late night comedy
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MERRI OK
KIMMEL IS SORTA BAK
fallon mostly apolitical?
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an 8 26
Trump’s war against ABC and Disney for platforming comedian Jimmy Kimmel has boomeranged on him, with the entertainment behemoth suing Trump’s FCC for violating their First Amendment rights. More recently, the FCC has challenged ABC’s broadcasting licenses.
Even a conservative newspaper is siding with ABC and Disney over the Trump administration.
“ABC sued the FCC on Tuesday for ‘coercing and retaliating’ because it ‘refuses to bow to the Administration’s demands,’” wrote The Wall Street Journal editorial board on Tuesday. “The lawsuit says the government has violated its First Amendment rights ‘by launching pretextual regulatory investigations and threatening the Stations’ valuable broadcast licenses.’”
Describing FCC Chairman Brendan Carr as a “mob-boss” and agreeing with the premise of the lawsuit, the Journal opined that Trump’s FCC is indeed violating “the First Amendment by letting the FCC interfere in editorial judgments and suppress disfavored content and viewpoints. ABC’s lawsuit says the FCC’s pressure has resulted in it ‘passing on further consideration of booking several political candidates,’ and none have appeared on the program since February.”
The Journal added that Carr once criticized Democratic administrations for violating free speech rights, and concluded that “in 2020 he lambasted a progressive media group for petitioning the FCC to censor broadcasts of Mr. Trump’s Covid press conferences, calling it a ‘dangerous and sweeping attempt by the left to weaponize the FCC.’
"It’s a shame Mr. Carr won’t defend ABC’s free-speech rights today," the board added.
Trump’s war against Kimmel began in September when he falsely claimed that the talk show host had disparaged the late right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk after he was assassinated. ABC initially took Kimmel’s show off the air but reversed course after a mass protest.
"But then, you know what happened?” Kimmel said at the time. “A Christmas miracle happened. Well, it was September, it was a September miracle. But the holiday does seem to come earlier and earlier every year, doesn’t it? Millions and millions of people stood up and said: ‘No, this is not acceptable’ ... Our show came back stronger than ever. We won, the president lost and now I’m back on the air every night giving the most powerful politician on earth a right and richly deserved bollocking.”
He added, “That’s a word, right? I used it properly?"
In April Kimmel again was in the spotlight when the administration falsely claimed that one of his jokes had inspired an assassination attempt against the president.
“Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country,” First Lady Melania Trump declared on social media at the time. “His monologue about my family isn’t comedy — his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America.”
She continued, “People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate. A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him. Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand. How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community.”
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YT PRETTY GOOD ANALYSIS
https://www.friendlyatheist.com/p/the-christian-right-tried-to-make
The Christian Right tried to make a late-night talk show—and it bombed spectacularly
Eric Metaxas and his backers spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to copy Fallon and Kimmel. They forgot to hire talent.
Oct 09, 2025
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The ongoing joke about Christian culture is that it’s a sad attempt to replicate everything that’s great about secular culture. Christian movies like God’s Not Dead are bad because they’re more interested in hammering you over the head with a religious message than telling a decent nuanced story (or hiring good actors). Contemporary Christian Music might be catchy but the Jesus-heavy lyrics are so predictable, South Park can spoof it with remarkable accuracy. Even attempts to make overly right-wing sitcoms are embarrassing; it becomes very clear, very quickly, that acting and writing talent are low priorities for the people writing checks.
The bottom line is that when it comes to popular culture, Christians
that are never as good as the real thing.
The same apparently goes for late-night talk shows.
According to The Guardian, a wealthy conservative group spent “hundreds of thousands of dollars” developing a late-night talk show hosted by conspiracy theorist Eric Metaxas. At least four pilot episodes were filmed and they were so bad that the show was picked up by literally no one.
As you watch the “highlight” clip below, it becomes glaringly obvious the money was spent on the set and not on hiring joke-writers.
The Guardian sat through nearly four hours of the Talk Show, and found it to be an almost exact copy of existing late-night shows, just worse: with hack jokes about tired issues and has-been, conservative guests. The show was never picked up, presumably to the chagrin of Ziklag and its investors, who had lofty expectations.
…
Unfortunately, across the four pilots, Metaxas’s comedic bent was noticeable only by its absence.
…
Ziklag claimed the show would welcome “guests who are routinely shadow banned on other talk shows”, and quoted Metaxas as saying: “It’s kind of like Stalin has air-brushed these people out of the culture.”
But the common theme among the guests was that they had been naturally phased out of existing talkshows due to their irrelevance.
…
Ziklag’s pitch to investors had promised big-name guests. It didn’t deliver apart from an interview – heavily touted by Metaxas – with film-maker Ron Howard. The interview turned out to be from a press junket, where directors or actors sit in a room for eight hours and basically anyone with a press pass can schedule time to question them.
The news here is not that Metaxas filmed the talk show. In fact,
are
and have been available since January of 2023. The news is how much money was spent on this project, who funded it, and how badly it failed.
The project was funded by a group called Ziklag.
In the Bible, the town of Ziklag is where the character David lives for a time while he’s being persecuted. It’s his safe space. It’s a place from which David can plan counterattacks. But as reporting from Andy Kroll of ProPublica and Nick Surgey of Documented showed in 2024, the Christians behind Ziklag had assets of “nearly $12 million” to make sure Republicans were mobilizing their base while also trying to purge Democrats from the voter rolls in swing states.
