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Jimmy Kimmel Pulls Talarico Interview From Broadcast, Moves it to YouTube, Amid Trump FCC Threats
"Another day, another chilling effect on broadcast speech," said one free speech advocate, who added that "nothing about the FCC’s actions is normal—or legal."
Sep 10, 2026
Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel told viewers Wednesday night that his show was pulling an interview with Democratic Texas Senate nominee James Talarico from ABC stations amid threats from President Donald Trump's Federal Communications Commission, which press freedom groups are describing as another effort by the administration to "chill" the speech of the president's critics.
“Out of consideration for our local stations, especially our ABC affiliates in Texas who would have to deal with this nonsense, my interview tomorrow with James Talarico will not air on television,” the host said on Wednesday’s episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”
He added that the interview “will be posted on YouTube instead. It will not be on TV.”
It's the second time a major US network has opted to spike a late-night interview with Talarico following FCC pressure. In February, CBS lawyers preemptively stopped Stephen Colbert from conducting an interview with the candidate over what they said were fears of retaliation from the agency, whose chair, Brendan Carr, has threatened to strip broadcast licenses from networks that give Trump unfavorable coverage.
Carr has confirmed that the FCC had opened an investigation and started an "enforcement proceeding" into ABC over whether Talarico's appearance on "The View" violated the equal-time rule, which requires that broadcast stations that host political candidates must give their opponents an equal opportunity to appear as well.
Late-night shows have long been considered exempt from this rule as “bona fide news interview” programs. But a public notice issued by the FCC Media Bureau in January stated that programs that advance “partisan” goals, including talk shows, would no longer be considered as such. Carr has said programs he considers to be “fake news” may not qualify for an exemption.
Kimmel on Wednesday emphasized the "unusual circumstances" of his network's decision to cancel the interview with Talarico.
"For the whole 20-plus years of our show, I've been interviewing Americans who are running for office with no problem at all... from Hillary Clinton, to Ted Cruz, to Donald Trump himself," he said.
Kimmel noted that when he interviewed Trump during his first presidential run in 2015, he seemed to have no issue with political candidates appearing on his show and eagerly returned for more interviews.
"For some reason, and I can't seem to figure out what that reason is, something has changed," Kimmel joked. "Now that he's president, his FCC has threatened me, threatened our show, threatened our network, ABC, our affiliates, our local stations—based on simple, traditional editorial decisions, guest bookings it would seem they don’t like."
For that reason, he said, if viewers "want to learn about a candidate for the Senate tomorrow, you will have to go to the 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' YouTube channel."
"Thank goodness we have that," Kimmel said. "Because in the America we have right now, that is the best that we can do, until November, of course."
In August, ABC parent company Disney sued the FCC on First Amendment grounds following the agency’s unusual request for its eight ABC stations to submit their broadcast renewal requests several years in advance, which it described as part of a “retaliatory campaign” against the network's negative coverage of Trump.
The complaint notes that ABC has felt compelled to alter its editorial judgment in order to avoid further retaliation, including passing on interviews with several other political candidates it felt would invite Trump's ire and choosing to air a lie-filled Trump address about supposed election fraud, which it noted it "ordinarily would not have done."
Last September, ABC briefly removed Kimmel from the air following direct threats from Carr to strip ABC stations of their broadcast licenses, which came after a critical monologue from the late-night host about Trump and Republicans in the wake of the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
The complaint notes Carr’s use of explicit coercion to pressure ABC to remove Kimmel, including telling the network that it could proceed “the easy way or the hard way."
Kimmel emphasized what he said was the political nature of the pressure campaign against him and the network, which has continued even after he was reinstated. Republicans, he said, "are very nervous about the midterms and very rightly so," as they are "in serious danger of losing 'bigly.'"
"They are in danger of losing a Senate seat in Texas of all places," he said to cheers from the crowd, "where James Talarico is leading a piece of human silly putty named Ken Paxton there," according to several recent polls.
