The Trump Administration Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) recent efforts to intimidate broadcasters into taking anti-Trump comedians off the air are blatant violations of the First Amendment. They also lend weight to longstanding libertarian arguments for abolishing the FCC.
FCC Chair Brendan Carr threatened to pull ABC's broadcast license unless it stopped broadcasting comedian Jimmy Kimmel's show (which ABC quickly did). Earlier, the FCC similarly threatened CBS, which then canceled Stephen Colbert's show (Colbert is another anti-Trump comedian). Trump now threatens to use similar tactics against other broadcasters who air shows that attack him. Even if there were good market or quality-control reasons to get rid of Colbert or Kimmel, the government has no business trying to coerce such decisions.
