Jimmy Kimmel has doubts about the official story from the MAGA prosecutor handling the Charlie Kirk murder. So does Steve Bannon, among many others, but Bannon is also a MAGA, and a bit of a crank, so he’s safe.
The Trump administration used a leverage point over a company seeking FCC approval for a $6.2 billion merger to force Kimmel off the air “indefinitely” – not so much about what Kimmel said about the Kirk murder investigation in the opening monologue of his late-night ABC talk show on Monday, but rather, that Kimmel is a frequent and high-profile critic of Donald Trump.
“The administration that most complained about cancel culture now routinely fires, intimidates or silences its critics,” U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said. “Trump is systematically silencing dissent – a direct attack on all of our First Amendment rights. We won’t be silenced.”
“This is a direct attack on freedom of expression and a clear example of Trump administration officials using government powers to silence protected speech,” Northern Virginia Congressman Don Beyer said.
“Brendan Carr should resign, and all who love the First Amendment must defend it,” Beyer said.
This Brendan Carr character is the FCC chair, who, as a co-author of Project 2025 – that document that Trump swore didn’t exist, then once he looked ridiculous doing so, disavowed – promised to use the FCC’s broadcast-licensing power as a cudgel against speech critical of Trump and the MAGAs.
Speaking on Wednesday on the podcast of a guy named Benny Johnson, who, incidentally, we learned last year is on the Kremlin’s propaganda payroll, Carr said Kimmel, in his comments on the Kirk murder investigation, had played “into that narrative that this was somehow a MAGA or Republican-motivated person,” which Carr said was “really, really sick.”
“Broadcasters are entirely different than people who use other forms of communication. They have a license granted by us at the FCC, and what comes with it is an obligation to operate in the public interest,” Carr told Johnson, the MAGA podcaster who, again, is on the Kremlin’s payroll (!).
A company that goes by the name Nexstar heard the clarion call.
Nexstar owns 197 local TV stations in markets across the U.S., including 32 that are local ABC affiliates – its stations in Virginia include WRIC in Richmond, WFXR and WWCW in Roanoke, WJHL in Bristol, and WAVY and WVBT in Norfolk.
Nexstar, which also owns The CW and NewsNation TV networks, is seeking FCC approval for its planned $6.2 billion merger with Tegna, a Northern Virginia-based broadcast-media company that was spun off from Gannett in 2015, and owns or operates 68 local TV stations in 54 markets, including WVEC in Norfolk.
Nexstar, complying in advance, declared on Wednesday, following Carr’s appearance on the Kremlin-financed propaganda podcast, that it had decided to condemn Kimmel’s comments on the Kirk case, and planned to pre-empt his show on its local affiliates “for the foreseeable future.”
Sinclair Broadcast Group, already widely known for its right-wing disinformation efforts, followed suit shortly thereafter, announcing that it would not air Kimmel’s show on its 34 local ABC affiliates.
Doing the math, that was 66 of the 250 local affiliates under the ABC umbrella, covering roughly a fourth of the country.
ABC, and its corporate parent, Disney, fell in line, pulling Kimmel’s show, “indefinitely.”
Published reports have Disney execs now fretting over expected blowback that we can expect will include a wave of cancellations for its Disney Plus, Hulu and ESPN streaming services, a boycott of its movie and TV properties – in addition to ABC and ESPN, Disney owns the Lucasfilm, Marvel, Pixar, Searchlight and 20th Century film studios, and the A&E, FX and National Geographic TV networks – and, most notably, an impact on its theme parks and cruise lines, which are actually the biggest moneymakers for the company.
Disney has a $206 billion market cap, on annual revenues averaging $79 billion over the past five fiscal years, topping out at $91.4 billion in fiscal-year 2024, so one can presume that it can absorb short-term fluctuations.
But if this own goal has legs beyond a single economic quarter – Kimmel is reportedly “absolutely f***ing livid” over the suspension, and is looking to get out of his contract with ABC, which suggests, this is going to be an issue for Disney, to use its own phrasing, “indefinitely” – yeah.
It’s not hard to imagine Kimmel booking himself as a guest on “Late Night with Stephen Colbert” in the coming days, and burning down whatever is left of the bridge with ABC – ahead of Kimmel and Colbert launching their own streaming network, outside of the purview of the FCC, their middle fingers extended directly at Trump and Carr, next year.
They’ll be OK.
Disney, Nexstar, their various and sundry properties – not so much.
And then, Trump and his circle – be careful here, gents; seems to me you’re creating a monster.
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Chris Graham