The Guardian got ahold of “leaked documents” from Ziklag showing that they were seeking up to $500,000 to film episodes of the talk show so that they could pitch the show to “digital distributors, networks and tv ownership groups.”
“Spoiler alert! The secular elites who currently reign over late-night tv are about to find out the joke’s on them!” Ziklag’s pitch email read. It lauded Metaxas, a conservative radio host and author who was an eager proponent of the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen, claiming: “His comedic bent has gone largely unnoticed until now that is…”
…
In its email, Ziklag said it was offering the opportunity to invest as part of the “Media Mountain”, a reference to the Seven Mountain Mandate, a theology popular among the Christian right. The theology proposes that Christians should seek to take over seven spheres of influence in public life: religion, the government, the media, education, culture, entertainment and business.
It’s unbelievable that people with this much money couldn’t see that Metaxas is a talentless hack—How much does it cost to buy a clue?—and believed this kind of humorless show would be an alternative for people who can’t handle the razor-sharp political satire of… Jimmy Fallon.
The producer of the show insisted to The Guardian that this whole thing is being mischaracterized. They weren’t trying to create a right-wing talk show or even a Christian one. They were trying to create a universally beloved show rather than one where Republicans were always the butts of the jokes.
Chris Himes, who produced the Talk Show, said the show was not intended to be a “rightwing late-night show”. The aim, Himes said, was “to create a broad, throwback late-night program for the entire country – not just one side”.
“These are not partisan or ‘right-wing’ shows. Think Letterman or Dick Cavett in tone: humor first, with no space for snark or ‘clapter’,” he said in an email.
“Sadly, much of late night over the past decade has shifted from being genuinely funny to becoming a vehicle for tribal signaling – even occasionally straying into messaging far beyond comedy. We believe the country deserves something better.”
Himes added: “To be clear, a ‘right-wing’ late-night show would be a terrible idea. What we’re building is something more essential: a genuinely funny, unifying alternative.”
The problem with that assessment is that the shows they made weren’t funny. Plus, avoiding politics takes away the main reason so many people enjoy late night talk shows; it’s a way of informing them about the news without being so damn boring. A show that allows right-wing guests to talk about their lives and humanize themselves could find an audience, I would think, but bringing on those guests and then ignoring politics is just a waste of everyone’s time. What’s the point of watching a late-night comedy show if it doesn’t tackle current events or ask pointed questions revolving around the guests’ relevance?
It’s also a mark of stupidity for Himes to pretend the problem with current late-night hosts is that they’re too one-sided. When Republicans with power do so much damage to the country, through cruelty and ignorance and their embrace of extremism, they deserve to be ridiculed and condemned for their actions. Anyone who claims to be in the political center, at this point in our history, is someone who doesn’t understand the stakes. They deserve to be ignored.
“The Talk Show” is hardly apolitical, though. You just have to know where to look. In one monologue, when Metaxas
about Biden possibly dropping out of the presidential race, he says “Yesterday, President—’president’—Biden shocked the nation when he said he might not run for a second term.” Metaxas literally puts air-quotes around the word “president” as if Biden wasn’t legitimately elected.
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!F5wb!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb5da53a0-913d-40ee-b3af-1bf186924823_1812x1014.png)
Himes is also wrong that there’s currently no “alternative” to liberal late-night hosts. Bill Maher is hardly a liberal ally at this point with his routine demonization of trans people and “wokeness.” And the most popular late-night talk show right now is Gutfeld! on Fox News—not because host Greg Gutfeld is funny but because it’s on Fox. Those shows regularly punch down by mocking the marginalized—something Metaxas has been doing for years—but even they have professional staffs.
No one needed this show. And even if there was room for another late-night host, they picked the wrong guy to helm this particular ship because Metaxas is just unlikeable.We’re talking about a guy who tweeted this in response to a thoughtless comment from Joe Biden:
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!FuL2!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffa479cf0-d4cb-4d4a-b4b0-76830680d246_1182x1130.png)
He sucker-punched a guy on a bike. He’s literally the poster boy for how white evangelicals have lost their damn minds in the age of Trump. He believes so many right-wing conspiracies, it’s hard to keep track at this point.
Which is a long way of saying Ziklag is funded by very foolish people. The sort of people who believe the problem with late-night talk shows is not enough Eric Metaxas and not enough jokes that appeal to nobody. I could have told them that for $100,000 and saved them a lot of hassle.
We shouldn’t be surprised this vanity project failed because it just reveals the rot at the center of white evangelical culture and the cynical machinery that funds it. Christian entertainment has always operated under the delusion that religious sincerity can replace substance. This show, however, exposed something darker: a movement so insulated by ideology and grievance that it no longer understands what art, humor, or relevance even look like. Metaxas’ show is a parody of itself—a joyless imitation of secular creativity, built by people who can’t tell the difference between propaganda and truth. This show is what happens when no one in your life has the decency to tell you that you’re untalented and full of shit.
When late-night comedy is done well, it’s a place to speak truth to power, as we saw with Jimmy Kimmel. But in the hands of Metaxas and his supporters, it’s a place to soothe the powerful with lies, a place where the news doesn’t matter because the producers don’t think there’s anything happening that viewers need to know about.
This project didn’t just fail because the host doesn’t know what he’s doing. It failed because there’s as much heart and soul in it as there is laughter: none. Without that passion, why the hell would anyone waste their time watching it?
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AN 5 26
The Trump administration has called on TV network ABC to “take a stand” after a joke from its late night comedy host Jimmy Kimmel offended the US president and first lady.
