SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.
Climate activists protest on the first day of the ExxonMobil trial outside the New York State Supreme Court building on October 22, 2019 in New York City. (Photo: Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)
An investigation by HEATED and Earther revealed Wednesday that fossil fuel industry advertising in some of the most popular U.S. political newsletters “has exploded” as Democrats in Congress prepare to grill leaders of oil majors and trade groups about their contributions to climate disinformation.
“News outlets are using their own quality reporting to sell advertisers on opportunities to spread misinformation.”
Journalists Emily Atkin and Molly Taft examined ads in Punchbowl News’ daily political email newsletter as well as two climate-related newsletters, “Axios Generate” and Politico‘s “Morning Energy,” leading up the U.S. House of Representatives hearing scheduled for Thursday.
The HEATED and Earther reporters found that from October 1 to October 22, 62% of Axios newsletters (10 of 16), 63% of Punchbowl newsletters (30 of 48), and 100% of Politico newsletters (15 of 15) “were sponsored by fossil fuel interests.”
The pair noted the contrast with the past six months: From May 1 to October 22, those figures were 46% for Axios (51 of 112), 14% for Punchbowl (45 of 315), and 68% for Politico (78 of 115).
\u201cMost outlets don\u2019t both sides climate change coverage anymore. But newsletter sponsorships have essentially created a loophole for Big Oil talking points to be embedded with news in a much more seamless way than traditional ads\u201d— Brian Kahn (@Brian Kahn) 1635355625
Though Chevron was the most frequent advertiser for the full period and content examined--57% or 99 of the 174 fossil fuel-sponsored newsletters since May--the report also highlights ads from the American Petroleum Institute (API) and ExxonMobil.
While the ad buyers didn’t respond to requests for comment, representatives for Axios and Politico reportedly emphasized that newsletter content is independent from advertising.
However, “the responses appear to misunderstand the issue being raised,” Atkin and Taft wrote. “No one has claimed Big Oil’s ads influence the reporting at these news outlets. The issue is that news outlets are using their own quality reporting to sell advertisers on opportunities to spread misinformation on their platforms and making a lot of money from it.”
\u201cIt’s always helpful to remember that big fossil fuel companies (besides being *overwhelmingly* responsible for carbon pollution) are also skeevy disinformation hucksters.\u201d— Phil (I have a SubStack link in bio) Plait (@Phil (I have a SubStack link in bio) Plait) 1635356167
The analysis of polluters’ efforts to boost their Beltway influence and spread climate misinformation via email was published just a day before executives at BP America, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell Oil, along with API and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are set to testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform in what is expected to be a “historic showdown.”
Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who respectively chair the House panel and its Subcommittee on the Environment, had threatened to subpoena the industry leaders if they refused to show up for the hearing, entitled, “Fueling the Climate Crisis: Exposing Big Oil’s Disinformation Campaign to Prevent Climate Action.”
“This hearing is an important first step to stand up to polluters... but it cannot end here.”
Khanna has vowed that the committee’s event “will be like” the historic congressional inquiry that targeted Big Tobacco in the 1990s. Leading up to the hearing, climate campaigners reiterated their praise for the House Democrats’ efforts and offered suggestions.
The watchdog group Accountable.US detailed five questions that Big Oil CEOs “must answer,” focusing on everything from industry claims about pandemic-era bailouts to the ineffectiveness of voluntary climate mitigation methods to polluters’ decades of denying and sowing doubt about science while knowing about the existential threat posed by fossil fuel use.
“For too long, oil companies have skirted responsibility for their harmful campaign of disinformation aimed at swaying Americans against commonsense policies to protect public lands and fight the climate crisis,” said Accountable.US president Kyle Herrig.
“It shouldn’t have taken several dodged hearings and a subpoena threat for these executives to come before Congress,” he added. “With the American people watching, will these executives own up to their misinformation, or keep trying to hide behind lies and spin?”
\u201cThis hearing and ongoing investigation could be an absolute game changer. \n\nBig Oil has long been the greatest barrier to climate action. Exposing and dismantling their disinformation machine is critical for progress.\u201d— Jamie Henn (@Jamie Henn) 1635365527
Others emphasized their ongoing mistrust of the fossil fuel giants and trade groups.
