"President Donald Trump has displayed an exceptional ability to combine the separate civil liberties abuses of his predecessors into a more comprehensive toxic brew. The latest example involved the ABC television network's decision to oust late-night host Jimmy Kimmel for insensitive, partisan remarks about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. If ABC's management had made that decision without pressure from the government, there would be no valid First Amendment issue involved."
"However, comments that Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi made pointed to government meddling or outright coercion. "They give me only bad publicity [and] press," Trump said last week, speaking about late-night show hosts. "I mean, they're getting a licence. I would think maybe their licence should be taken away." As for Bondi, her contention that some of the reactions to Kirk's assassination constituted "hate speech" that must not be tolerated"
"An even clearer indication of government involvement in Kimmel's firing and the proliferating examples of attempts to cancel the careers of other administration critics came from the menacing remarks of Brendan Carr, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the powerful regulatory agency that licenses radio and television stations. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way," Carr said last week."
President Donald Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and FCC chairman Brendan Carr applied pressure that influenced ABC's decision to remove Jimmy Kimmel after remarks about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Trump suggested revoking broadcast licences for late-night hosts, Bondi labeled some reactions as "hate speech" requiring suppression, and Carr threatened regulatory action by the FCC. These interventions constituted government meddling or coercion that intimidated media companies and enabled efforts to cancel critics of the administration. Even some conservatives criticized the tactics as menacing and akin to coercion, endangering free-expression safeguards.
Read at The American Conservative
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