POTUS and his henchmen are intent on bringing the left to heel
When Stephen Colbert’s contract for “The Late Show” wasn’t renewed by CBS in July, President Donald Trump celebrated on Truth Social. “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired,” he posted. “His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert!”
Fast forward to Wednesday afternoon, when Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr claimed on a right-wing podcast that Kimmel had said “the sickest thing possible” about Charlie Kirk’s assassination on his show. “[W]hen we see stuff like this, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr warned. “These companies can find ways to change conduct, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
The late-night host had accused the “MAGA gang” of trying to distance themselves from Kirk’s alleged shooter “as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.” Kimmel also mocked Trump’s behavior.
What Carr seemed to be implying with his mob boss talk was that the FCC would not approve a lucrative merger between some of ABC’s stations if they didn’t take action against Kimmel, a situation that echoed the mega-merger between Paramount — CBS’s parent company — and Skydance that was looming ahead of Colbert’s cancellation (and was approved in late July).
It appears ABC got the message. The network, which is owned by Disney, announced on Wednesday night that Kimmel had been “suspended indefinitely.” Shortly after the announcement, Carr sent CNN’s Brian Stelter a celebratory text in response to the journalist’s request for comment.
After the news broke, Trump took to Truth Social to gloat. “Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED,” he posted. “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.”
Kimmel’s suspension — and Trump’s remarks — are a bit rich. Because for the past decade, the right has been on a crusade to end what they see as the scourge of “cancel culture.” Republican politicians and members of the right-wing media have railed against firing people for what they say in the classroom and boardroom, or for what they posted years ago as teenagers on social media. They have ranted that no one should lose a job simply for expressing an unpopular opinion, a fate they believed was happening to conservatives who have had leftist “woke” ideology forced upon them and used as intimidation tactics.