Press freedom and civil liberties organizations described Carr's threats to networks as part of an effort to chill critical speech on behalf of the president, one that is ratcheting up as the midterms approach.
Timothy Karr, the senior director of strategy and communications for Free Press, told Common Dreams that Carr's "unconstitutional crusade against a free press has a clear bias against individuals and outlets that President Trump doesn't like."
"Combine that with Trump's desperation in the face of electoral polling that shows people ready to change political course come November, and you can see the real reason driving Carr's reckless fixation with silencing opposing views," Karr said.
Karr argued that networks were unnecessarily casting aside their rights to editorial judgment out of fear of retaliation.
"For years, the FCC has been very clear that bona fide news interviews, including on late-night talk shows, are entitled to editorial discretion," Karr said. "Carr's ongoing efforts to take this discretion away are part and parcel of his campaign to transform broadcast media into full-time megaphones for Trumpist propaganda."
He said, "What's doubly worrying is that many of these broadcast networks are too eager to cave to Trump and Carr's demands when the First Amendment is clearly on their side."
Jenna Leventoff, senior policy counsel for the ACLU, concurred, telling Common Dreams that the FCC "abusing its rules to chill speech" is "particularly problematic before an election, when voters need more information, not less."
Bob Corn-Revere, the chief counsel for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), told Common Dreams it was “another day, another chilling effect on broadcast speech," adding that ”nothing about the FCC’s actions is normal—or legal.“
Shiva Stella, the legal director at Public Knowledge, emphasized that networks capitulating helps to cement a climate of fear.
"This is a classic chilling effect," Stella told Common Dreams. "Once the FCC threatens stations over editorial decisions, it does not need to repeat the threat every time. Broadcasters begin changing their programming to avoid retaliation."
“The FCC needs to stop using its power to bully news organizations into silencing voices it simply disagrees with,” added Tim Richardson, journalism and disinformation program director at PEN America, in a statement to Common Dreams.
“When broadcasters alter decisions because they fear government retaliation," he said, "that damage extends beyond a single program and threatens the independence of the entire press and the public’s access to information. Which, unfortunately, seems to be the intent in this case.”
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ABC Hits Trump FCC With First Amendment Suit Over 'Deeply Un-American' Effort to Strip Broadcast Licenses
"At long last! A broadcast network has found a backbone," said one First Amendment advocate.
Aug 18, 2026
ABC and its parent company Disney filed a First Amendment lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday over what it called a "deeply un-American" effort by the Trump administration to punish broadcasters for airing speech critical of the president.
The suit comes in response to an April order by the FCC requiring Disney's eight ABC stations to file their broadcast renewal requests years ahead of schedule. As the Knight First Amendment Institute pointed out, it's the first time the FCC has ordered a broadcast station to submit early license renewals in more than 50 years.
The unusual request came after President Donald Trump had repeatedly suggested that networks giving him "negative coverage" should have their broadcast licenses "terminated."
ABC has argued that the license renewal demand is part of an effort to "attack" its First Amendment-protected speech.
"Government censorship is deeply un-American," the lawsuit, filed before the US District Court for the District of Columbia, said. "Acting through the Federal Communications Commission, the administration has waged a retaliatory campaign against ABC for a single reason: it disapproves of what ABC broadcasts."
ABC specifically has found itself in the crosshairs of FCC Chair Brendan Carr, who used license authority to pressure the network to remove late-night host Jimmy Kimmel from the air briefly last year following a critical monologue about Trump and Republicans following the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
The lawsuit quotes what ABC said were blatant efforts by Carr to "coerce" the network into pulling Kimmel, including his ultimatum, "We can do this the easy way or the hard way."
It also notes that the request for the early renewal order was issued just one day after Trump went on another social media tirade against Kimmel over jokes he made about First Lady Melania Trump, which the president claimed inspired an assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Trump said that Kimmel should “be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.”
