FCC Chair Brendan Carr Was Key to Jimmy Kimmel's Suspension — Who Appointed Him?

The Federal Communications Commission, or the FCC, is not an organization that typically gets tons of attention. Following the news that Jimmy Kimmel's show had been suspended indefinitely by ABC in response to comments he made about the response to the death of Charlie Kirk, though, many suddenly realized that the FCC has real power.

The current chair, Brendan Carr, was key to the decision, making a threat to the stations that carry Kimmel's show on a podcast just hours before the show was pulled.

Given the threat that Carr issued, many naturally wanted to learn more about who appointed him. Here's what we know.

Carr was appointed to lead the FCC by President Trump, but previously served as its senior Republican member and general counsel. Carr is also one of the co-authors of Project 2025, the 900 page document produced by the Heritage Foundation that has guided much of the Trump administration's policy through the first eight months of his administration.

His role as FCC chair has allowed him to make the kinds of threats that seem to have gotten Kimmel's broadcast pulled.

Carr's threats around Kimmel are very much in line with the plans outlined in Project 2025, which encourage the executive to use their legal authority to go after those who disagree with them.

Carr's initial comments about Kimmel's show made it clear that he was planning to use the FCC to go after stations that carried Kimmel unless something was done proactively.

"This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney. We can do this the easy way or the hard way," Carr said on right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson's show on Sept. 17.

"Disney needs to see some change here, but the individual licensed stations that are taking their content, it's time for them to step up and say this, you know, garbage to the extent that that's what comes down the pipe in the future isn't something that we think serves the needs of our local communities," he said.

If you were unsure about whether pulling Kimmel's show down was Carr's ultimate goal, he clarified that in the aftermath of the news.

"It is important for broadcasters to push back on Disney programming that they determine falls short of community values," he told Fox News. He did not offer a definition for "community values" or clarify which of Kimmel's comments might have fallen short of them.

Trump's administration has claimed to be in favor of free speech, but it seems that there are exceptions to that general principle. While the future of Kimmel's show remains very much up in the air, it seems almost impossible to deny that Carr had a hand in his show getting pulled to begin with.

Kimmel, who has long been critical of the president, has yet to speak out about the sudden takedown of his show.