Two days before the White House Correpondents’ dinner on April 25, Kimmel broadcast what he said was a “roast” of the Trump administration. Roasts are typically quite savage comedic attacks which have become a traditional part of the dinner.
Trump, who was famously the target of jokes from former president, Barack Obama, at a dinner in 2011, had never attended the dinner while in office. This year he opted to attend, but the comedian’s spot was taken by what was described as a “mentalist”.
So Kimmel said he decided to supply the roast on his show as an “all-American” version of the Correspondents’ Dinner. In what he said was a joke about the 24-year age difference between the couple, he described Melania Trump as “having a glow like an expectant widow”. But after a would-be assassin tried to launch a murderous attack two days later at the dinner, the Trumps have demanded his sacking.
“Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand. How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behaviour at the expense of our community,” Melania Trump wrote in a post on X.
But it appears that ABC, a subsidiary of Disney, is instead standing by Kimmel, who has not been taken off air, in contrast to an episode in September 2025 when Kimmel was suspended after comments he made following the death of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk, a close friend of the Trumps. After a public outcry, ABC relented and restored Kimmel’s show.
In response, Brendan Carr, the head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has brought forward a review of ABC’s station licences, which were previously not scheduled until 2028 or later. Carr’s actions follow a press conference at the White House on April 26 at which press secretary Karoline Leavitt said coverage critical of Trump, including from his Democrat opponents, was responsible for the rise in political violence in the US by creating what she called a “leftwing cult of hatred”.
These examples highlight the politicisation of “free speech” by the Trump administration as a cudgel to silence disfavoured viewpoints under the guise protecting the public from harm.
First amendment protection for free speech
But these political debates are becoming increasingly distanced from the first amendment. That is, the interpretation of the first amendment by the Supreme Court and the protections it provides to individuals and entities, including media outlets and broadcast companies, from government interference. The wider this gulf becomes, the greater the space between the principles underlying the expansive protections afforded to speech in the US and the public’s understanding of the democratic principles that underpin these protections.
This is more important than ever in the Trump era. Actions taken by the administration to target broadcast networks and individuals for political speech are precisely what the first amendment protects against. It was designed, among other things, to protect individuals, entities and the press from government interference by creating an open marketplace in which ideas compete freely.
This is particularly true for dissenting political speech, which is the core of the first amendment. This explains why government interference with speech based on “the specific motivating ideology or the opinion or perspective of the speaker” – known as “viewpoint discrimination” – is expressly prohibited.
Additionally, whether and to what extent speech is offensive is irrelevant to the protection it enjoys. When it comes to the value of public debate, the first amendment is not neutral. Indeed, as a Supreme Court judgment, Baumgartner v. United States (1944) found: “One of the prerogatives of American citizenship is the right to criticize public men and measures.” Moreover a more recent judgment, Hustler Magazine, Inc. v. Falwell (1988), found that “robust political debate” is expressly encouraged, given that such debate “is bound to produce speech that is critical of those who hold public office”.
Importantly, the Supreme Court found in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964) that such criticism, inevitably, will not always be reasoned or moderate and that public figures as well as public officials will be subjected to “vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks”.
The motive of the speaker is also irrelevant, as the Supreme Court held in Hustler v Falwell that while a “bad motive” may be deemed controlling for tort liability and in other areas of the law, “the first amendment prohibits such a result in the area of public debate about public figures”.
Stakes couldn’t be higher
By expressly linking Democrat criticisms of the president, and pointed critiques (however off-colour) from Kimmel and his fellow political satirists to an upsurge in political violence, the Trump administration is trying to silence criticism of its actions. But it’s also clear that this behaviour is precisely what the first amendment prohibits.
Ironically, the media often portrays these episodes as “feuds” between Trump and his critics.
But when viewed through the lens of the first amendment and its core values in this context, the stakes are much higher. These episodes constitute an effort to wrest control of public discourse by interfering in the marketplace of ideas in order silence those critical of the government.
And history tells us that a government that can silence its critics often does so in pursuit of unchecked power. Viewed through this lens, perhaps the greatest threat to American democracy is the government itself.
Eliza Bechtold, Programmes Manager and Research Fellow, the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Oxford
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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4 26
Melania Trump demands ABC 'take a stand' against 'hateful' Jimmy Kimmel - Alternet.org
Donald Trump is the greatest threat to our free speech rights
The president’s new comment demolishes the pathetic argument some elements of the right have pushed over the last week
Written by Matt Gertz
:{Published09/24/25
The greatest threat that free speech currently faces in this country is that the president doesn’t believe in it. Donald Trump treats criticism of himself, his administration, and his policies as fundamentally illegitimate, and he is eager to use government power to curtail it. When Trump’s allies downplay or spin the anti-speech activity flowing downstream from his whims, they engage in willful ignorance or deliberate deception.
Trump responded to Jimmy Kimmel’s Tuesday night return to ABC’s airwaves following a suspension his administration helped bring about by once again threatening the network with retribution. After claiming that ABC had reversed a decision (apparently announced only privately to the White House) that Jimmy Kimmel Live! “was cancelled,” the president accused Kimmel of being an “arm of the DNC,” which he alleged makes Kimmel’s show “a major Illegal Campaign Contribution.” He went on to say: “I think we’re going to test ABC out on this. Let’s see how we do.”
The president’s comment demolishes the pathetic argument some elements of the right have pushed over the last week.
