|
Thursday, September 18, 2025 |
|
|
|
Good morning. We're all waiting to see when and how Jimmy Kimmel addresses ABC's suspension of his show. In the meantime, free speech groups are assailing Disney for a cowardly act of capitulation, and President Trump is targeting NBC's comedians next. Here's the very latest... |
Kimmel, ABC, and America's free speech test |
FCC chair Brendan Carr said, "We can do this the easy way or the hard way." ABC arguably chose the easiest way of all, benching Kimmel just as soon as key station groups, including Nexstar and Sinclair, complained about his Monday night monologue.
To be clear, this doesn't really have to do with Kimmel's remarks about Charlie Kirk's suspected killer. This has to do with political pressure and media company capitulation.
Nexstar and Sinclair are the key to this story. Both station groups operate ABC-affiliated stations all across the country. And both groups need Trump admin approval for pending deals. It's no wonder that Nexstar and Sinclair seemed to be competing yesterday to condemn Kimmel and slather affection on Carr and Trump.
By now, you've read the stories about the "indefinite" preemption, so let's get to the key questions we have:
>> ABC's statement amounted to just seven words, and three of those words were the title of the show. Now, millions of viewers are outraged, while others are gloating about Kimmel's suspension. What more will the network say and when?
>> The WSJ's Joe Flint, who broke the news of Kimmel's benching, reports that "while no return date has been set, Disney is monitoring the situation and sees a path to the show potentially returning in the next several days, according to a person familiar with the situation." But c'mon — is that realistic?
>> Kimmel's contract was coming up for renewal at the end of this year, and he has previously dropped hints about retiring. So, did his retirement start last night?
>> Will streaming services like Netflix take a risk on talent like Kimmel or Stephen Colbert in this political environment?
>> Assuming Trump and Carr feel emboldened by ABC's action, what's the next move? Will Republicans in Congress try to expand the FCC's powers so that Carr can bully media outlets that aren't currently subject to regulatory scrutiny?
>> Trump has portrayed himself as a champion of free speech; do his supporters see the hypocrisy that's self-evident here?
>> Will conservative-leaning comedians, like Kimmel's longtime best friend, Adam Carolla, defend him? What will Trump-friendly podcasters like Joe Rogan say in the coming days?
>> A Reliable reader asks: "Will Comcast be smart enough to learn from CBS and ABC, skip the $15 million dollar payoff, and perhaps even fight back? Take whatever is coming next to the Supreme Court?" (It's a good question, especially considering Trump immediately pivoted to saying Comcast should fire NBC's Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers next.)
>> What are the co-hosts of "The View" thinking right now? Will the show talk about Kimmel today or in the coming days? You might recall this headline from over the summer: "White House warns 'The View' could be canceled next after Joy Behar's anti-Trump rant."
>> Will the government's actions against old-line media companies cause even more of a talent exodus to Substack, YouTube and other newer platforms?
For answers to these questions throughout the day, check out the Kimmel live story on CNN.com. Now let's zoom out...
|
'This is beyond McCarthyism' |
Some of the denunciations of ABC and Carr from free speech and free expression are downright chilling. "This is beyond McCarthyism," the ACLU said in a statement. "Trump officials are repeatedly abusing their power to stop ideas they don’t like, deciding who can speak, write, and even joke. The Trump administration's actions, paired with ABC's capitulation, represent a grave threat to our First Amendment freedoms."
Civil rights lawyer Matthew Segal remarked on X, "When companies or institutions cave to Trump despite the law being on their side, they are not misunderstanding the law; they are making an educated guess that the US is heading in a direction where, in practice, the law won't matter."
I'd like to look back someday and say that these statements were overreactions. What do you think?
|
Putin and Orban's playbook in action |
Weaponize the levers of government for partisan political gain. Pressure privately owned media companies to toe the party line. Punish the owners who resist and reward the ones who acquiesce. That appears to be Trump's playbook for muzzling dissent. And that's also how Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán consolidated control of the media in his country, as I wrote in this new column for CNN.com.
"This story is very familiar," said Gábor Scheiring, a former member of Hungary's parliament who witnessed his country's democratic backsliding, told me overnight. I talked with him after Colbert's cancellation, and I reached back out because the Kimmel storyline is more of the same.