Carr has defended the FCC's orders to Disney, stating that they were not about retaliation, but about ensuring that ABC stations operate "in the public interest" as they are required to do under law.
“If broadcasters don’t like that, that’s okay,” Carr told CNBC back in July. “They can become a cable channel, they can become a podcast, they can stream online. But if you want to uniquely be on the public’s airwaves, you have to comply with those obligations.”
Noting previous comments by Carr that public interest considerations should include the "political ideology” of a broadcaster's programming, Monday's lawsuit said the order "thus appears intended to broaden the scope of the agency’s review, including to impermissibly consider the content of ABC programming."
Earlier this year, the FCC also opened an investigation into the daytime talk show The View, alleging that its hosting of interviews with Texas Democratic US Senate candidate James Talarico in February may have violated a rule requiring broadcast stations to give political candidates "equal time" when appearing on air.
ABC has contended that The View has previously been ruled as a "bona fide news interview" program, which is exempt from the rule.
As part of the investigation, the FCC Media Bureau has probed ABC's editorial process, ordering it to produce internal communications among View staff, disclose the political donations of employees, and provide information about ABC's internal guidance for producing interviews
The White House, meanwhile, included The View on a public webpage listing so-called "media offenders." On this page, it singled out the program's co-hosts for the "offenses" of criticizing government officials for “visiting the Alligator Alcatraz ICE detention facility in Florida” and “claiming President Trump was overstepping his authority by constructing a White House ballroom.”
The lawsuit says the FCC's pressure has affected its editorial decision-making. It notes that since the investigation was launched, it has not booked any other congressional candidates on The View.
It also notes that, considering the "risk of resulting administration retaliation," ABC chose to broadcast a speech by Trump in July on its streaming channel ABC News Live in which he made unfounded accusations of rampant voter fraud in the 2020 election, which "it ordinarily would not have done."
Trump again called on the network to have its broadcast license stripped for not airing the speech on its main network. And Carr has said that the FCC would consider that decision as part of the review of ABC's renewal applications.
The lawsuit says the administration is seeking either to mire the company in costly legal fees and intimidate it into compliance or to rip it off the air entirely, as Trump demanded.
"In either scenario," the lawsuit says, "the administration accomplishes its goal of eliminating a perceived media critic: either it gets plaintiffs to fall in line, or it silences them if they refuse."
The lawsuit asks the court to issue a temporary restraining order to prevent the FCC from proceeding with the reviews. It ultimately seeks a ruling that the license-renewal proceedings constitute unconstitutional retaliation that violates the First Amendment.
It notes that the administration has been attempting to coerce other legacy news broadcasters in the same way.
"If the administration gets its way, the message to every media company in the country will be unmistakable: Tell only the stories the administration deems favorable, or face the coercive machinery of the federal government," the lawsuit says. "In such a world, the press could in no way be described as free."
CNN's chief media analyst Brian Stelter described Disney and ABC's lawsuit as "one of the stiffest challenges from any American media company against the Trump administration during Trump's return to office."
Press freedom advocates welcomed the lawsuit as a sign that media outlets were beginning to fight back against the administration's strong-arming tactics rather than appeasing them.
"At long last! A broadcast network has found a backbone and is suing to stop the administration’s bullying and censorship," said Nico Perrino, the executive vice president of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).
“It’s about time for someone to take Carr and his FCC to court over their endless campaign of intimidation and retaliation against journalism that displeases Carr’s thin-skinned boss,” said Seth Stern, chief of advocacy for the Freedom of the Press Foundation.
"Carr knows the FCC is not the journalism police and said so regularly himself before he decided to throw away any integrity he once had to kiss up to Trump," Stern added. "Countless others whose First Amendment rights have been chilled by Carr’s antics should follow Disney’s lead.”
