Jimmy Kimmel suspension puts spotlight on Brendan Carr, Trump’s FCC chair

President Donald Trump hailed Brendan Carr as a “warrior for free speech” when he tapped him to be chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, the independent agency that regulates the broadcast television industry and other platforms

President Donald Trump hailed Brendan Carr as a “warrior for free speech” when he tapped him to be chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, the independent agency that regulates the broadcast television industry and other platforms.

Carr has lived up to the warrior moniker. Since he took the job, Carr has launched a wave of investigations against leading media corporations and criticized some for perceived liberal bias.

He appears to have scored his biggest win yet Wednesday with ABC’s decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show from the airwaves just hours after he blasted Kimmel for his comments about Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

“We’re not done yet,” Carr said Thursday on CNBC as Kimmel’s defenders and the FCC’s critics accused him of waging a crackdown on free speech in America.

The chairman of the FCC doesn’t typically attract the spotlight, but Carr has frequently made headlines. He has taken such prominent names as CBS News and The New York Times task, and his office has launched formal reviews of the “big three” broadcast networks — ABC, CBS and NBC — as well as NPR and PBS.