CNBC Host Hammers Brendan Carr Over Disney Inquiry: ‘You’re Not Trying to Get Disney to Fire Kimmel?’

Screenshot via X/@atrupar

CNBC host Sara Eisen hammered FCC chief Brendan Carr on Friday over his agency’s inquiry into Disney, asking him repeatedly about the company’s allegations that the move was an effort to stifle free speech.

FCC ordered eight TV stations owned by Disney’s ABC to file early license renewal requests in April, soon after President Donald Trump called for the broadcaster to fire Jimmy Kimmel over a joke he made about himself and First Lady Melania Trump. Days before the shooting at White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Kimmel joked that Melania had a “glow like an expectant widow,” a remark that many figures on the right, including those within the Trump administration, were quick to characterize as a call to harm the president.

The move to begin license renewal for Kimmel’s network early, purportedly over Disney’s DEI practices, was called out by FCC commissioner Anna Gomez as a “direct assault on the First Amendment.” ABC echoed those remarks on Thursday in an application asking the FCC to review its licenses, claiming the review “is inconsistent with a legitimate exercise of investigative authority and is plainly incompatible with the First Amendment.”

Eisen asked Carr about these allegations during his Friday appearance on CNBC. Carr said Disney had been “embroiled in controversies for years now related to their DEI policies,” noting that the investigation was launched by the FCC over a year ago and was focused on potential discriminatory hiring, compensating, and promoting staff.

“But they say that it’s not about that,” pushed back Eisen. “They say this is about the First Amendment. They think it’s about you trying to chill their free speech and exert editorial control on the networks.”

Carr claimed that the FCC had been clear about the purpose of the investigation and had notified the company that “in the staff’s view, Disney had been filing incomplete responses” and was “disingenuous” in FCC submissions.

“And at the end of the day, a lot of what Disney’s arguments appear to go is a fundamental disagreement that they should be held accountable to the unique regulatory framework that justifies broadcasters,” added Carr, invoking the Supreme Court’s decision that “there is no 1st Amendment right to hold a broadcast license.”

Eisen continued to hammer the point, asking Carr if he “could see why they think this is about something else.”

“I mean, you called for the early review of the broadcast licenses right after President Trump called for Jimmy Kimmel to be fired,” she said. “And there have been a number of instances where you and the president have been critical of what you’ve seen on ABC.”

Later in the interview, Eisen put it even more bluntly.

“So you’re not trying to get them to fire Kimmel?” she asked Carr.

“No. We are pursuing this enforcement matter that has to do with DEI,” he said.

The CNBC host kept at the issue throughout the ten minute interview, going so far as to call out the “unprecedented” move to call for early renewal.

“The last time you guys called for early renewals or anything like this was 1980,” she said.

Carr claimed in response that the FCC was “trying to reinvigorate the public interest standard,” telling Eisen the agency would “enforce the law that is on the books.”

In closing, Eisen yet again asked Carr directly about the free speech implications of his inquiry.

“Every broadcaster in America is watching this proceeding, and the lesson they’re drawing is if you say something that the administration does not like, you will come after their broadcast license,” she said. “Are you saying that that’s not true?”

The FCC chief said the investigation was “slightly different” than Eisen’s characterization of broadcasters’ understanding.

“I think it’s slightly different than that,” he said. “I think if you’re not complying with the public interest obligations, then we’re going to hold you accountable.”

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