Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Oct 6, 2026 · 53 min · 17 segments
Plus, the botched execution of Christa Pike and why Americans are turning against the death penalty. And before Google, there was the LA Public Library, whose librarians would try to answer any…
Madeleine BrandHostGlenn CreasonGuest
David FolkenflikGuest
Elizabeth BruenigGuestBrian HartzinskiHost
Jimmy Kimmel on his ABC late night show last week with Robert De Niro playing FCC chairman Brendan Carr.
Carr, in real life, sounded a bit like a mafia boss when he said we can do this the easy way or the hard way, intimating that if Kimmel weren't fired, the FCC would take action.
That is one example cited by Disney in its lawsuit against Carr and other members of the FCC.
Disney says the FCC is threatening to take licenses away from ABC stations because it doesn't like what is said on the network.
But Brendan Carr insists the FCC's planned review of ABC's licenses is not because of a late night comedian's jokes.
The Disney case is about evidence coming to light.
We haven't made a final decision yet.
that they had been discriminating inside the company based on race and gender in terms of hiring, promoting, compensation, workplace opportunities.
If that all ends up being true, based on all the evidence that Disney gets to put in, that's a very concerning development.
And it does raise fundamental questions about fitness to have a license.
That has nothing to do with the program.
Well, Disney and the FCC were in court today, as was NPR's media correspondent, David Folkenflik.
Disney's claiming that the federal government, essentially, in the... agency of the federal communications commission and the gentleman we just heard its chairman brendan carr initiated this early review of its the eight stations it owns you know people think about abc as a network it is abc only owns eight of the hundreds of abc stations around the country but six of them are in big markets and they contribute significantly to the television network's bottom line they are moving up these are reviewed on a staggered basis sort of one by one year after year sort of thing so they're Some of these are a number of years before they're supposed to come up for review.
In fact, they're accelerating all of them at the same time now to review them.
As Chairman Carr says, they are using this as a vehicle to look at the question of DEI, so-called diversity, equity, inclusion type policies.
He's saying they're accusations of discrimination within Disney, ABC's parent company.
Jimmy Kimmel on his ABC late night show last week with Robert De Niro playing FCC chairman Brendan Carr.
Carr, in real life, sounded a bit like a mafia boss when he said we can do this the easy way or the hard way, intimating that if Kimmel weren't fired, the FCC would take action.
That is one example cited by Disney in its lawsuit against Carr and other members of the FCC.
Disney says the FCC is threatening to take licenses away from ABC stations because it doesn't like what is said on the network.
But Brendan Carr insists the FCC's planned review of ABC's licenses is not because of a late night comedian's jokes.
The Disney case is about evidence coming to light.
We haven't made a final decision yet.
that they had been discriminating inside the company based on race and gender in terms of hiring, promoting, compensation, workplace opportunities.
If that all ends up being true, based on all the evidence that Disney gets to put in, that's a very concerning development.
And it does raise fundamental questions about fitness to have a license.
That has nothing to do with the program.
Well, Disney and the FCC were in court today, as was NPR's media correspondent, David Folkenflik.
Disney's claiming that the federal government, essentially, in the... agency of the federal communications commission and the gentleman we just heard its chairman brendan carr initiated this early review of its the eight stations it owns you know people think about abc as a network it is abc only owns eight of the hundreds of abc stations around the country but six of them are in big markets and they contribute significantly to the television network's bottom line they are moving up these are reviewed on a staggered basis sort of one by one year after year sort of thing so they're Some of these are a number of years before they're supposed to come up for review.
In fact, they're accelerating all of them at the same time now to review them.
As Chairman Carr says, they are using this as a vehicle to look at the question of DEI, so-called diversity, equity, inclusion type policies.
He's saying they're accusations of discrimination within Disney, ABC's parent company.
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