ABC has faced criticism for bowing to pressure from Trump in the past. In 2024, after Trump won the presidential election, the network agreed to pay out $15 million after he sued over comments made by anchor George Stephanopoulos, who stated that the president had been found “liable for rape” by a jury when he’d technically only been found liable for “sexual abuse." The president's case against the network was widely viewed as legally dubious.
That lawsuit was seen as an opening of the floodgates for Trump's efforts to coerce and control the media during his second term, and other networks, fearful of retaliation, would follow with their own concessions to avoid his wrath.
Aaron Blake, a senior political reporter at CNN, said ABC's decision to fight back against the FCC showed that "today, we're in a different situation."
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FCC Moves to Yank Disney Broadcast Licenses as Trumps Demand ABC Fire Kimmel
"This is a clear attack on the First Amendment and a political stunt designed to intimidate critics, retaliate against a comedian practicing free speech through satire, and send a message to anyone who dares to speak out."
Apr 28, 2026
Press freedom advocates on Tuesday forcefully condemned the Republican-dominated Federal Communications Commission—and FCC Chair Brendan Carr in particular—for moving to challenge Disney-owned ABC's broadcast licenses as President Donald Trump again pressures to network to fire late-night television host Jimmy Kimmel.
"The First Amendment and the FCC's mandate do not permit the agency to use broadcast licenses as weapons to punish broadcasters for constitutionally protected content they air," declared Freedom of the Press Foundation chief of advocacy Seth Stern.
"Brendan Carr was once a serious communications lawyer, and has repeatedly and correctly said that the FCC has no role in policing content, whether news reporting or comedians’ late night jokes," Stern pointed out. "Carr's decision to abandon his principles to kiss up to Trump to advance his career does not change the law that Carr knows full well applies."
"The FCC is neither the journalism police nor the humor police," he added. "This is nothing but illegal jawboning intended to intimidate ABC into kissing the ring."
Kimmel—whom ABC briefly suspended last year amid pressure from Carr over comments the comedian made about assassinated right-wing activist Charlie Kirk—joked last Thursday that the first lady, Melania Trump, had "a glow like an expectant widow." Two days later, a gunman attempted to enter the White House Correspondents' Dinner—and on Monday, he was charged with trying to assassinate the president.
Also on Monday, both Donald and Melania Trump separately took to social media, calling for Kimmel to be fired. The comedian, meanwhile, opened his Monday night monologue to crowd chants of "Jimmy" and defended his joke, highlighting the Trumps' age gap.
On Tuesday, Semafor reported the FCC's plans to challenge the ABC licenses, which weren't slated for review until at least 2028. Other outlets began confirming the reporting, citing unnamed sources, and the agency ultimately issued the anticipated order—which says that "the FCC has been investigating Disney's ABC stations for possible violations of the Communications Act of 1934 and the FCC’s rules, including the agency's prohibition on unlawful discrimination."
The order, signed by David J. Brown, chief of the Video Division, directs ABC to "file license renewals for all of their licensed TV stations within 30 days—in other words, by May 28, 2026." Those stations are WABC-TV (New York), KABC-TV (Los Angeles), WLS-TV (Chicago), WPVI-TV (Philadelphia), KTRK-TV (Houston), KGO-TV (San Francisco), WTVD-TV (Raleigh-Durham), and KFSN-TV (Fresno).
As CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter explained: "The order will not affect the local stations right away. It is just the start of a protracted legal process, and ABC has broad legal protections. Nevertheless, the FCC order is an extraordinary escalation by the Trump administration."
"The FCC had not filed an early renewal order in decades, according to a source familiar with the matter, until Monday, when the agency took action against a small station license holder called Bridge News," Stelter noted. "Both Bridge and Disney will now go through a lengthy hearing process, giving the stations multiple chances to respond."
Disney said in a statement that "we have received the Federal Communications Commission's order initiating an accelerated review of the licenses held by ABC's owned television stations. ABC and its stations have a long record of operating in full compliance with FCC rules and serving their local communities with trusted news, emergency information, and public‑interest programming."