According to Fox News stars, Republican members of Congress, and Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, ABC’s decision to take Kimmel off the air was purely a “business decision.” In their telling, it was simply a quirky coincidence that the move came just hours after Carr said that ABC’s affiliates and parent company Disney could “do this the easy way or the hard way” and either “take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there's going to be additional work for the FCC ahead” — a credible threat given his history of leveraging regulatory power for the right’s benefit.
Even Senate Republicans who criticized the administration’s clear violation of the First Amendment focused their attention solely on Carr while leaving a Trump-shaped hole in their arguments.
Trump’s post, however, shows that Carr’s actions were totally in keeping with the president’s desire to use state power to try to impose censorship on media outlets. Trump is not concerned that his administration was violating the First Amendment by trying to force his critics off the air — he is concerned that it didn’t work, and he is making it abundantly clear to everyone who works for him that he wants them to keep trying.
That position is hardly a new revelation. Denunciations of critical media coverage are a hallmark of Trump’s politics, and he has frequently used personal lawsuits and government authority to try to strong-arm outlets into submission.
:{We saw a similar inability to grapple with Trump’s closely held and consistent position that his administration should be able to punish critics for their speech earlier this month. After Attorney General Pam Bondi declared that the Justice Department would “absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech,” the floodgates opened.
Commentators across the right condemned her comments as an affront to free speech principles. They wrote that she “fails to understand the basics of the U.S. Constitution” (the editors of National Review), lacks “a basic understanding of the First Amendment” (The Wall Street Journal editorial board), and should be fired (The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh). The response was so furious and widespread that Bondi was forced to clarify her remarks.}:
That’s commendable as far as it goes. But it’s not like Bondi is some sort of wild outlier in a Trump administration otherwise committed to free speech. When an ABC News reporter asked the president about Bondi’s remarks the following morning, he didn’t even try to distance himself from them. Instead, he told the reporter, “She’ll probably go after people like you, because you treat me so unfairly, it’s hate.”
Trump’s remarks once again give the game away — he views potential “hate speech” prosecutions as an extension of his desire for his administration to punish his critics and media outlets that publish or air them. But right-wing criticism of Trump’s comments was far more muted than the backlash Bondi faced.
Perhaps they think that it’s much more important that an attorney general support the Constitution’s protections than that the president do so. I think it’s more likely they understand the president’s position is a threat to the First Amendment, but also recognize that it is impossible to remain a conservative in good standing while voicing such concerns about the president and have simply decided not to talk about it.
Meanwhile, the president will continue his administration’s efforts to punish critics and coerce media outlets until he can turn on his TV, flip through the channels, and see nothing but Fox-style propaganda on every network.
MMA //
09/18/25 12:00 PM EDT
08/25/25 12:40 PM EDT
07/21/25
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AN 9 25
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AN 9 25
Disney's abrupt announcement that it was reversing its suspension of late night comedian Jimmy Kimmel's show came in response to Americans doing just a handful of specific things, according to attorney Norm Eisen.
In a Monday appearance on former CNN host Jim Acosta's Substack show, Eisen celebrated Disney's statement that Kimmel would be returning to his show Tuesday night. He chalked the decision up to Americans using what he called the "five P's" in an immediate and effective manner to force Disney's hand.
According to Eisen, Americans that were upset about the sudden preempting of Kimmel's show (which was attributed to comments Kimmel made about the Republican response to MAGA activist Charlie Kirk's death) made it impossible for Disney to stand by the Trump administration in five particular ways: Legal proceedings, popular protests, polls, the press and political leadership.
Eisen's first point about legal proceedings never got a chance to play out, though a Newsweek analysis found that Kimmel may have had grounds to sue on the basis that FCC chair Brendan Carr made a coercive threat against broadcasters who continued to air his show. However, his argument that popular protests drove action may have merit, given that Kimmel's suspension brought out Americans into the streets on both coasts over the weekend.
The attorney further pointed out that the Trump administration has been taking a beating in recent special elections, noting that Democrats have either won or overperformed polling expectations in 42 of 43 special elections just this year, according to the Democratic National Committee. Eisen also pointed out that both traditional and independent media had been doggedly reporting on the Kimmel's suspension and the FCC's actions leading up to it, helping to spread awareness among the American public. And he concluded by saying there was enough political leadership on the part of Democrats to result in Disney switching gears and bringing Kimmel back less than a week after suspending him.
"A lot of people got really down in the dumps and thought, OK, this is it. We're backsliding, the First Amendment is getting torched," Eisen said. "But you cannot count out the American people and you cannot count out the idea of collective action. I mean, that to me is the big takeaway from this."
"It's a small world after all, you might say Norm," Acosta said. "And to me, that is the perfect lesson to be taken away from all of this. This really was like a shot heard around the world."
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AN 9 25
Disney and ABC announced Monday that late night comedian Jimmy Kimmel would be returning to his show on Tuesday after he was abruptly taken off the air last week.
NBC reporter Sahil Kapur tweeted the Walt Disney Company's announcement Monday, which stated that while it felt Kimmel's comments about Republicans' response to the death of Charlie Kirk were "ill-timed and thus insensitive," the company had "thoughtful conversations with Jimmy" and "reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday."
Disney's statement comes on the heels of the company losing so many subscribers to its Disney+ platform that the subscription cancellation page reportedly crashed. Business Insider reported that even Americans who didn't personally watch Jimmy Kimmel's show viewed his suspension as "the last straw" and decided to cancel not only their Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions, but to also no longer take Disney cruises or visit Disney theme parks. The Walt Disney Company lost roughly 2 percent of its total market cap in roughly a week, amounting to several billion dollars.
