatening specific regulatory actions against a regulated entity is an action. You're trying to hold the word action to a higher standard than a judge would. The Rubicon was crossed.
        strictnein 1y ago
        [flagged]
        JumpCrisscross 1y ago
        > You're certainly very sure of what I was thinking, but you are again wrong Nope. You're confusing regulatory actions, broadly, with official actions. The FCC didn't take any official action. The FCC Chair absolutely conveyed a credible threat of official action in response to specific political speech; that constitutes a regulatory action. Like, the SEC announcing they're going to launch an investigation is a regulatory action. The Fed Chair saying they believe the job market is cooling is a regulatory action.
  - zeven7 1y ago
    They literally said the easy way or the hard way. What do you think the hard way is?
- kcplate 1y ago
  He couldn’t act alone. If a senate majority leader made stupid comments on a podcast would that be “the senate”?
shadowgovt 1y ago
Comments by government officials aren't protected free speech because government officials control policy. There have been market panics ended by the right words at the right time. It's a different kind of speech entirely from criticism of the government by those without direct political power.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/18/media/brendan-carr-jimmy-kimmel-fcc-first-amendment https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/18/media/brendan-carr-jimmy-kimm... When Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr suggested Jimmy Kimmel should be suspended and said, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” ABC and its local affiliates were listening. On Wednesday afternoon, Carr tapped into preexisting MAGA media anger about a Monday night Kimmel monologue and used a right-wing podcaster’s platform to blast Kimmel and pressure ABC’s parent company Disney. Those are the actions he took as an official at the FCC.

strictnein 1y ago
[flagged]
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago
  > so no actions, just statements This is mind-numbing goal-post reconstruction. If they'd issued an order, it wouldn't be final until it reached SCOTUS! Most regulatory interaction happens informally. A regulator tells a regulated entity to do something, and they do it. Public statements by the FCC commissioner are significant enough to make it into court cases as evidence of the Commision's intent.
  - strictnein 1y ago
    That's not "goal post reconstruction". Someone said the FCC took actions. I thought I might have missed them actually _doing_ something, so I was asking about it. The response was to highlight the statements they said.
    - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
      The point is the FCC Chair making public statements threatening specific regulatory actions against a regulated entity is an action. You're trying to hold the word action to a higher standard than a judge would. The Rubicon was crossed.
      - strictnein 1y ago
        [flagged]
        JumpCrisscross 1y ago
        > You're certainly very sure of what I was thinking, but you are again wrong Nope. You're confusing regulatory actions, broadly, with official actions. The FCC didn't take any official action. The FCC Chair absolutely conveyed a credible threat of official action in response to specific political speech; that constitutes a regulatory action. Like, the SEC announcing they're going to launch an investigation is a regulatory action. The Fed Chair saying they believe the job market is cooling is a regulatory action.
- zeven7 1y ago
  They literally said the easy way or the hard way. What do you think the hard way is?
kcplate 1y ago
He couldn’t act alone. If a senate majority leader made stupid comments on a podcast would that be “the senate”?

shadowgovt 1y ago

Comments by government officials aren't protected free speech because government officials control policy. There have been market panics ended by the right words at the right time. It's a different kind of speech entirely from criticism of the government by those without direct political power.