"We are confident that record demonstrates our continued qualifications as licensees under the Communications Act and the First Amendment, and are prepared to show that through the appropriate legal channels," the company continued. "Our focus remains, as always, on serving viewers in the local communities where our stations operate."
Commissioner Anna Gomez—currently the FCC's only Democratic appointee—said that "the effort to challenge the licenses of ABC/Disney-owned stations is the FCC's most egregious attack on the First Amendment to date. But it will fail. This should be a lesson to media companies that no amount of capitulation to this administration will buy them protection."
Jessica J. González, co-CEO of the advocacy group Free Press, was similarly optimistic. She said that "Carr will try to dress up this latest attack like a legitimate FCC procedure, but his motivations are clear. He is using his position of power to silence dissent at the president's beck and call. This extraordinary and unconstitutional attack on the media is nothing more than another favor to the most fragile president in U.S. history."
"The FCC’s ongoing attack on lawful and important diversity, equity, and inclusion programs is immoral," she argued. "The timing of this move suggests unconstitutional retribution for a joke Donald Trump didn't like. Either way, this dangerous attack on free speech won’t stand up to any First Amendment test. We've seen Carr violate his oath to uphold the Constitution again and again. It's time for Congress to impeach him."
González added that "for its part, ABC and Disney leadership need to stand strong on behalf of their First Amendment right to air content without government intrusion and censorship. Buckling in advance to pressure by this administration and its obsequious FCC chairman didn't work for the broadcaster when it suspended Kimmel last year. It would be a grave mistake to buckle in advance again to these kinds of chilling government threats from Trump's censorship czar."
The organization MoveOn has launched a petition in support of Kimmel, which already has over 257,000 signatures.
"The Trump administration's targeting of ABC's broadcast licenses sends a chilling message: Fall in line or face consequences," said MoveOn Civic Action chief communications officer Joel Payne. "This is a clear attack on the First Amendment and a political stunt designed to intimidate critics, retaliate against a comedian practicing free speech through satire, and send a message to anyone who dares to speak out."
"ABC and Disney must not back down to Donald Trump or any bureaucrat in his administration doing his bidding," Payne stressed. "This is bigger than just an attempt to bully Jimmy Kimmel—this is about telling the American people what to think, what to laugh at, what to say, and what to criticize. Our members will fight any efforts to weaponize the government to punish speech and will hold corporations who bow to this pressure accountable."
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Donald Trump Is a First Amendment Hatchet Man
The fate of the First Amendment won’t be up to Brendan Carr or Donald Trump. It will be up to the American people.
Sep 25, 2025
President Donald Trump can’t take a joke. Look at the 9:20 mark of this video from the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner. As President Barack Obama skewered Trump over his insidious “birther” claim, Trump was “steaming” and “beside himself with fury” at the public humiliation.
Trump is now using the presidency and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to silence critics. Comedians are near the top of Trump’s hit list because satire is an effective political weapon.
Foreign enemies aren’t attacking the First Amendment. It’s an inside job.
Carr’s Confusion
As Carr observed in 2022:
“Political satire is one of the oldest and most important forms of free speech. It challenges those in power while using humor to draw more people into the discussion. That’s why people in influential positions have always targeted it for censorship.”
But Carr has now abandoned First Amendment principles that he and conservatives have defended repeatedly:
- In 2018, he told a Senate oversight committee: “The First Amendment operates as a restraint on the government. The idea is that we don't put a thumb on the scale in favor of one speaker or the other. The whole purpose of the First Amendment is to encourage strong, robust -- perhaps rough in some situations -- discourse.”
- In 2023, he posted: “Free speech is the counterweight—it is the check on government control. That is why censorship is the authoritarian’s dream.”
