The federal government has no business censoring TV programs or threatening legal action against media outlets critical of the President. Because we live in a democracy, or did until recently, TV comics could mock the White House with impunity.
This week, however, Disney/ABC decided to pull Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show off the air under threats from the FCC Chair Brendan Carr that ABC affiliates would lose their license to broadcast unless the comic's irreverent brand of humor was silenced. Kimmel’s offense? After expressing sympathy to Charlie Kirk’s family on Instagram the day he was murdered, Kimmel told his TV audience that Republicans were trying to score political points off the assassination.
Mimicking the style of a mob boss, Federal Communications czar Carr told a conservative podcaster that “We can do this the easy way or the hard way, These companies can find ways to change their conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there's going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
The easy way or the hard way! Hours later, Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney, which owns the ABC network, did it the easy way, yielding to intimidation and yanking Mr. Kimmel’s top rated show.
Where does it end?
In the wake of Kimmel’s cancellation, President Trump continued to complain that other TV networks also treated him too critically. “They give me only bad press. I mean they’re getting a license. I would think maybe their licenses should be taken away.” Trump called for late night hosts Jimmy Fallon and Seth Myers to be gagged as well as Kimmel.
Actually, the First Amendment doesn’t say that you need a government license to speak freely.
Will you defend freedom of expression? Tell Disney that surrendering to government censorship has a price. Outside of the voting booth, economic boycotts are one of the few but effective means we as citizens and consumers possess to register dissent. Take action now before it’s too late!
Cancel your subscriptions to Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+. Tell them you disapprove of their cowardly decision to cancel Jimmy Kimmel with this feedback form.
Write to the general manager Victoria Webb of Sky Cinemas here in Santa Fe (victoria.webb@skycinemas.com) and ask her to stop screening Disney and its affiliated studios (LucasFilms, Marvel, Pixar, 20th Century Studios) until Disney stands up to the FCC and restores Jimmy Kimmel to the airwaves. Don’t buy tickets for upcoming Disney films.
Indivisible national is sponsoring this boycott and offers this timeline of Disney’s acquiescence to autocracy.
December 2024: ABC/Disney caves to a frivolous defamation lawsuit by Trump, paying $15 million to his presidential library rather than going to court to defend the freedom of the press.
July 17: CBS announces that it will cancel the late-night show of Trump critic Stephen Colbert. The move comes as CBS’ parent company, Paramount, awaits FCC approval of an $8 billion merger.
July 18: Trump takes to Truth Social to post that “Jimmy Kimmel is next.”
July 24: The FCC approves Paramount’s merger just one week after Colbert’s cancellation.
September 10: Charlie Kirk is murdered. Trump administration officials and other Republican leaders begin calling for a massive crackdown on the left.
September 15: In his show’s opening monologue, Kimmel notes that Trump and his allies are “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."
September 17 (morning): In an interview on a far-right podcast, FCC Chair Brendan Carr openly threatens to revoke the broadcast license of any stations airing Kimmel’s show.
September 17 (afternoon): Within hours of Carr’s threat, Nexstar Media Group – a TV conglomerate that (like Paramount) wants FCC approval of a merger – says its local ABC affiliates will not air Kimmel's show. Another TV conglomerate with FCC business pending, Sinclair Media Group, rapidly follows suit.
September 17 (evening): ABC/Disney announce that they are pulling Kimmel's show off the air entirely.
This is a direct assault on our United States Constitution. Freedom of speech is at the basis of all our other rights and that is why it is listed first, in the very First Amendment. Send ABC/Disney a message. Don’t let this affront go unanswered!
