Kimmel’s ABC show won’t air interview with Democrat because of Trump FCC threats

吉米·坎摩尔的 ABC 节目因特朗普政府 FCC 的威胁，将不会播出对民主党候选人的采访

ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel said he will be interviewing a Democratic candidate for Senate tonight, but the interview will be on YouTube only and not broadcast on TV because of threats made by the Federal Communications Commission. ABC 的吉米·坎摩尔（Jimmy Kimmel）表示，他今晚将采访一位民主党参议院候选人，但由于联邦通信委员会（FCC）的威胁，该采访仅会在 YouTube 上发布，而不会在电视上播出。

Kimmel has been a prime target in the Trump FCC’s attacks on ABC and its owner, Disney. In his monologue last night, Kimmel said he’ll be interviewing Democrat James Talarico, a state representative who is running against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for a seat in the US Senate. 坎摩尔一直是特朗普政府 FCC 攻击 ABC 及其母公司迪士尼的主要目标。在昨晚的开场独白中，坎摩尔表示他将采访民主党人詹姆斯·塔拉里科（James Talarico），这位州众议员正在竞选美国参议院席位，其竞争对手是德克萨斯州总检察长肯·帕克斯顿（Ken Paxton）。

In previous years, such an interview would have aired on the broadcast show via local stations throughout the country, Kimmel said. This time, it will only be on the Jimmy Kimmel Live YouTube channel in order to prevent further trouble for individual stations that hold FCC licenses, he said. 坎摩尔说，在往年，这样的采访会通过全国各地的当地电视台在广播节目中播出。他说，这一次，采访将仅在《吉米·坎摩尔直播秀》的 YouTube 频道上发布，以防止持有 FCC 执照的各地方电视台陷入进一步的麻烦。

“I’ll be interviewing James Talarico tomorrow night under unusual circumstances,” Kimmel told the audience on Wednesday. “For a lot of years, for the whole 20-plus years of our show, in fact, I’ve been interviewing Americans who are running for office with no problem at all, just like Letterman did, Leno did, Arsenio, et cetera, et cetera. I’ve interviewed a lot of political candidates, from Hillary Clinton to Ted Cruz to Donald Trump himself.” “我将在不同寻常的情况下于明晚采访詹姆斯·塔拉里科，”坎摩尔周三对观众说。“多年来，事实上在我们节目播出的 20 多年里，我一直在采访竞选公职的美国人，从未遇到任何问题，就像莱特曼（Letterman）、雷诺（Leno）、阿塞尼奥（Arsenio）等人所做的那样。我采访过许多政治候选人，从希拉里·克林顿到泰德·克鲁兹，再到唐纳德·特朗普本人。”

But as Kimmel said, “something has changed.” Disney suspended Kimmel briefly last year after FCC Chairman Brendan Carr threatened to revoke the licenses of ABC stations for “news distortion” if they continued to air Kimmel’s show. 但正如坎摩尔所说，“有些事情已经改变了”。去年，在 FCC 主席布伦丹·卡尔（Brendan Carr）威胁称，如果 ABC 电视台继续播出坎摩尔的节目，将以“新闻歪曲”为由吊销其执照后，迪士尼曾短暂地让坎摩尔停职。

Trump admin attacks on ABC

特朗普政府对 ABC 的攻击

Much more has followed. In April, the Carr FCC ordered an early license review for all eight TV stations owned by ABC. Carr did this only one day after Trump and first lady Melania Trump called on ABC to fire Kimmel over a joke they didn’t like, though the FCC says the license review is over allegations that ABC’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices violate anti-discrimination rules. 此后发生了更多事件。今年 4 月，卡尔领导的 FCC 下令对 ABC 拥有的全部八家电视台进行提前执照审查。卡尔此举是在特朗普和第一夫人梅拉尼娅·特朗普因一个他们不喜欢的笑话要求 ABC 解雇坎摩尔仅一天后做出的，尽管 FCC 声称此次执照审查是针对 ABC 的多元化、公平和包容性（DEI）实践违反反歧视规则的指控。

The Carr FCC also started investigating ABC’s The View after it aired an interview with Talarico and opened a proceeding in May 2026 to examine whether The View should continue to be exempt from the equal-time rule as a “bona fide news interview program.” The View hasn’t aired any interviews of political candidates since the FCC began the proceeding. 卡尔领导的 FCC 在《观点》（The View）节目播出对塔拉里科的采访后，也开始对其进行调查，并于 2026 年 5 月启动了一项程序，以审查《观点》是否应继续作为“真正的访谈类新闻节目”免受“同等时间原则”（equal-time rule）的约束。自 FCC 启动该程序以来，《观点》节目尚未播出任何政治候选人的采访。

Until Carr took over at the FCC, the agency historically treated talk shows that feature interviews as exempt from the equal-time rule that requires stations to provide comparable time and placement to an opposing candidate if an opposing candidate makes a request. The Carr FCC ordered broadcast TV stations in January to comply with the equal-time rule when airing late-night and daytime talk shows that are “motivated by partisan purposes,” but has not made similar moves against talk radio shows that are predominantly conservative. 在卡尔接管 FCC 之前，该机构历来将包含采访的脱口秀节目视为免受“同等时间原则”约束——该原则要求电视台在反对派候选人提出要求时，必须为其提供相当的时间和版面。卡尔领导的 FCC 在 1 月份下令广播电视台在播出“出于党派目的”的深夜和日间脱口秀节目时必须遵守同等时间原则，但并未对以保守派为主的谈话类广播节目采取类似行动。

