Senior FCC Official Privately Offered to Aid Chairman Brendan Carr’s Anti-Disney Campaign Against Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Emails Show

Internal emails obtained by WIRED reveal that a senior U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) official, who supervises ABC-owned stations across California, privately pledged last year to assist FCC Chairman Brendan Carr in his public campaign targeting The Walt Disney Company and its late-night program Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

The controversy dates back to September 17 of last year, when Carr issued a public threat of regulatory action against Disney over a monologue segment on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that discussed the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Carr’s comments pushed major ABC affiliate stations to pull the episode from their schedules, forcing the network to temporarily take the program off air.

Hours after Carr’s public statement, Lark Hadley—the FCC’s West Coast regional enforcement director—sent an email to Carr and the agency’s chief of staff Scott Delacourt. Obtained via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, the message was titled “personal note of support re Charlie Kirk ABC/Disney issue,” and included a pulled quote from Carr’s interview with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson: “This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney. We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said during the conversation.

Noting he has a background working as a broadcaster himself, Hadley wrote that the “absolute lack of accountability has always confused (and sickened) me.” He closed by urging Carr and Delacourt: “Please, do not let up, and let me know if I can help in any way.”

Hadley’s actions are highly irregular for a career civil servant and top enforcement leader. It violates longstanding norms for an agency official to endorse a politically motivated pressure campaign, or offer to assist in what critics frame as a retaliatory effort targeting a media outlet that falls directly under their own jurisdiction.

Federal ethics rules explicitly prohibit government employees from participating in matters where their ability to act impartially could reasonably be questioned by the public.

Carr’s office did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment on the newly uncovered emails.

While routine television content complaints are typically managed by FCC headquarters in Washington D.C., Hadley’s regional office holds direct enforcement authority over all ABC-owned stations within its West Coast jurisdiction—including KABC-TV in Glendale, California, the official broadcast origin point for Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

The brief suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live! became a defining public test of Carr’s ability to leverage the FCC’s regulatory apparatus against political opponents. Following Carr’s public threats, major affiliate owners Nexstar and Sinclair—both of which had multibillion-dollar merger proposals pending before the commission at the time—refused to air the controversial episode, forcing Disney to temporarily pull the show from circulation.

An ABC spokesperson did not immediately respond to WIRED’s request for comment.

Will Creeley, legal director at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, told WIRED that regional directors like Hadley have no business cheering on the FCC chairman’s regulatory threats against broadcasters that air views disfavored by the president.

“Just like Brendan Carr, they swore an oath to uphold the Constitution—and that includes the First Amendment, which bars the government from coercing private broadcasters into censoring dissent,” Creeley says. “This is a public servant paid by our taxpayer dollars. Is it too much to ask for him not to sound so excited about the chairman abusing the power of his office?”