Censoring Jimmy Kimmel Is Not The Biggest Threat To The First Amendment—But This Is

The suspension of Jimmy Kimmel and the cancelling of his long-running eponymous late-night TV show by Disney-owned ABC is certainly disturbing from the perspective of anyone who defends the First Amendment in the US—myself included.

It’s quite clear that the Trump administration saw an opportunity to take down a thorn in its side and used Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr’s influence over Nexstar, a media conglomerate that owns many ABC affiliate stations, to swiftly and successfully pressure the network to do its bidding.

Meaning that, right-wing protestations to the contrary, the incident definitely passes the censorship smell test.

But it should be understood that major corporate-owned media like ABC has only rarely truly championed the First Amendment. Because programming that is critical of the capitalism that makes ABC possible has generally never been allowed to air on its channels. And there are other blind spots besides… the most obvious being Gaza shaped. So, if Jimmy Kimmel was an open socialist like me or had a history of taking potentially career-damaging stands like protesting the ongoing Israeli genocide against the Palestinians of Gaza, he would never have been given a show in the first place.

Jimmy Kimmel is a rich and very connected man. He’ll be fine. He’ll likely bounce back with a new show in record time. BINJ and the diminishing numbers of fellow indy news outlets around the country are not in any way fine.

Because the thing that speaks most loudly to the owners of conglomerates like Disney that own media companies like ABC is money. As long as a talent like Kimmel brought in plenty of cash and didn’t really rock powerful boats too far beyond what was widely considered fair game for a comedian, he was safe. But the moment he pissed off top conservatives with an iron-clad grip on the federal government enough to threaten ABC’s, and therefore Disney’s, bottom line, he was forced out.

And that’s what happened when Kimmel, frankly, overconfidently stated that Charlie Kirk’s assassin was a right-winger (which does not now appear to be the case) on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” the Trump administration smelled blood in the water; Carr immediately announced that the FCC would have to look over the licenses of TV stations that continued to air his show; and Nexstar, a company with a big deal in the works that required FCC approval, immediately ordered its local TV stations to stop airing Kimmel. As did Sinclair, another company that owns ABC-affiliate stations.

Which is why I encourage readers to consider that if you want to defend the First Amendment and the free press that it has historically allowed to flower (more in better times, less in this era), your time and money would go a lot farther toward that goal if you support independent news organizations like the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism (BINJ). Because the less frequently that our freedom of the press is used, the more likely we are to lose it… and the First Amendment with it.

Regrettably, as I’ve often written, the news industry and journalism itself are already on the rocks in this country. And the freest of the free press, independent press like BINJ, is far closer to perdition than major media combines at present due to the economic and technological forces arrayed against us. Possibly compounded by the looming threat of the Trump administration deciding to crush us outright at some unfortunate future point. Eliminating one of the most important remaining checks on unbridled political and economic power in our society in the process.

Jimmy Kimmel is a rich and very connected man. He’ll be fine. He’ll likely bounce back with a new show in record time. BINJ and the diminishing numbers of fellow indy news outlets around the country are not in any way fine. Both talk show hosts and journalists play important roles in America’s fragmented information ecology, true. But journalists provide the fodder for the hosts to riff on day in and day out, not so much the other way around.

So, if you expect to continue to have access to news and views on critical issues of the day that are free of the malign and debate-limiting influence that compromises media interests owned by vast corporations from Comcast NBCUniversal to Disney to Warner Bros. Discovery to Paramount Global to AT&T to Fox Corporation to Alphabet to Meta, then you could put your money and energy into helping us survive.

Most of the independent press at the local and regional level like BINJ do our big annual fundraisers every November and December these days. In fact, we’re celebrating BINJ’s 10th anniversary with a big fundraiser on November 8 (details forthcoming).

If you want to help keep the free press free and help us continue our role as guardians of the First Amendment, support us. Support our many sibling publications in the Alliance of Nonprofit News Outlets. Support entertainers and artists that join us in speaking truth to power. And sure, put in a good word for Jimmy, his main flaw in my estimation being letting the Democrats off the hook too often. Just give your money and your sweat equity to the grassroots media and arts crews. The more the merrier. And the better for reinvigorating our failing democracy.

This editorial was originally produced for HorizonMass, the independent, student-driven news outlet of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism, and is syndicated by BINJ’s MassWire news service.