“Jimmy Kimmel’s decision to keep his interview with a Senate candidate off the air shows just how far this administration’s campaign of censorship and control has gone,” FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, the commission’s only Democrat, said today. “吉米·坎摩尔决定不播出对参议院候选人的采访，这表明本届政府的审查和控制运动已经走到了什么地步，”FCC 委员安娜·戈麦斯（Anna Gomez）——该委员会唯一的民主党人——今天表示。

Gomez said the FCC “has no lawful authority to threaten broadcast licenses over guest bookings or editorial decisions,” and that “no host, local affiliate, or network should have to weigh federal retaliation before booking a guest for a newsworthy interview. Any attempt to pressure broadcasters into self-censorship undermines both press freedom and the public’s right to hear from candidates in their communities seeking public office.” 戈麦斯表示，FCC “没有合法的权力因嘉宾预订或编辑决定而威胁广播执照”，并且“任何主持人、地方分支机构或电视网在预订具有新闻价值的采访嘉宾之前，都不应权衡是否会遭到联邦政府的报复。任何向广播公司施压进行自我审查的企图，都会损害新闻自由以及公众从其社区寻求公职的候选人那里获取信息权利。”

An interview with Talarico was also at the center of controversy in February when Stephen Colbert said CBS forbade him from interviewing the candidate. Colbert put the interview on YouTube instead. CBS denied prohibiting the interview but said it gave Colbert “legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the FCC equal-time rule for two other candidates… and presented options for how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled.” 2 月份，对塔拉里科的采访也处于争议中心，当时斯蒂芬·科尔伯特（Stephen Colbert）表示 CBS 禁止他采访该候选人。科尔伯特随后将采访发布在 YouTube 上。CBS 否认禁止该采访，但表示曾向科尔伯特提供“法律指导，称该广播可能会触发 FCC 对其他两名候选人的同等时间原则……并提出了如何满足其他候选人同等时间要求的方案。”

Disney sued the FCC in August, saying its First Amendment rights have been violated and that “ABC must now evaluate any invitation to a political candidate for its potential consequences, including whether it might later be cited by the Commission as a basis for non-renewal in the Stations’ impending license renewal proceedings.” Disney said the Trump administration’s campaign of censorship against ABC will be particularly damaging during the months before the midterm election. 迪士尼于 8 月起诉了 FCC，称其第一修正案权利受到侵犯，并表示“ABC 现在必须评估对政治候选人的任何邀请可能带来的后果，包括这是否可能在未来被委员会引用，作为电视台即将进行的执照续期程序中拒绝续期的依据。”迪士尼表示，特朗普政府针对 ABC 的审查运动将在中期选举前的几个月里造成特别严重的损害。

Trump FCC “has threatened me, threatened our show”

特朗普政府的 FCC “威胁了我，威胁了我们的节目”

Kimmel didn’t recount all of that history last night, but referred to it when he told the audience about the upcoming Talarico interview. Kimmel said: 坎摩尔昨晚没有重述所有这些历史，但在向观众介绍即将进行的塔拉里科采访时提到了这一点。坎摩尔说：

I interviewed Donald Trump when he was running for president in 2015, and at that time when he was the one sitting next to me, he seemed to have no problem with the idea of talk show hosts interviewing candidates. In fact, he was very eager to come back for another interview, which he did just before he became the nominee in 2016. But for some reason, and I can’t seem to figure out what that reason is, something has changed. Now that he’s president, his FCC has threatened me, threatened our show, threatened our network, ABC, our affiliates, our local stations, based on simple, traditional editorial decisions, guest bookings it would seem they don’t like. 我在 2015 年唐纳德·特朗普竞选总统时采访过他，当时他坐在我身边，似乎对脱口秀主持人采访候选人没有任何意见。事实上，他非常渴望回来接受另一次采访，他也确实在 2016 年成为提名人之前这样做了。但出于某种原因，我似乎无法弄清楚原因是什么，有些事情已经改变了。现在他成了总统，他的 FCC 威胁了我，威胁了我们的节目，威胁了我们的电视网 ABC，我们的分支机构，我们的地方电视台，仅仅是因为一些简单的、传统的编辑决定，以及他们似乎不喜欢的嘉宾预订。

Kimmel said the decision to put the interview on YouTube was made out of consideration for local stations that could face FCC threats to their broadcast licenses. 坎摩尔表示，将采访放在 YouTube 上播出的决定是出于对地方电视台的考虑，因为这些电视台可能会面临 FCC 对其广播执照的威胁。

“And so out of consideration for our local stations, especially our ABC affiliates in Texas who would have to deal with this nonsense, my interview tomorrow with James Talarico will not air on television,” Kimmel said. “It will be posted on YouTube instead. It will not be on TV. So if you want to learn about a candidate for the Senate tomorrow, you will have to go to the Jimmy Kimmel Live YouTube channel where you will…” “因此，出于对我们地方电视台的考虑，特别是那些不得不处理这些无稽之谈的德克萨斯州 ABC 分支机构，我明天与詹姆斯·塔拉里科的采访将不会在电视上播出，”坎摩尔说。“它将发布在 YouTube 上。它不会在电视上播出。所以，如果你明天想了解一位参议院候选人，你必须前往《吉米·坎摩尔直播秀》的 YouTube 频道，在那里你将……”