Trump’s Ouster of Jimmy Kimmel Is Much Worse Than You Think It Is

“It makes him even more blatant and clearer,” said the lawyer for the first amendment. White notes that to win a case of the first amendment here, it would be necessary to show that Carr threatened private actors – in this case, Disney and ABC – to force them to censor Kimmel.

“There is a clear and obvious violation here,” says White. “Kimmel could continue Carr and other actors in the government to obtain an order telling them to stop him, although it is doubtful that they obey.”

“This is an unprecedented abuse of the power of the FCC,” adds Caitlin Vogus, principal advisor to the Freedom of the Press Foundation. “The standard” of public interest “has never been supposed to be used as a waste for the government to express the broadcasters saying that what the president wants them to say.”