President Donald Trump threatened to sue the ABC chain for his decision to resume “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”However, although President Trump states that Kimmel’s criticisms of the president constitute illegal policies, experts argue that this is false, since everything the comedian says in his program is covered by an exemption under the Campaign Financing Law.
Key points
Trump attacked ABC for his decision to resume Kimmel’s program after suspending him for a week, hinting at Truth Social that would sue the environment and writing: “The last time I went against him (ABC), they gave me 16 million dollars. This time it sounds even more lucrative.”
The president suggested that he would specifically demand ABC for alleged violations of the campaign financing law, falsely stating that Kimmel is “another DNC arm and, as far as I know, that would be an important illegal contribution to a campaign.”
But legal experts say that argument is wrong. Brett Kappel campaign financing lawyer told Forbes that Kimmel’s comments are “clearly covered by the ‘media exemption'” of the campaign financing law.
Although the Federal Campaign Financing Law prohibits corporations to make monetary or non -monetary contributions to influence an election, it also establishes what is known as a “media exemption” or “press exemption”, indicating that the prohibitions do not apply with respect to “any news, comment or editorial” distributed through a “broadcasting station” or “periodic publication” of a political party or candidate.
As a result, the Federal Electoral Commission has repeatedly argued that media and entertainment companies are allowed to transmit content that speaks on political elections or candidates, even when it clearly favors a specific candidate, provided that the speech is within the scope of the typical work of the company as a “press entity”.
That means that Kimmel can explicitly comment Anti-Trump in his program, and ABC can pay him to do so, without violating any federal law or considering in some way a contribution to the Democratic Party.
What to pay attention to
Although Trump suggested that he would sue Kimmel in his publication in Truth Social on Tuesday night, no demand has been filed. ABC proceeded to issue Jimmy Kimmel Live! On Tuesday after Trump published his comment on social networks and, so far, he has not given indications that he will take additional measures against Kimmel following his recent comments.
Main critic
“There is no credible statement, despite Trump’s insinuation, that ABC is ‘property or controlled by’ the National Democratic Committee, just as there would be no credible statement that The New York Times or any other means of communication of liberal tendency is,” wrote the electoral law expert Rick Hasen in a blog post on Wednesday morning in response to Trump’s publication in Trump Social, describing the president’s comments as “incredibly alarming.”
That Trump chases “a media company in an effort to ensure a ‘lucrative’ agreement just because the media company participates in a critical speech with the president is extremely antithetic to how a self -government system is supposed to work with free elections,” said Hasen.
Lee also: Jimmy Kimmel defends freedom of expression when he returns to television after his suspension
When does the ‘media exemption’ apply?
The media exemption was created to preserve freedom of the press and guarantee “the unrestricted right of newspapers, television chains and other means to cover and comment on political campaigns,” said the Fec, and allows the coverage of the media to be exempt from being considered as contributions or political expenses.
That includes the content of the media that is carried out for entertainment, instead of the news coverage, and the EMF has argued that it covers the internet content and cable television, in addition to the most traditional media, such as newspapers and transmission chains.
To determine if the content adjusts to the media exemption, the FEC applies a two -part test. The first part asks if the entity in question is controlled by a political party, committee or candidate.
If it is not, the FEC determines whether the company “acts as a press entity when carrying out the activity in question”, defining “press entity” as a company “that disseminates news, comments and/or editorials” in “regular form”. The Federal Communications Commission (FEC) considers whether the political discourse in question is of public access and if its form is comparable to that of the materials that the company regularly issues.
Since Kimmel monologues criticizing Trump are framed in their usual comedy program, their comments are protected by exemption for media.
When does the ‘media exemption’ apply?
The FEC has ruled that the exemption for media does not apply in cases where a media company is using money for political content that goes beyond its typical news or entertainment function.
For example, when comedian Stephen Colbert created his own super pac as part of his former night program The Colbert Report, which was produced by Viacom, the FE dictated that Colbert could talk about the super PAC in his program under the exemption for media, since this was part of the usual program of the program.
If Viacom paid for any announcement about the Super Pac that was transmitted outside The Colbert Report, or spent money on the operation of the Super Pac, that would not be exempt and would count as contributions to the PAC, since it would be out of reach of the usual work of the program.
Key history
Kimmel returned to ABC on Tuesday night after the chain suspended its program controversial last week. This decision was made after Nexstar, which operates many stations affiliated with ABC, announced that it would suspend the Kimmel program due to comedian’s comments about the murder of the right -wing commentator Charlie Kirk.
The suspension caused generalized outrage, since critics argued that ABC’s response seemed to be an effort to appease the Trump administration, after Trump repeatedly criticized Kimmel. The Federal Communication of Communications, Brendan Carr, also suggested hours before Kimmel’s suspension that could revoke ABC’s transmission license due to the presenter’s comments about Kirk’s death.
ABC announced Monday that Kimmel’s program would return on Tuesday, after the chain said he had “reflexive conversations” with the night presenter.
Trump’s comments that threaten ABC with litigation occur after media companies, including ABC, have repeatedly shown their willingness to reach agreements with the president when he has taken measures against the press. ABC reached an agreement with Trump for the comments of the presenter George Stephanopoulos on the litigation of the writer E. Jean Carroll against the president, and CBS News and his parent company, Paramount, reached an agreement in a lawsuit for a lawsuit for 60 Minutespaying the president 16 million dollars.
Kimmel’s suspension also occurred after CBS decided to cancel The Late Show with Stephen Colberta decision that, according to the company, was purely financial, but generated controversy due to COLBERT’s criticism to Trump and the Paramount agreement with the president.
This article was originally published by Forbes US
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