“The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has spent decades denying the climate crisis and it is now sabotaging our nation’s best shot at stopping climate catastrophe,” Extinction Rebellion (XR) spokesperson Reilly Polka said in a statement Wednesday.
As Common Dreams reported earlier this month, during a climate-focused week of action in Washington, D.C., XR demonstrators targeted the trade group’s office, dropping a banner that said, “Welcome to the Chamber of Climate Chaos.”
Calling on the Chamber’s members to “immediately abandon an organization that puts corporate wealth over people’s health,” Polka declared that “it’s past time these companies stood on the right side of history--and with the people whose lives are being destroyed by the climate crisis.”
Related Content
Josh Eisenfeld is a corporate accountability campaigner at Earthworks, which in March joined with Greenpeace USA and Global Witness to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission calling for an investigation into Chevron’s “misleading” claims about its efforts to cut emissions.
“The world’s largest polluters should not be able to claim they are climate-friendly, yet that is exactly what they are doing,” Eisenfeld said Wednesday. “It is far past time for the companies behind the climate crisis to be held accountable for the harm they have done.”
“This hearing is an important first step to stand up to polluters who profit off of the exploitation of ordinary people, especially Black, Indigenous, and people of color who suffer disproportionate impacts from extractive industries,” he said, “but it cannot end here.”
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I’ve ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That’s why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we’ve ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here’s the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That’s not just some fundraising cliche. It’s the absolute and literal truth. We don’t accept corporate advertising and never will. We don’t have a paywall because we don’t think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
An investigation by HEATED and Earther revealed Wednesday that fossil fuel industry advertising in some of the most popular U.S. political newsletters “has exploded” as Democrats in Congress prepare to grill leaders of oil majors and trade groups about their contributions to climate disinformation.
“News outlets are using their own quality reporting to sell advertisers on opportunities to spread misinformation.”
Journalists Emily Atkin and Molly Taft examined ads in Punchbowl News’ daily political email newsletter as well as two climate-related newsletters, “Axios Generate” and Politico‘s “Morning Energy,” leading up the U.S. House of Representatives hearing scheduled for Thursday.
The HEATED and Earther reporters found that from October 1 to October 22, 62% of Axios newsletters (10 of 16), 63% of Punchbowl newsletters (30 of 48), and 100% of Politico newsletters (15 of 15) “were sponsored by fossil fuel interests.”
The pair noted the contrast with the past six months: From May 1 to October 22, those figures were 46% for Axios (51 of 112), 14% for Punchbowl (45 of 315), and 68% for Politico (78 of 115).
\u201cMost outlets don\u2019t both sides climate change coverage anymore. But newsletter sponsorships have essentially created a loophole for Big Oil talking points to be embedded with news in a much more seamless way than traditional ads\u201d— Brian Kahn (@Brian Kahn) 1635355625
Though Chevron was the most frequent advertiser for the full period and content examined--57% or 99 of the 174 fossil fuel-sponsored newsletters since May--the report also highlights ads from the American Petroleum Institute (API) and ExxonMobil.
While the ad buyers didn’t respond to requests for comment, representatives for Axios and Politico reportedly emphasized that newsletter content is independent from advertising.
However, “the responses appear to misunderstand the issue being raised,” Atkin and Taft wrote. “No one has claimed Big Oil’s ads influence the reporting at these news outlets. The issue is that news outlets are using their own quality reporting to sell advertisers on opportunities to spread misinformation on their platforms and making a lot of money from it.”
\u201cIt’s always helpful to remember that big fossil fuel companies (besides being *overwhelmingly* responsible for carbon pollution) are also skeevy disinformation hucksters.\u201d— Phil (I have a SubStack link in bio) Plait (@Phil (I have a SubStack link in bio) Plait) 1635356167
The analysis of polluters’ efforts to boost their Beltway influence and spread climate misinformation via email was published just a day before executives at BP America, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell Oil, along with API and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are set to testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform in what is expected to be a “historic showdown.”
Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who respectively chair the House panel and its Subcommittee on the Environment, had threatened to subpoena the industry leaders if they refused to show up for the hearing, entitled, “Fueling the Climate Crisis: Exposing Big Oil’s Disinformation Campaign to Prevent Climate Action.”
“This hearing is an important first step to stand up to polluters... but it cannot end here.”
Khanna has vowed that the committee’s event “will be like” the historic congressional inquiry that targeted Big Tobacco in the 1990s. Leading up to the hearing, climate campaigners reiterated their praise for the House Democrats’ efforts and offered suggestions.
The watchdog group Accountable.US detailed five questions that Big Oil CEOs “must answer,” focusing on everything from industry claims about pandemic-era bailouts to the ineffectiveness of voluntary climate mitigation methods to polluters’ decades of denying and sowing doubt about science while knowing about the existential threat posed by fossil fuel use.
“For too long, oil companies have skirted responsibility for their harmful campaign of disinformation aimed at swaying Americans against commonsense policies to protect public lands and fight the climate crisis,” said Accountable.US president Kyle Herrig.
“It shouldn’t have taken several dodged hearings and a subpoena threat for these executives to come before Congress,” he added. “With the American people watching, will these executives own up to their misinformation, or keep trying to hide behind lies and spin?”
\u201cThis hearing and ongoing investigation could be an absolute game changer. \n\nBig Oil has long been the greatest barrier to climate action. Exposing and dismantling their disinformation machine is critical for progress.\u201d— Jamie Henn (@Jamie Henn) 1635365527
Others emphasized their ongoing mistrust of the fossil fuel giants and trade groups.
“The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has spent decades denying the climate crisis and it is now sabotaging our nation’s best shot at stopping climate catastrophe,” Extinction Rebellion (XR) spokesperson Reilly Polka said in a statement Wednesday.
As Common Dreams reported earlier this month, during a climate-focused week of action in Washington, D.C., XR demonstrators targeted the trade group’s office, dropping a banner that said, “Welcome to the Chamber of Climate Chaos.”
Calling on the Chamber’s members to “immediately abandon an organization that puts corporate wealth over people’s health,” Polka declared that “it’s past time these companies stood on the right side of history--and with the people whose lives are being destroyed by the climate crisis.”
Related Content
Josh Eisenfeld is a corporate accountability campaigner at Earthworks, which in March joined with Greenpeace USA and Global Witness to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission calling for an investigation into Chevron’s “misleading” claims about its efforts to cut emissions.
“The world’s largest polluters should not be able to claim they are climate-friendly, yet that is exactly what they are doing,” Eisenfeld said Wednesday. “It is far past time for the companies behind the climate crisis to be held accountable for the harm they have done.”
“This hearing is an important first step to stand up to polluters who profit off of the exploitation of ordinary people, especially Black, Indigenous, and people of color who suffer disproportionate impacts from extractive industries,” he said, “but it cannot end here.”
An investigation by HEATED and Earther revealed Wednesday that fossil fuel industry advertising in some of the most popular U.S. political newsletters “has exploded” as Democrats in Congress prepare to grill leaders of oil majors and trade groups about their contributions to climate disinformation.
“News outlets are using their own quality reporting to sell advertisers on opportunities to spread misinformation.”
Journalists Emily Atkin and Molly Taft examined ads in Punchbowl News’ daily political email newsletter as well as two climate-related newsletters, “Axios Generate” and Politico‘s “Morning Energy,” leading up the U.S. House of Representatives hearing scheduled for Thursday.
The HEATED and Earther reporters found that from October 1 to October 22, 62% of Axios newsletters (10 of 16), 63% of Punchbowl newsletters (30 of 48), and 100% of Politico newsletters (15 of 15) “were sponsored by fossil fuel interests.”
The pair noted the contrast with the past six months: From May 1 to October 22, those figures were 46% for Axios (51 of 112), 14% for Punchbowl (45 of 315), and 68% for Politico (78 of 115).
