John,
Freedom of speech is necessary for democracy to exist.
If citizens can’t freely express opinions, criticize government actions, or expose wrongdoing, then elections and public debate become meaningless -- democracy becomes hollow, with no real choice or accountability. In short: without freedom of speech, there can be no genuine democracy. It’s the right that protects all other rights.
This is why, when Disney/ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live! indefinitely, in response to threatening comments from Trump’s FCC Chair Brendan Carr, it was so galvanizing. This was not a corporation cancelling a comedian with at least the pretext of a fiscal reason. This happened literally within hours of Carr making direct threats against ABC’s broadcast license, saying in perfect gangster speak, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
In the face of a massive national viewer boycott, Disney relented and reinstated Kimmel’s show. But the FCC’s role is to uphold the public interest -- not to dictate what people can or cannot say on air. Threats that come directly from the FCC Chair himself are meant to have a chilling effect, putting the core right to freedom of speech under attack.
The time has come for FCC Chair Brendan Carr to account for himself. Send a direct message to the Senate demanding that the Commerce Committee hold a hearing for Carr to testify under oath, as already requested by Democrats on the Committee.
Ironically, Carr used to advocate for free speech and against government intimidation himself. As recently as 2022 and 2023, serving as a Republican FCC Commissioner during the Biden administration, Carr declared:
“Political satire is one of the oldest and most important forms of free speech. It challenges those in power while using humor to draw more people into the discussion. That’s why people in influential positions have always targeted it for censorship,” and “Free speech is the counterweight -- it is the check on government control. That is why censorship is the authoritarian’s dream.”
But as author of Project 2025’s chapter on the FCC, Carr envisioned the dark side of this dream, describing how the FCC could be used to suppress critical voices for an authoritarian president. And now, as FCC chair, he has demonstrated that he intends to carry out the blueprint he wrote for concentrating one-party control over mass media communications.
Now, the public must have a clear, on-the-record accounting of everything the FCC is doing to silence critical voices.
Tell the Commerce Committee to take up the Democrat committee members’ motion and require Brendan Carr to testify under oath.
Thank you for insisting the First Amendment is not optional! Without it, there would be no democracy in the United States.
-DFA AF Team