Kimmel's return was praised on social media, though many journalists, political commentators and others observed that the company's decision was almost certainly financially motivated. Journalist David Dayen of the American Prospect wrote that ABC "created a total mess for themselves with this," and that "saying no to bullies is always the better move." Attorney Guy Hamilton-Smith opined that Disney's "thoughtful conversations with Jimmy" were instead "thoughtful conversations with our shareholders."
"Incredible how dumb these companies are. You made everybody mad! Conservatives are gonna be mad you’re putting him back on the air. Liberals were already mad you took him off," tweeted food scientist Isaiah Walker. "All this did was show you stand for nothing, no beliefs, no morals. Just whatever you think earns favor."
"The fight to defend free speech reaffirms our fight to defend the civil rights and liberties of the American people," tweeted Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) "The voice of the People is hard to ignore."
Author Don Winslow declared that Kimmel's return meant that "WE THE PEOPLE hold the power. Donald Trump does not. Never forget that and start USING YOUR POWER." He added in a separate post: "The ONLY reason @Disney is bringing @jimmykimmel back is because the American people stood up, called out the executives by name, Disney's stock plummeted and Disney lost a lot of money. Get it? That's the playbook for the next three years of Trump. YOU must be LOUDER than him."
'Crazy how fast fascism happens/goes away," wrote Rolling Stone journalist Daniel Boguslaw.
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AN 9 25 COMM DR
After the Trump administration successfully pressured ABC to kick Jimmy Kimmel off the air last week, hundreds of artists signed an open letter Monday denouncing the government’s campaign to “pressure” entertainers and journalists into silence.
The letter, organized by the ACLU, was signed by numerous household names, including Jason Bateman, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ariana DeBose, Jane Fonda, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Regina King, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Diego Luna, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Natalie Portman, Olivia Rodrigo, Martin Short, and Ramy Youssef.
“Jimmy Kimmel was taken off the air after our government threatened a private company with retaliation for Kimmel’s remarks. This is a dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation,” the letter says. “This is unconstitutional and un-American. The government is threatening private companies and individuals that the president disagrees with. We can’t let this threat to our freedom of speech go unanswered.”
Kimmel’s suspension came hours after the Federal Communications Commission chairman, Brendan Carr, threatened to revoke the broadcast license of ABC Newsaffiliates unless the network pulled the comedian’s late-night show off the air following comments he made criticizing the President Donald Trump’s reaction to the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
Major entertainment unions have condemned Kimmel’s suspension, including SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America, which organized demonstrations in Times Square and outside ABC’s parent company Disney over the weekend that drew hundreds of protesters, while some actors have pledged to stop working with Disney until Kimmel is reinstated.
In subsequent days, Trump continued to issue threats to the media, suggesting that he would seek to strip the broadcasting licenses of networks that give him “bad press,” saying, “They’re not allowed to do that.”
The letter says that “In an attempt to silence its critics, our government has resorted to threatening the livelihoods of journalists, talk show hosts, artists, creatives, and entertainers across the board. This runs counter to the values our nation was built upon, and our Constitution guarantees.”
Members of the Trump administration, including JD Vance, have also promoted a wide-ranging campaign to have private citizens reported to their employers over critical comments they made about Kirk following his assassination.
Students for Trump National Chair Ryan Fournier created a database with tens of thousands of social media accounts and has boasted of having gotten dozens of people fired over their posts, many of which simply state disagreement with Kirk even without endorsing his assassination.
“We know this moment is bigger than us and our industry. Teachers, government employees, law firms, researchers, universities, students, and so many more are also facing direct attacks on their freedom of expression,” the letter says. “Regardless of our political affiliation, or whether we engage in politics or not, we all love our country. We also share the belief that our voices should never be silenced by those in power—because if it happens to one of us, it happens to all of us.”
Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the ACLU, described these blacklisting efforts as the dawn of “a modern McCarthy era” with Americans “facing exactly the type of heavy-handed government censorship our Constitution rightfully forbids.”
Noting that former Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.) “was ultimately disgraced and neutralized once Americans mobilized and stood up to him,” Romero said that “we must do the same today because, together, our voices are louder and, together, we will fight to be heard.”
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mma
09/19/25 7:38 PM EDT
09/19/25 6:43 PM EDT
09/19/25 5:09 PM EDT
09/19/25
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RWW
09/18/2025
by
- Joe DePaolo @ Mediaite: ‘Great News for America!’ Trump Absolutely Revels in Kimmel Suspension — Pushes NBC to Axe Jimmy Fallon Next
Despite a five-hour time difference in the UK, news of Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension got to President Donald Trump before he fell asleep Wednesday night — and he wasted little time celebrating.
- Greg Sargent @ The New Republic: Trump’s Ouster of Jimmy Kimmel Is Much Worse Than You Think It Is
The startling decision by ABC to pull comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s show under pressure from President Trump requires a real response from Democrats. It has to go well beyond expressions of outrage and defenses of the First Amendment—though those are critical—and spell out potential future consequences, political and possibly even legal, for those participating in this escalating lawlessness.
- Adam Serwer @ The Atlantic: The Constitution Protects Jimmy Kimmel’s Mistake
The Trump-appointed chair of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, went on a conservative podcast and threatened Disney, which owns ABC, saying, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.” In 2023 Carr posted on X that “censorship is the authoritarian’s dream.” At the time that was a criticism of censorship; now it reads like a statement of intent.