\u201cMost outlets don\u2019t both sides climate change coverage anymore. But newsletter sponsorships have essentially created a loophole for Big Oil talking points to be embedded with news in a much more seamless way than traditional ads\u201d— Brian Kahn (@Brian Kahn) 1635355625
Though Chevron was the most frequent advertiser for the full period and content examined--57% or 99 of the 174 fossil fuel-sponsored newsletters since May--the report also highlights ads from the American Petroleum Institute (API) and ExxonMobil.
While the ad buyers didn’t respond to requests for comment, representatives for Axios and Politico reportedly emphasized that newsletter content is independent from advertising.
However, “the responses appear to misunderstand the issue being raised,” Atkin and Taft wrote. “No one has claimed Big Oil’s ads influence the reporting at these news outlets. The issue is that news outlets are using their own quality reporting to sell advertisers on opportunities to spread misinformation on their platforms and making a lot of money from it.”
\u201cIt’s always helpful to remember that big fossil fuel companies (besides being *overwhelmingly* responsible for carbon pollution) are also skeevy disinformation hucksters.\u201d— Phil (I have a SubStack link in bio) Plait (@Phil (I have a SubStack link in bio) Plait) 1635356167
The analysis of polluters’ efforts to boost their Beltway influence and spread climate misinformation via email was published just a day before executives at BP America, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell Oil, along with API and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are set to testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform in what is expected to be a “historic showdown.”
Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who respectively chair the House panel and its Subcommittee on the Environment, had threatened to subpoena the industry leaders if they refused to show up for the hearing, entitled, “Fueling the Climate Crisis: Exposing Big Oil’s Disinformation Campaign to Prevent Climate Action.”
“This hearing is an important first step to stand up to polluters... but it cannot end here.”
Khanna has vowed that the committee’s event “will be like” the historic congressional inquiry that targeted Big Tobacco in the 1990s. Leading up to the hearing, climate campaigners reiterated their praise for the House Democrats’ efforts and offered suggestions.
The watchdog group Accountable.US detailed five questions that Big Oil CEOs “must answer,” focusing on everything from industry claims about pandemic-era bailouts to the ineffectiveness of voluntary climate mitigation methods to polluters’ decades of denying and sowing doubt about science while knowing about the existential threat posed by fossil fuel use.
“For too long, oil companies have skirted responsibility for their harmful campaign of disinformation aimed at swaying Americans against commonsense policies to protect public lands and fight the climate crisis,” said Accountable.US president Kyle Herrig.
“It shouldn’t have taken several dodged hearings and a subpoena threat for these executives to come before Congress,” he added. “With the American people watching, will these executives own up to their misinformation, or keep trying to hide behind lies and spin?”
\u201cThis hearing and ongoing investigation could be an absolute game changer. \n\nBig Oil has long been the greatest barrier to climate action. Exposing and dismantling their disinformation machine is critical for progress.\u201d— Jamie Henn (@Jamie Henn) 1635365527
Others emphasized their ongoing mistrust of the fossil fuel giants and trade groups.
“The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has spent decades denying the climate crisis and it is now sabotaging our nation’s best shot at stopping climate catastrophe,” Extinction Rebellion (XR) spokesperson Reilly Polka said in a statement Wednesday.
As Common Dreams reported earlier this month, during a climate-focused week of action in Washington, D.C., XR demonstrators targeted the trade group’s office, dropping a banner that said, “Welcome to the Chamber of Climate Chaos.”
Calling on the Chamber’s members to “immediately abandon an organization that puts corporate wealth over people’s health,” Polka declared that “it’s past time these companies stood on the right side of history--and with the people whose lives are being destroyed by the climate crisis.”
Related Content
Josh Eisenfeld is a corporate accountability campaigner at Earthworks, which in March joined with Greenpeace USA and Global Witness to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission calling for an investigation into Chevron’s “misleading” claims about its efforts to cut emissions.
“The world’s largest polluters should not be able to claim they are climate-friendly, yet that is exactly what they are doing,” Eisenfeld said Wednesday. “It is far past time for the companies behind the climate crisis to be held accountable for the harm they have done.”
“This hearing is an important first step to stand up to polluters who profit off of the exploitation of ordinary people, especially Black, Indigenous, and people of color who suffer disproportionate impacts from extractive industries,” he said, “but it cannot end here.”
