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Dan Cashman was the long-time host of The Nite Show, a Maine-based late night television talk show.
I still remember the joke: “Our guest tonight on the show is Marden’s second most popular employee behind Birdie Googins … Gov. Paul LePage.“
Among the gales of laughter from our studio audience, do you know who laughed the hardest at “The Nite Show” taping that night? Gov. Paul LePage.
Back then, we were recording our Maine-based late night talk show in Brewer. LePage sat in the audience before his appearance that night and laughed loudly at the joke — then later told me to “keep doing what you’re doing.”
His laughter helped to pave the way for our show to follow in the tradition of every late night talk show in American history, to confidently joke about the people we elected to be our leaders. Not only did we poke bipartisan fun at our governors, members of Congress, state officials and candidates running for those offices, but sometimes they joined us. Then-U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin came for an interview with a list of monologue jokes I had said about him, and he read them back to me to the great delight of our audience — and himself. Then-Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling joined us one night as several audience members told jokes at his expense, including a joke from Strimling himself.
My point is this: None of these elected officials would have had any authority to threaten the licenses of the local TV stations running our show in Maine. But even if they did have that authority, none of them should have — and I’m confident none of them would have.
The actions taken by Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr last week, to go on a podcast and threaten local station groups with the possibility of federal action because of things said by a comedian on a TV show, is crossing a critical line. Free speech is protected in this country, and for good reason. We have many freedoms that are easily taken for granted. The ability to criticize elected officials, be it for comedy or honest conversation, is protected, and must continue.
Thinking about our past newsmaking elected leaders, President Bill Clinton comes to mind. His embarrassingly terrible choices made him nightly fodder for late night comics. One of my favorite jokes from David Letterman went something like this: “President Bill Clinton was hospitalized for an infection. While in the hospital he received intravenous antibiotics, intravenous fluids, and 14 nurses’ phone numbers.” Never once did Clinton’s FCC threaten any local station licenses because of comments like these, or apply pressure to the networks to tone down the jokes.
While comedy can have roots in accuracy, the punchline need not be accurate. For example, I’m sure there has once been a man from Nantucket. I’m not sure the rest of the limerick is true.
If the federal government is going to start threatening local stations because someone mocks the president through comedy or opinion, it sets a dangerous precedent. The next time a Democrat leads the country, that administration could threaten all of the local news/talk radio stations running conservative programming on the public airwaves. To be clear, those stations should not have their licenses threatened because of a difference of opinion, nor should the ABC-TV affiliates in this country.
Jimmy Kimmel was back on ABC Tuesday night. Giant broadcasting companies Nexstar and Sinclair are refusing to run his show for now, which many speculate has to do with the threats made by Carr. Nexstar needs the FCC’s approval for a forthcoming merger, and Sinclair is interested in the FCC’s approach to deregulation. It’s reasonable to believe these companies acted to avoid FCC penalties, not to serve the viewing public.
“This show is not important,” said Kimmel during his Tuesday night monologue. “What is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this.”
Exactly. He thanked those ranging from Letterman and Jay Leno to Robert De Niro and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, and hundreds of others for standing up for the First Amendment. I’m in that group, and it’s a right I don’t take for granted.