- Adam Kinzinger: Brendan Carr’s FCC Power Play: How One Weak Man Threatens America’s Free Speech
After Jimmy Kimmel’s remarks on the Charlie Kirk shooting, Carr used FCC leverage to pressure ABC—showing how quickly constitutional rights can be trampled.
- Joe Walsh @ CBS News: Trump announces he's designating antifa as a "major terrorist organization"
President Trump announced Wednesday that he will designate antifa as a terrorist organization, and is recommending investigations into people who allegedly fund it.
- Will Sommer @ The Bulwark: Brutal MAGA Civil War Over Charlie Kirk’s Legacy
Podcasters, pastors, and plutocrats duking it out.
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mma
Jimmy Kimmel and the MAGA strong-arming of American media
Written by Matt Gertz
:{Published09/18/25
As with so many of the Trump administration’s excesses, a simple recitation of the events leading to Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension sounds like something out of dystopian fiction. ABC’s Wednesday night announcement that it was putting Jimmy Kimmel Live! on indefinite hiatus in the face of White House threats is the latest sign that U.S. media are increasingly coming under the control of President Donald Trump and his MAGA movement.
Trump had been targeting Kimmel and ABC for months. In the wake of frequent administration critic Stephen Colbert’s July announcement that his late-night show was ending, the president gloated that Kimmel would be “NEXT to go.” Last month, Trump argued that the Federal Communications Commission should revoke the licenses of ABC stations because it broadcasts too many “BAD STORIES” about him and provides “unfair coverage of Republicans.” And on Monday morning, he threatened ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl, saying that Attorney General Pam Bondi might target him and his network for purportedly airing anti-Trump “hate speech.”
Kimmel inaccurately suggested during his Monday night monologue that the alleged killer of Turning Points USA founder Charlie Kirk was part of “the MAGA gang.” Under ordinary circumstances, such a statement could result in a correction and apology. But Kimmel’s remarks occurred in an environment in which Trump and his administration are eager to punish political speech they dislike.
Brendan Carr, the FCC’s Trumpy chair, wielded Kimmel’s monologue as a cudgel against his network during a Tuesday appearance on right-wing influencer Benny Johnson’s show. Carr accused Kimmel of “an intentional effort to mislead the American people” and threatened Disney and ABC’s affiliates with regulatory retribution in response, saying: “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct and take actions on Kimmel, or there's going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
He specifically suggested that affiliate networks should tell Disney that they would not run Kimmel’s show “until you straighten this out” and insinuated that they could face “license revocation from the FCC” if they did not.
Carr’s threats appear to be a clear violation of the First Amendment — but that matters only if Disney and the affiliate networks are willing to fight to uphold those rights in court.
Instead, Nexstar Media Group, which needs FCC approval for its proposed purchase of the stations owned by media company Tegna, said its affiliates would immediately preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! Shortly after, Disney announced that it was putting the show on hiatus. And Sinclair Broadcasting Group, owned by the pro-Trump Smith family, said it would not return Kimmel’s show to its airwaves until ABC committed to “appropriate steps” and called for the late-night host to make a “meaningful personal donation” to Kirk's right-wing political group.
Carr subsequently joined Fox News’ Sean Hannity to take a curtain call and praise Nexstar and Sinclair for following his dictates.
It’s worth pointing out that neither Johnson nor Hannity could operate under Carr’s stated standard — but they had no objections to his statements because they understand that his actual goal is enforcing MAGA political correctness norms by which they already abide.
This capitulation is only the latest sign of increasing MAGA control over the free press
Trump has long benefited from a massive parallel right-wing ecosystem, from Fox News to talk radio to a host of MAGA streamers and influencers. But since Trump won election last fall, more and more of the corporate titans who control the U.S. media have come under his thumb.
When Trump attempted similar extortion tactics during his first term, the heads of media companies and owners of news outlets were willing to fight him in court. But since his election in November, executives at companies like Disney have proved far more willing to bend to his will.
Other news outlets either are owned by businessmen who have become more Trump-friendly (perhaps due to fears of retribution), like The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, or have been taken over by businessmen with close ties to the president, like CBS News’ new Trump approved-owner David Ellison. More such consolidation is under way, with Ellison seeking to take over CNN and the Trump White House effectively nullifying the law as it tries to broker a deal in which TikTok would be sold to a coalition including companies controlled by his father, Larry Ellison, and fellow pro-Trump magnate Marc Andreessen.
Reporters at those outlets can and have continued to do vital reporting about the Trump administration under those circumstances. But they do so with knowledge that their ultimate bosses will not stand behind them in a pinch.
Other potential corporate targets like Comcast, which Trump has previously threatened over the coverage of NBC and MSNBC, have not yet faced the same level of retaliatory scrutiny. But their day will inevitably come, particularly after Trump and Carr saw how quickly Disney folded in the face of their Kimmel attack.
The New York Times is among the few major news outlets that has no choice but to stand up for its output and a free press because its ownership does not have other substantial business interests. But Trump is targeting them in a different way — this week, he launched a $15 billion defamation lawsuit over reporting that questioned his business acumen.