Noting that Trump had previously called for ABC to cancel Kimmel, Scheiring told me that "personally targeted campaigns and character assassinations are the lifeblood of Orbán’s regime too: they demonstratively raise the cost of speaking up and speaking out." Read the rest here...
>> CNN's Nick Paton Walsh read the piece and texted me this observation: Russian leader Vladimir Putin, from 2002 onward, "had allies or the state buy up media, imposed a narrative slowly at first and then fast, and prominent critical journalists were shot dead... Putin laid the ground and Orban is the understudy..."
|
As you probably saw on CNN, Carr responded to the news of ABC's Kimmel show suspension by sending me a GIF from "The Office." This morning he wrote on X that he was "glad to see that many broadcasters are responding to their viewers as intended."
"Broadcasters have long retained the right to not air national programs that they believe are inconsistent with the public interest, including their local communities’ values," Carr wrote.
|
Here's how 'GMA' covered the news |
"Breaking news," George Stephanopoulos said, "involving our parent company Disney and ABC, which pulled Jimmy Kimmel from the air overnight, hours after a threat to the network from the head of the FCC appointed by President Trump. The move has drawn a sharply polarized response." Then he tossed to correspondent Elizabeth Schulze, who helmed a two-minute package about the news.
Stephanopoulos wrapped the segment by saying this is the latest move "against the independent media from President Trump and his appointees."
|
Sinclair demands Kimmel pay TPUSA |
Sinclair says the suspension is "not enough," which will make ABC's deliberations today a whole lot more complicated. The company "will not lift the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live! on our stations until formal discussions are held with ABC regarding the network’s commitment to professionalism and accountability," the company said last night. Sinclair also called upon Kimmel "to issue a direct apology to the Kirk family. Furthermore, Sinclair asks Mr. Kimmel to make a meaningful personal donation to the Kirk Family and Turning Point USA."
|
Andrew Kirell writes: Many pro-Trump media figures are celebrating ABC's action and saying that Kimmel had it coming. In response to the claims of appalling state censorship, Fox's Sean Hannity offered this defense: "That is false. I can't find a single prominent conservative voice in the country that even remotely wanted or was pushing to get Jimmy Kimmel taken off the air."
...Other than the president, his FCC chairman, and the right-wing podcaster who actively pushed Carr to lay out how he'd punish Disney, right?
>> "REMINDER: Jimmy Kimmel has celebrated endless conservative stars’ cancellations… with savage glee," Piers Morgan tweeted, naming Tucker Carlson as an example. Sure, but a key difference: Carlson wasn’t fired because the FCC directly threatened his employer...
>> Roseanne Barr, whose rebooted ABC sitcom was cancelled in 2018 over her racist tweets, was giddy about Kimmel's benching. "Imagine an administration putting pressure on a television channel to fire a comedian they didn’t like," she posted to X. Trump was president when she lost her show.
|
>> "Security concerns have hit an all-time high" for media companies, Tatiana Seigel reports. (Variety)
>> Rupert Murdoch and his wife attended Trump's state dinner yesterday in the UK. It's unclear whether the pair, currently locked in a legal battle over the WSJ's Epstein reporting, interacted at all. (CNN)
>> Beginning October 6, "domestic and international NBC News will no longer appear on MSNBC," Brian Steinberg reports. DC-based NBC correspondents will have two extra weeks. After that, MSNBC will have to "stand up a full, independent news report and its own editorial standards" on its own (Variety)
>> Elon Musk on Tuesday "sent an email asking all xAI employees to 'send a one page summary of what you’ve accomplished in the past four weeks and what you intend to accomplish in the next four weeks,'" Hadas Gold reports. (CNN)
|
Entertainment notes and quotes |
>> Paul Thomas Anderson's "One Battle After Another" is racking up rave reviews (Variety called it "brilliant," the AP said it's a "masterpiece") and near-perfect scores on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, generating early Oscars buzz.
>> Director Shawn Levy shared a first look at Ryan Gosling in the upcoming "Star Wars: Starfighter." (THR)
>> "South Park" didn't air a new episode last night after failing to make deadline. "This one’s on us," co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone apologized. "We didn’t get it done in time." (Variety)
|
|
|
|
® © 2025 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved.
1050 Techwood Drive NW, Atlanta, GA 30318 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