Against a backdrop of Israel's genocidal obliteration of Gaza City and a worsening man-made famine throughout the embattled Palestinian exclave, the United States on Thursday cast its sixth United Nations Security Council veto of a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire and the release of all hostages held by Hamas.
At its 10,000th meeting, the UN Security Council voted 14-1 with no abstentions in favor of a resolution proposed by the 10 nonpermanent UNSC members demanding "an immediate, unconditional, and permanent ceasefire" in Gaza, the "release of all hostages" held by Hamas, and for Israel to "immediately and unconditionally lift all restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid" into the besieged strip.
Morgan Ortagus, President Donald Trump's deputy special envoy to the Middle East, vetoed the proposal, saying that the move "will come as no surprise," as the US has killed five previous UNSC Gaza ceasefire resolutions under both the Biden and Trump administrations, most recently in June.
Ortagus said the resolution failed to condemn Hamas or affirm Israel's right to self-defense and “wrongly legitimizes the false narratives benefiting Hamas, which have sadly found currency in this council."
The US has unconditionally provided Israel with billions of dollars worth of armed aid and diplomatic cover since October 2023 as the key Mideast ally wages a war increasingly viewed as genocidal, including by a commission of independent UN experts this week.
Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour said the torpedoed resolution represented the "bare minimum" that must be accomplished, adding that “it is deeply regrettable and painful that it has been blocked.”
“Babies dying of starvation, snipers shooting people in the head, civilians killed en masse, families displaced again and again... humanitarians and journalists targeted... while Israeli officials are openly mocking all of this," Mansour added.
Following the UNSC's latest failure to pass a ceasefire resolution, Algerian Ambassador to the UN Amar Bendjama asked Gazans to "forgive" the body for not only its inability to approve such measures, but also for failing to stop the Gaza famine, in which at least hundreds of Palestinians have died and hundreds of thousands more are starving. Every UNSC members but the US concurred last month that the Gaza famine is a man-made catastrophe.
“Israel kills every day and nothing happens," Bendjama said. "Israel starves a people and nothing happens. Israel bombs hospitals, schools, shelters, and nothing happens. Israel attacks a mediator and steps on diplomacy, and nothing happens. And with every act, every act unpunished, humanity itself is diminished.”
Benjama also asked Gazans to "forgive us" for failing to protect children in the strip, more than 20,000 of whom have been killed by Israeli bombs, bullets, and blockade over the past 713 days. He also noted that upward of 12,000 women, 4,000 elderly, 1,400 doctors and nurses, 500 aid workers, and 250 journalists “have been killed by Israel."
Condemning Thursday's veto, Hamas accused the US of “blatant complicity in the crime of genocide," which Israel is accused of committing in an ongoing International Court of Justice (ICJ) case filed in December 2023 by South Africa and backed by around two dozen nations.
Hamas—which led the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and is believed to be holding 20 hostages left alive out of 251 people kidnapped that day—implored the countries that sponsored the ceasefire resolution to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who along with former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, to accept an agreement to halt hostilities.
Overall, at least 65,141 Palestinians have been killed and over 165,900 others wounded by Israeli forces since October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry—whose figures have not only been confirmed by former IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, but deemed a significant undercount by independent researchers. Thousands more Gazans are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath the ruins of the flattened strip.
UK Ambassador to the UN Barbara Woodward stessed after Thursday's failed UNSC resolution that "we need a ceasefire more than ever."
“Israel’s reckless expansion of its military operation takes us further away from a deal which could bring the hostages home and end the suffering in Gaza," Woodward said.
Thursday's developments came as Israeli forces continued to lay waste to Gaza City as they push deeper into the city as part of Operation Gideon's Chariots 2, a campaign to conquer, occupy, and ethnically cleanse around 1 million Palestinians from the strip's capital. Israeli leaders have said they are carrying out the operation in accordance with Trump's proposal to empty Gaza of Palestinians and transform it into the "Riviera of the Middle East."
In what some observers said was a bid to prevent the world from witnessing fresh Israeli war crimes in Gaza City, internet and phone lines were cut off in the strip Thursday, although officials said service has since been mostly restored.
