Jimmy Kimmel's Removal Has Sent Us Back to Cold-War-Era Censorship

"The abrupt decision by the network, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company, came hours after the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, assailed Mr. Kimmel and suggested that his regulatory agency might take action against ABC because of remarks the host made on his Monday telecast. The network did not explain its decision, but the sequence of events on Wednesday amounted to an extraordinary exertion of political pressure on a major broadcast network by the Trump administration."

"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. And because the FCC is run by one of the biggest tools on the MAGA pegboard, that benign assertion was enough to cost my friend his television show."

"This is Red Channels stuff, straight out of the 1950s but juiced up by the accelerated media of our timeand not in the service of a cold war against the (inflated) power of a well-armed adversary. Rather, it is in the service of a martyrdom cult headed by a half-mad ruler bent on revenge against everything he hates, which is pretty much, well, everything. Even our authoritarianism is cheap and vicious these days."

ABC, owned by the Walt Disney Company, abruptly removed Jimmy Kimmel's television show without an explanation. The removal followed public criticism from Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr, who assailed Kimmel and suggested the FCC might take action over remarks made on his broadcast. Kimmel had criticized MAGA supporters for attempting to claim a murderer as one of them and called the FCC chair a tool of the MAGA movement. The chain of events resembled 1950s-style blacklisting and amounted to extraordinary political pressure on a major broadcast network. The commentary framed the situation as enforcement in service of a martyrdom cult and revenge-driven authoritarianism.

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