Topic of the Week: Jimmy Kimmel Moves Interview with James Talarico to YouTube

Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel announced last week that due to pressure from the Federal Communications Commission, his interview with U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico of Texas would air on YouTube rather than as part of his weeknight show. Our analysts rated media coverage in our Topic of the Week.

An article from AP (Associated Press) gives an overview about Kimmel’s announcement and background about the U.S. Senate race in Texas. Talarico, a Democrat, is running against Republican, Trump-endorsed candidate, Ken Paxton. Kimmel said the FCC had threatened his show, ABC and its affiliates “based on simple traditional editorial decisions, guest bookings it would seem they don’t like.” Analysts found the article to be “simple fact reporting” with a “middle” bias.

An article from Salon focuses on Kimmel’s and ABC’s past conflicts with the FCC. These include ABC’s parent company, Disney, filing a First Amendment lawsuit against the commission and the FCC asking ABC to renew the licenses for eight of its stations years ahead of schedule. The article details a previous dispute that led to Kimmel’s show being removed from the air for a week, and a Talarico interview with CBS’ Stephen Colbert that also aired on YouTube due to reported demands from the FCC. Analysts called the article’s headline — “Looks like Jimmy Kimmel isn’t done dealing with FCC ‘nonsense’” — an opinion and said the rest of the article platforms Kimmel’s position. They rated it as “analysis” with a “skews left” bias.

A video from The Hill’s program “Rising” now proclaims in the headline: “‘CANCEL CULTURE’: James Talarico BLASTS FCC over THREATS to late night shows.” But originally, the clip had a different headline: “’THEY’RE SCARED’: James Talarico RIPS GOP after Kimmel interview PULLED from air.” Analysts found the original headline to be sensationalist and slightly misleading to say the Kimmel interview was “pulled from air,” implying that the FCC wouldn’t let it air, but in fact, the network itself chose to move it to YouTube. In the video itself, the two hosts debate the merit of Kimmel airing the Talerico interview only on YouTube. Analysts found that both sides of the debate are included in the video, showing both support for/against Kimmel and the FCC’s actions. Analysts found the video to be “analysis” with a “middle” bias.

An article from Blaze Media also was found to be “analysis” but with a “skews right” bias, as is evident in the headline: “Jimmy Kimmel plays free speech martyr over Talarico interview; leaves out one crucial detail.” The article is critical of Kimmel, describing him this way: “Cryin’ Kimmel makes a simple FCC regulation all about him.” The article explains the FCC’s equal-time requirement, which states that broadcasters must provide “comparable opportunities to opposing candidates.” Newscasts have an exception to that rule, and the FCC has recently said that late-night talk shows should not assume they fall under that exception, as they have previously.

Like the original title of The Hill video, an article from TMZ says in its headline: “Jimmy Kimmel: Trump got my Talarico TV interview squashed.” In fact, neither the FCC nor Trump “spiked” the interview, as the article states; ABC chose to move it to YouTube out of respect for ABC affiliates, especially in Texas. The article includes a video of Kimmel interviewing Trump when he was a candidate for president in 2015, with Kimmel pointing out that back then, Trump had “no problem with the idea of talk show hosts interviewing candidates.” Analysts found the article’s declaration that “…Jimmy and Trump hate each other” inflammatory. Because of the misleading headline and the article’s implication that Trump is enforcing FCC rules because he doesn’t like what Kimmel and others are saying, analysts rated the article as “opinion or other issues” with a “strong left” bias.

Yet another false headline introduces a video on the Harry Sisson YouTube channel: “WTF: Trump Just CANCELLED Kimmel…” (no, he didn’t). Sisson reads previous social media posts by Trump that criticize Kimmel and reads extensively from an article published by Variety. Sisson explains the FCC’s equal-time rule and says, “Donald Trump is just using this archaic rule to punish people he doesn’t like.” Sisson calls the FCC’s actions “a direct attack on free speech… They want to make it so that you can’t say what you want to say. You can’t speak your mind. But that is literally Donald Trump’s America… If you’re saying something that Donald Trump doesn’t like, you better watch out. That’s the message they’re sending… We’re coming for you. That is so authoritarian. It’s so dictatorial.” Analysts found the video’s “us versus them” language to be fear-mongering, and they noted the number of insults about Trump and his administration. They rated the video as “contains misleading info” with a “hyper-partisan left” bias.

Want to see if you agree with our analysts? Follow along with our weekly Topic of the Week exercise by visiting our website. New Topics of the Week are posted each Monday. Read the articles and watch the videos yourself, then come back on Wednesday to compare your scores with our analysts. Learn more here.

Beth Heldebrandt is Director of Communications at Ad Fontes Media. She has more than 35 years of experience in the fields of journalism and public relations, and was an adjunct instructor of journalism for 17 years at Eastern Illinois University. Beth has a B.A. in journalism from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and an M.A. in English from Eastern Illinois University. She’s a mom and grandma, and enjoys traveling, puzzles and reading.