Gaza officials said Thursday that at least 50 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces since dawn, including 40 in Gaza City, which Al Jazeera reporter Tareq Abu Azzoum said is being pummeled into "a lifeless wasteland."
Azzoum reported that tens of thousands of Palestinians "are moving to the south on foot or in carts, looking for any place that is relatively safe—but with no guarantee of safety—or at least for shelter."
Israel has repeatedly bombed areas it advised Palestinians were "safe zones," including a September 2 airstrike that massacred 11 people—nine of them children—queued up to collect water in al-Mawasi.
"Most families who have arrived in the south have not found space," Azzoum added. "That’s why we’ve seen people setting up makeshift tents close to the water while others are left stranded in the street, living under the open sky."
President Donald Trump doubled down on his threats to silence his critics Thursday, telling reporters aboard Air Force One that outlets that give him "bad press" may have their broadcast licenses taken away.
The threat came just one day after his Federal Communications Commission (FCC) director, Brendan Carr, successfully pressured ABC into pulling Jimmy Kimmel's show from the air by threatening the broadcast licenses of its affiliates over a comment the comedian made about the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
"I read someplace that the networks were 97% against me," Trump told the press gaggle. "I get 97% negative, and yet I won it easily. I won all seven swing states, popular vote, I won everything. And they're 97% against, they give me wholly bad publicity... I mean, they're getting a license, I would think maybe their license should be taken away."
"When you have a network and you have evening shows and all they do is hit Trump, that’s all they do," the president continued. "If you go back, I guess they haven’t had a conservative on in years or something, somebody said, but when you go back and take a look, all they do is hit Trump. They’re licensed. They’re not allowed to do that.”
He said that the decision would be left up to Carr, who has threatened to take away licenses from networks that air what he called "distorted" content.
It is unclear where Trump's statistic that networks have been "97% against" him originates, nor the claim that mainstream news networks "haven't had a conservative on in years."
But even if it were true, FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez says "the FCC doesn't have the authority, the ability, or the constitutional right to revoke a license because of content."
In comments made to Axios Thursday, Gomez—the lone Democrat on the five-member panel—said that the Trump administration was "weaponizing its licensing authority in order to bring broadcasters to heel," as part of a "campaign of censorship and control."
National news networks like ABC, CBS, and NBC do not have broadcasting licenses approved by the FCC, nor do cable networks like CNN, MSNBC, or Fox News. The licenses threatened by Carr are for local affiliates, which—despite having the branding of the big networks—are owned by less well-known companies like Nexstar Media Group and the Sinclair Broadcasting Group, both of which pushed in favor of ABC's decision to ax Kimmel.
Gomez said that with Trump's intimidation of broadcasters, the "threat is the point."
"It is a very hard standard to meet to revoke a license, which is why it's so rarely done, but broadcast license to the broadcasters are extremely valuable," she said. "And so they don't want to be dragged before the FCC either in order to answer to an enforcement complaint of some kind or under the threat of possible revocation."
Democratic lawmakers are vowing to investigate the Trump administration's pressure campaign that may have led to ABC deciding to indefinitely suspend late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) announced on Thursday that he filed a motion to subpoena Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr one day after he publicly warned ABC of negative consequences if the network kept Kimmel on the air.
"Enough of Congress sleepwalking while [President Donald] Trump and [Vice President JD] Vance shred the First Amendment and Constitution," Khanna declared. "It is time for Congress to stand up for Article I."
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, also said on Thursday that he was opening an investigation into the potential financial aspects of Carr's pressure campaign on ABC, including the involvement of Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which is the network's largest affiliate and is currently involved in merger talks that will need FCC approval.
"The Oversight Committee is launching an investigation into ABC, Sinclair, and the FCC," he said. "We will not be intimidated and we will defend the First Amendment."
Progressive politicians weren't the only ones launching an investigation into the Kimmel controversy, as legal organization Democracy Forward announced that it's filed a a Freedom of Information Act request for records after January 20, 2025 related to any FCC efforts “to use the agency’s licensing and enforcement powers to police and limit speech and influence what the public can watch and hear.”