And in a sign that even regime-aligned owners will face punishment for critical reporting, Trump filed a lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and its corporate parent’s chairman, Fox founder Rupert Murdoch, seeking $10 billion in damages over the paper’s coverage of his ties to disgraced financier and deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump’s endgame is clear. He wants to ensure that media outlets don’t produce coverage that criticizes him or his administration, but instead convey an endless stream of propaganda about his accomplishments.
He wants every outlet to be Fox News. And at this rate, he may get it.
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08/25/25 12:40 PM EDT
10/29/24 9:09 AM EDT
09/09/25
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an 9 25
President Donald Trump has been claiming that the ABC suspended late night host Jimmy Kimmel because of poor ratings, but he shared a different thought on Thursday about what the future of network television might entail.
“When you have a network and you have evening shows and all they do is hit Trump, that’s all they do — if you go back, I guess they haven’t had a conservative one in years, or something — when you go back and take a look, all they do is hit Trump. They’re licensed. They’re not allowed to do that,” Trump said, according to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
The Independent added that President Trump “told reporters on Air Force One as he jets back from his State visit to the U.K. that because he won the election and networks give him ‘wholly bad publicity,’ that ‘I would think maybe their license should be taken away.'”
“It will be up to Brendan Carr. I think Brendan Carr is outstanding. He’s a patriot. He loves our country, and he’s a tough guy,” the president said, referring to the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.
Legal expert reveals Trump admin's biggest mistake in pressuring ABC to punish Kimmel - Alternet.org
'Righteous free speech' podcasters who voted for Trump rage against Kimmel suspension - Alternet.org
'Corrupt abuse of power': Dems rip FCC chair over Kimmel suspension - Alternet.org
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NOTE CARR FCC INITIAL ASK MINIMAL? IT WAS CORPS SINCLAIR AND NEXSTAR THAT SUNK HIM?
NEWSWEEK 9 25
ABC has pulled Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show off the air after comments the comedian made about the recent assassination of Charlie Kirk, and following pressure from the network's affiliates as well as the nation's TV regulator.
"Jimmy Kimmel Live will be preempted indefinitely," a spokesperson for the Disney-owned broadcaster said in a statement shared with various news outlets on Wednesday.
The move has drawn praise from allies and supporters of President Donald Trump, but sparked condemnation from Democratic lawmakers and free expression advocates.
The context of Kimmel's cancellation has led to allegations that business interests—particularly those concerning a delicate merger approval process involving the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and ABC affiliate Nexstar—may have played a role.
Taken together, some have interpreted this as a form of indirect censorship of the political Left by the Trump administration. Similar concerns were raised following the recent cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
"First Colbert, now Kimmel. Last-minute settlements, secret side deals, multi-billion dollar mergers pending Donald Trump's approval," said Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren. "Trump silencing free speech stifles our democracy."
Newsweek has contacted ABC, Nexstar and the FCC via email for comment.
Why It Matters
In the wake of Kirk's killing, the Trump administration has taken a series of actions critics believe undermine longstanding commitments to free speech in the U.S.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has warned foreign nationals celebrating his death online to "prepare to be deported," Vice President JD Vance has encouraged people to report those who do so to their employers, and Attorney General Pam Bondi has come under fire for urging a crackdown on "hate speech"—a move many believe clashes with First Amendment protections.
Read moreJimmy Kimmel
Russian State TV Floats Theory Trump Planned Charlie Kirk's Killing
The administration of President Joe Biden faced similar criticism and accusations of censorship over the pressure it placed on social media companies to remove accounts and posts relating to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 presidential election that were considered misinformation. In June 2024, the Supreme Court rejected cases claiming that these amounted to an unconstitutional violation of free speech.
Why Was Jimmy Kimmel Taken Off the Air?
During his Monday night monologue, Kimmel made remarks about Kirk's death and its aftermath, suggesting that Trump supporters were attempting to capitalize on the murder and distance themselves from the alleged shooter, Tyler Robinson.
"We hit some new lows over the weekend, with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it," Kimmel said.
Kimmel also mocked President Trump's seemingly uninvolved response to a reporter's question on Kirk's death.
In an interview with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson on Wednesday, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, a Trump ally and appointee, called Kimmel's comments "some of the sickest conduct possible," and said that there could be "a path forward for suspension over this."
"This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney," he added. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way."
Carr also urged other media companies and local broadcasters to "push back" and stop airing the show.
:{FCC Chairman Brendan Carr testifies before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government at the Rayburn House Office Building on May 21, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Following Carr's interview, Nexstar Media Group, the owner of several ABC affiliate stations, announced that it would stop airing the show "for the foreseeable future" over Kimmel's remarks.
"Nexstar strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk and will replace the show with other programming in its ABC-affiliated markets," the statement read.
This sequence of events has raised questions about the extent to which this decision was guided by financial motivations rather than genuine outrage over Kimmel's comments.
Nexstar, one of the biggest station owners in the U.S, is currently attempting to complete a merger with fellow TV giant Tegna. The nature of the merger—valued at $6.2 billion—requires the approval of the FCC, and for it to loosen longstanding ownership regulations. These include federal laws barring a single entity from owning TV stations that together reach over 39 percent of American households, and guidelines on the total number of stations that can be owned in a single market.
Sinclair, ABC's largest affiliate group, similarly objected to Kimmel's remarks, and said it would be pulling the late-night show from its stations "indefinitely." Sinclair praised FCC Chairman Carr's comments, and asked Kimmel to issue an apology to Kirk's family, and to make a "meaningful personal donation" to both them and Turning Point USA, the conservative outreach group founded by Kirk.
