News divisions of big entertainment firms have long worried about their corporate owners bowing to political pressure. But the latest clash between the Trump administration and a media company concerns not hard-hitting news coverage but rather an ill-founded remark by a late-night comedian, Jimmy Kimmel, whose show ABC suspended this week.
The political row and rapid-fire response by Disney, the parent company of ABC, highlights the increasing propensity of President Donald Trump and his allies to use government powers to coerce and punish institutions – from universities to law firms to media entities. It also shows how corporations can be squeezed by pressure from above, in the form of threats of regulatory action, and from below by social media-driven campaigns to shame and punish speech.
Mr. Kimmel ignited a firestorm on the right by opening his Monday night monologue with a comment about the accused shooter of Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist killed last week. “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,” he said.
Why We Wrote This
The sidelining of comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show could signal a wider chilling effect on free speech, under pressure from President Donald Trump and regulators under him. The move also comes as media companies face a difficult environment for profits.
This was at odds with what prosecutors have revealed about Tyler Robinson, who police say shot Mr. Kirk during a Sept. 10 event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. It also came amid a growing conservative uproar over social media posts seen as glorifying or condoning the shooting; government employees and private-sector workers have been fired or suspended over such comments.
Mr. Kimmel went on to comment on how Mr. Trump responded to a reporter’s question about his grief over Mr. Kirk by talking about building plans for a new White House ballroom. “He’s at the fourth stage of grief: Construction,” Mr. Kimmel said.
On Wednesday, Brendan Carr, the Trump-appointed chair of the Federal Communications Commission, criticized Mr. Kimmel’s remarks and he suggested the FCC would take regulatory action against ABC and its affiliates for misleading the public. Later that day, ABC said it had “indefinitely suspended” the show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
Brandon Bell/Reuters/File
Mr. Kimmel’s suspension follows the ouster of Stephen Colbert, another late-night host, whose long-running show on CBS was not renewed in July while parent company Paramount was lobbying the FCC to approve a merger. Mr. Colbert’s show will remain on the air until May. Both shows were reportedly losing money and might have been targets for corporate cost-cutters. But the axing of two liberal comedians who mocked Mr. Trump and incurred his wrath could signal stricter curbs on political speech and satire by media companies with business before the Trump administration.
“Comedians can no longer criticize the president?” says Victor Pickard, a professor of media policy and political economy at the University of Pennsylvania. “If we saw this in any other country, we would condemn that country as authoritarian.”
On Wednesday night, Mr. Trump applauded ABC for suspending Mr. Kimmel in a social media post, saying he had “ZERO talent” and bad ratings. He urged “Fake News NBC” to cancel two other late-night shows hosted by Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon, saying that both have “horrible” ratings.
Mr. Trump doubled down on Thursday, suggesting to reporters that networks could lose their licenses for airing negative coverage of him. “I read someplace that the networks were 97% against me. … I would think maybe their license should be taken away.”
Democrats in Congress have criticized Mr. Carr for pressuring ABC to axe Mr. Kimmel’s show and called for him to testify about his actions. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement on Thursday that Mr. Carr should resign, and he accused the Trump administration of violating free speech in what “may also be part of a corrupt pay-to-play scheme.”
In a news conference at the Capitol also on Thursday, Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California said the cancellation of comedians was part of a pattern of abuses under President Trump, who has sued The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times for defamation over stories critical of him.
“What happened to Jimmy Kimmel last night, and Stephen Colbert for that matter, isn’t just about one comedian or one television personality or any one network. It’s about whether we as Americans still have the freedom to laugh at those in power,” he said.
Political pressure and corporate sensitivities
Mr. Carr made his comments about Mr. Kimmel and Disney on Wednesday on a podcast hosted by a far-right activist, Benny Johnson, who was a protégé of Mr. Kirk. On the podcast, Mr. Carr said Mr. Kimmel had lied to the public about the ideological beliefs of Mr. Kirk’s alleged killer, implying that he was a conservative. Mr. Carr said it was “a very, very serious issue right now for Disney. We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
The FCC doesn’t license TV networks like ABC. But network broadcasts are aired by local affiliates, which the FCC has regulatory power over. Mr. Carr made clear his intention to exert this authority.
“There’s action we can take on licensed broadcasters,” he told Mr. Johnson. He said affiliates “are running the possibility of fines or license revocation from the FCC” if they air content that distorts the news.
One of those licensees, Nexstar Media Group, which has more than 200 stations across the country, said on Wednesday that it wouldn’t air Mr. Kimmel’s show on its ABC affiliates. “Mr. Kimmel’s comments about the death of Mr. Kirk are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse,” Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division, said in a statement that preceded Disney’s announcement of the show’s suspension.
Nexstar’s sensitivity lines up with its corporate ambitions: The company is currently seeking FCC approval to merge with Tegna, another TV station operator. Mr. Carr, who as FCC chairman is involved in scrutinizing that merger, later praised Nexstar for its stance.
Sinclair Broadcast Group, one of the largest ABC affiliates, also said its stations wouldn’t carry Mr. Kimmel’s show and called on Mr. Kimmel to apologize. It plans to broadcast a special tribute to Mr. Kirk on Friday in the time slot formerly allocated to Mr. Kimmel’s show. Sinclair is known for its conservative content and has benefited in the past from close relations with Mr. Trump.
The financial stakes for news and entertainment corporations accused of having wronged Mr. Trump and his allies appear to have driven many of their business decisions over the past year.
In December, ABC paid $15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit filed by Mr. Trump over George Stephanopoulos’ on-air description of Mr. Trump’s conviction in the E. Jean Carroll case in New York. Then, in July, Paramount, which owns CBS, paid Mr. Trump $16 million after the president alleged that an interview with then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris had been edited deceptively.
In both cases, experts in media law and defamation said the corporations had strong grounds to defend their news divisions’ actions. At the time of its settlement, Paramount was seeking federal approval for a $8 billion merger with Skydance Media. (This was also the time frame in which CBS said “Late Night with Stephen Colbert” would not be renewed.)
“What is being exploited is the corporate ownership of so much of our media in the United States, an ownership that’s primarily driven by profit,” says Professor Pickard.
This tension between news as a public good and the profit motives of media companies isn’t new. But the rise of social media as a news source and of partisan influencers, particularly on the right, has eroded the profitability and audience share of mainstream news, while the consolidation of media and entertainment companies means fewer stand-alone news organizations.
The more companies that a media conglomerate owns, the more pressure points can be exploited by an administration seeking to shape news and commentary in its favor, says Rodney Benson, a professor of media, culture, and communications at New York University. “It’s the combination of their diverse holdings and their being subject to regulation by a very assertive FCC that is probably prompting these quick outcomes,” he says via email, referring to show cancellations.
First Amendment protections for both parties
ABC’s decision to suspend Mr. Kimmel’s show could be seen as a straightforward business decision to retain viewers and advertisers, says Eugene Volokh, an emeritus law professor at the University of California at Los Angeles who studies the First Amendment. “They have every right to fire him. They get to control what’s on their channel.”
But if ABC is responding to a threat by the FCC of government retaliation for free speech by Mr. Kimmel, then it could be in violation of the First Amendment, says Professor Volokh.
Last year, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the National Rifle Association, which said New York regulators had punished it by forcing insurers to drop NRA-endorsed products. (Professor Volokh represented the NRA.) The court said a government official couldn’t “coerce a private party to punish or suppress disfavored speech on her behalf.”
“It’s a reminder that protection for conservatives today helps liberals tomorrow. Protections for liberals today helps conservatives tomorrow,” says Professor Volokh.
