This ABC Showdown Is Different

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.In September, FCC Chair Brendan Carr dangled a simple threat: Either ABC would “take action” against Jimmy Kimmel, or there would be consequences. The network promptly gave in—“Great News,” President Trump wrote at the time—suspending Kimmel’s late-night show only to reinstate it a few days later amid public backlash. Yesterday, just 24 hours after the president and the first lady publicly demanded that Kimmel be fired, the FCC went after the network once again, ordering an early review of all broadcast licenses owned by ABC’s parent company, Disney.In some ways, the situations rhyme. Both involve direct threats to ABC after a Kimmel joke, and both reveal how the FCC has been reconfigured to act on Trump’s personal grievances. But having failed in its previous attempt to oust Kimmel, the White House has now lost much of its leverage; this time, Disney has less of a reason to cave.Carr’s threat this past fall was a direct response to a joke the comedian delivered during a monologue,