"Regardless of ABC's plans for the future of the program, Sinclair intends not to return Jimmy Kimmel Live! to our air until we are confident that appropriate steps have been taken to uphold the standards expected of a national broadcast platform," Sinclair said.
According to CNN, Sinclair—like Nexstar—has matters awaiting approval from the Trump administration.
Newsweekhas contacted Sinclair via email for comment.
After ABC followed suit, Johnson boasted that it was his podcast with Carr that led to Kimmel's show being taken off the air.
"It's called soft power. The Left uses it all the time," he wrote on X. "Thanks to President Trump, the Right has learned how to wield power as well."
FCC Chairman Carr, meanwhile, responded to CNN's request for a reaction with a GIF taken from The Office,in which the characters Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute are pumping their hands in the air in celebration.
What People Are Saying
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, in an interview with Sean Hannity on Wednesday evening, said that broadcast licenses carry "a unique obligation to operate in the public interest."
Commenting on the decisions by Nexstar and Sinclair to pull the show, Carr added: "I'm very glad to see that American broadcasters are standing up to serve the interests of our community."
President Donald Trump reacted to the news on Truth Social, writing:"Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that's possible. That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!! President DJT."
Andrew Alford, President of Nexstar's broadcasting division, said: "Continuing to give Mr. Kimmel a broadcast platform in the communities we serve is simply not in the public interest at the current time, and we have made the difficult decision to preempt his show in an effort to let cooler heads prevail as we move toward the resumption of respectful, constructive dialogue."
Anna Gomez, the only Democratic commissioner at the FCC, posted to X: "An inexcusable act of political violence by one disturbed individual must never be exploited as justification for broader censorship and control. This Administration is increasingly using the weight of government power to suppress lawful expression."
The Writers Guild of America (WGA), a Hollywood labor union, said in a statement:"Shame on those in government who forget this founding truth. As for our employers, our words have made you rich. Silencing us impoverishes the whole world. The WGA stands with Jimmy Kimmel and his writers."
California Governor Gavin Newsom posted to X: "Corrupt, despicable, & spineless behavior. A coordinated effort to control the media is happening before our eyes & it needs to be called out."
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren posted to X:"First Colbert, now Kimmel. Last-minute settlements, secret side deals, multi-billion dollar mergers pending Donald Trump's approval. Trump silencing free speech stifles our democracy. It sure looks like giant media companies are enabling his authoritarianism."
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) reacted: "The government pressured ABC—and ABC caved. The timing of ABC's decision, on the heels of the FCC chairman's pledge to the network to "do this the easy way or the hard way," tells the whole story. Another media outlet withered under government pressure, ensuring that the administration will continue to extort and exact retribution on broadcasters and publishers who criticize it."
What Happens Next?
Sinclair said that its ABC stations will air a tribute to this Friday, during Jimmy Kimmel Live's usual time slot.
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CORP BAD ACTOR PARAMOUNT CBS SETTLE CANCEL COLBERT BRIBERY
AN 7 25
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STACI ABRAMS 10 STEPS TO FASCIST
ABC’s late night star Jimmy Kimmel isn’t big on endorsements but he is endorsing a Democratic U.S. Senator for re-election, in something of a non-endorsement video he recorded criticizing the far-right Republican trying to unseat her.
Kimmel’s endorsement of Democratic U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada mocks her opponent, Adam Laxalt, an anti-choice, anti-LGBTQ Republican who joined with Donald Trump to lie about the results of the 2020 election.
Kimmel put it all another way: “unbalanced people don’t belong in the Senate.”
“Hi, I’m Jimmy Kimmel,” the video begins. “I know everyone has complaints about politics, Republicans complain about Democrats, Democrats complain about everything, let’s be honest.”
“But if there’s one thing I think we can all still agree on, it’s that unbalanced people don’t belong in the Senate.”
“And that’s why I am not endorsing Adam Laxalt and neither is his family. 14 members of Laxalt’s own family back his opponent, Catherine Cortez Masto,” Kimmel says.
“Why? Because they know him.”
“You know, that creepy cousin in every family no one wants to sit with at Thanksgiving? That’s Adam Laxalt.”
“The guy supports a QAnon wacko for Secretary of State. I mean, seriously, these people think JFK is coming back from the dead. I have some bad news for you, Adam. JFK isn’t coming back. And even if he did, he wouldn’t be voting for you.”
“Forget what side you’re on. Nevada needs a sane person in the Senate: Catherine Cortez Masto. I know her, we both went to Clark High School. She’s a good person, a hard worker. And guess what? Her family is voting for her.”
While he didn’t get into specifics in the 30-second spot, on nearly every issue Laxalt has taken a right-wing or far-right stance, including abortion, same-sex marriage, climate change, voting rights, and more. Laxalt even believes businesses have a right to not do business with LGBTQ people.
On Sunday Jewish Insider reported the “Laxalt campaign paid thousands to [a] political operative linked to Twitter account that denigrated Jews, women.”
“A Twitter account connected to former Laxalt staffer Michael Pecjak has compared abortion to the Holocaust and claimed that ‘Jews are not a religious sect and are a cult,’ among other comments,” Jewish Insider stated.
Kimmel’s endorsement of Catherine Cortez Masto comes just after Oprah Winfrey surprised some on Thursday when she endorsed Democrat John Fetterman for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania, over her protégé, Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz, along with a string of other Democrats she said she would vote for if she could.
Watch Kimmel’s endorsement below or at this link.