Trump v. Kimmel

Richard Epstein dives into the controversy surrounding Jimmy Kimmel, the FCC, and free speech. Using the recent dust-up as a starting point, Epstein traces the history of the Federal Communications Commission from its origins in the 1930s through landmark cases like Red Lion . He explains how government licensing of the broadcast spectrum opened the door to censorship, distortion, and inefficiency—and why libertarians like Ronald Coase pushed for a market-based approach instead. Professor Epstein also contrasts Hayek’s vision of free entry with Felix Frankfurter’s regulatory mindset, explores the limits of “public interest” obligations, and shows how today’s fragmented media landscape makes FCC power increasingly obsolete.

You can listen to Trump v. Kimmel online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Trump v. Kimmel is an episode from Libertarian by The Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin.

This episode is 23:12 long.

This episode was published on Sep 25, 2025.

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