Mr. Kimmel faced criticism from the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission for remarks about the politics of the man who is accused of killing Mr. Kirk, the conservative activist.
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As F.C.C. chair, Mr. Carr wields power over the broadcast licenses that are granted to local TV stations by the federal government. In the podcast interview on Wednesday, Mr. Carr encouraged local ABC stations to “push back” and pre-empt coverage that does not serve “their local communities.”
“Frankly, I think that it’s really sort of past time that a lot of these licensed broadcasters themselves push back on Comcast and Disney and say, ‘Listen, we are going to pre-empt, we are not going to run Kimmel anymore until you straighten this out,” Mr. Carr said. (Comcast is the parent company of NBC.)
Shortly after Mr. Carr’s remarks, Nexstar, an owner of ABC affiliate stations around the country, said that it would pre-empt Mr. Kimmel’s program “for the foreseeable future” because of the host’s remarks. Nexstar recently announced that it planned to acquire a rival company in a $6.2 billion deal, which will be scrutinized by the F.C.C.
In a social media post on Wednesday, Mr. Carr expressed approval for Nexstar’s decision to pre-empt Mr. Kimmel, thanking the company “for doing the right thing.” He added: “I hope that other broadcasters follow Nexstar’s lead.”
Late Wednesday, Sinclair, another owner of many local TV stations, said that it would also suspend Mr. Kimmel’s program, and called on Mr. Kimmel to apologize and “make a meaningful personal donation” to Mr. Kirk’s family and the activist’s political group, Turning Point USA....
