By Agencies

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After ABC suspended comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show following a threat from the head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), congressional Democrats have denounced the Trump administration’s threats against political critics and unveiled a bill that would bolster free speech protections against government officials.
While the bill is unlikely to gain traction in a Republican-controlled Congress, Democrats harshly criticised the Trump administration for pressuring ABC towards the suspension of Kimmel’s show following his comments on how Republicans were responding to the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk.
Kimmel said earlier this week that “many in Maga (Make America Great Again) land are working very hard to capitalise on” the assassination and that US President Donald Trump’s political supporters were trying to characterise the man charged in the attack “as anything other than one of them”.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr subsequently called Kimmel’s comments “truly sick” and said his agency has a strong case for holding Kimmel network parent Disney accountable for spreading misinformation.
Disney is seeking approval from the FCC for ESPN’s acquisition of the NFL Network.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Carr should be fired.

Meanwhile, Trump on Thursday said US broadcast networks should face scrutiny over their licenses if their content is overwhelmingly critical of him, and defended ABC’s decision to suspend late-night Kimmel’s show.
“That’s something that should be talked about for licensing, too. When you have a network and you have evening shows, and all they do is hit Trump,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “They’re licensed. They’re not allowed to do that. They’re an arm of the Democrat party.”
Trump praised Carr and drew a direct link between coverage that the president views as negative and the prospect of television licenses being revoked as a consequence.
“I read someplace that the networks were 97 per cent against me again, I get 97 per cent negative. And yet I won it easily. I won all seven swing states, the popular vote, whatever. They’re 97 per cent against. They give me totally bad publicity, the press,” Trump said.
“They’re getting a license. I would think maybe their license should be taken away. It will be up to Brendan Carr. I think Brendan Carr is outstanding. He’s a patriot. He loves our country and he’s a tough guy. So we’ll have to see.”
The comments add up to Trump’s furthest-reaching threat to US broadcasters who control both industry-leading television news operations as well as air mass-market entertainment that is freely accessible to anyone with a television and viewed daily by millions.
Trump and Republicans have long complained that Hollywood, broadly, is unfavourable to conservatives, and the president has repeatedly called for CBS, ABC and NBC to part with their late-night comedic hosts who are frequently critical of his administration.

Earlier on Thursday, Trump backed ABC’s decision to remove Kimmel.
“Jimmy Kimmel was fired because he had bad ratings more than anything else and he said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk,” Trump said on Thursday during his press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
“Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person,” Trump continued. “He had very bad ratings, and they should have fired him a long time ago. So, you know, you can call that free speech or not. He was fired for lack of talent.”
Kimmel’s comments inflamed many conservative commentators and brought a rebuke from members of the Trump administration. Carr told podcast host Benny Johnson that he had a strong case to punish Kimmel, ABC and Disney. The FCC grants licenses to broadcasters such as ABC and its affiliates.
Trump and US Vice-President J.D. Vance have blamed Kirk’s killing on inflammatory leftist rhetoric and vowed to investigate left-leaning organisations in response.
Individuals accused of celebrating his death or offering negative viewpoints of Kirk – a polarising figure who took staunchly conservative stances on issues such as race and gender – have faced online vitriol and, in some cases, lost their jobs.
The moves have also come amid a broader assault by Trump on media organisations whose coverage he has been unhappy with. Last year, ABC agreed to pay US$15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by Trump over comments made by host George Stephanopoulos.

The US president this week sued The New York Times for US$15 billion, claiming it has an agenda against him.
Those incidents have spurred worries among Trump critics about free speech in the US even as conservatives have assailed European leaders over efforts to rein in violent or hateful rhetoric, which they say unfairly target right-leaning views.
Starmer, in particular, has been the target of furious criticism from Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, and other leaders of the populist right over British efforts to restrict speech including a wave of arrests after anti-immigrant riots last year.
Critics have zeroed-in on Britain’s Online Safety Act, which was passed under the previous Conservative government in 2023, with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage criticising the law during an appearance before the US House Judiciary Committee earlier this month.
“This country’s had free speech for a very, very long time,” Starmer said on Thursday during the press conference.
“It is part of who we are as a country, and it is the values that we fought for. We fought for it during the Second World War, alongside each other. So we need no reminding of the importance of free speech in this country.”
Earlier this week, police in the UK arrested four men on suspicion of “malicious communications” after an image of Trump and the late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein was projected on to Windsor Castle to protest against the US president’s visit.
Reporting by Associated Press, Bloomberg