- And in an interview at an AI and tech conference on September 16, 2025—the day after Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue mentioning Charlie Kirk—Carr said: “I think you can draw a pretty clear line, and the Supreme Court has done this for decades, that our First Amendment, our free speech tradition, protects almost all speech.”
But a day later, Carr reversed course in a September 17 interview with a right-wing podcaster: “Frankly, when you see stuff like this—I mean, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Carr added that the FCC was “going to have remedies that we can look at,” pointedly suggesting that local stations should “push back” and “step up” to protect their FCC licenses by pressuring networks to change programming content.
Hours later, two major owners of local television stations—Nexstar, which seeks FCC approval of its $6.2 billion acquisition of rival TEGNA, and Sinclair, which longstanding Trump supporters control—announced that they were preempting Kimmel’s program. Together those owners account for about one-quarter of ABC affiliates.
Before the day ended, Disney-owned ABC suspended Kimmel. Bipartisan outrage was immediate.
- Conservative podcaster Joe Rogan said that conservatives cheering support for government interference with Kimmel’s free speech rights were “crazy.”
- Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) likened Carr’s threat to mob-like behavior: “And I got to say, that’s right out of Goodfellas. That’s right out of a mafioso coming into a bar going, ‘Nice bar you have here. It’d be a shame if something happened to it.’”
Carr insisted that he hadn’t threatened anyone.
But when Disney announced Kimmel’s return, Carr responded: “Democrats just keep digging themselves a deeper & deeper hole on Kimmel….” He reiterated his plan to empower FCC-licensed local stations to reject network programming.
Then Carr took everyone through the looking glass and accused Democrats of “illegally weaponizing government to silence dissent.”
Trump’s Threats
As Carr insisted that he was not threatening ABC, Trump’s warnings were clear and direct. An hour before ABC aired Kimmel’s return, Trump posted:
“Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, who’s not funny, and who puts the Network in jeopardy.... I think we’re going to test ABC out on this. Let’s see how we do. Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative.”
Trump's referencing of Disney’s $16 million payment to settle his dubious lawsuit against ABC proves what most children learn in elementary school: If you don’t stand up to a bully, you empower him and efforts to appease him will never be enough.
Nexstar and Sinclair didn’t air Kimmel’s return. But their Trump-pandering efforts to prevent viewers from seeing the program were futile: His monologue went viral with millions of views on YouTube.
During the monologue, Kimmel played a video of Trump saying that the late-night host “had no ratings.”
“I do tonight,” Kimmel quipped.
Future Fights
When CBS cancelled Colbert’s program, Trump gloated, “I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert!”
When ABC suspended Kimmel, Trump posted:
“Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible.”
Then he added:
“That leaves Jimmy [Fallon] and Seth [Meyers], two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!! President DJT.”
But Trump’s media targets go far beyond late-night talk show hosts. Jonathan Karl of ABC News asked Trump about Attorney General Pam Bondi’s unconstitutional plan to “go after hate speech… A lot of your allies say hate speech is free speech.”
“We’ll probably go after people like you,” Trump replied, “because you treat me so unfairly with hate. You have a lot of hate in your heart… So maybe they’ll have to go after you.”
The next day, Trump renewed his periodic threat to target negative network news coverage of him.
“They're getting a license,” Trump said. “I think maybe their license should be taken away. It will be up to Brendan Carr.”
Trump is incorrect. Kimmel returned to the airwaves because Carr’s threats produced bipartisan outrage, customers cancelled subscriptions to Disney+ and Hulu, consumers began boycotts, Disney’s stock price dropped, and Hollywood A-list celebrities arrived in force to protest Kimmel’s suspension.
The fate of the First Amendment won’t be up to Brendan Carr or Donald Trump. It will be up to the American people. And they won’t go down without a fight.
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Sinclair, Nexstar Will Preempt Jimmy Kimmel Return on Stations They Own
"Although Sinclair isn't a fan of democracy, most people are," said one California senator.
Sep 23, 2025
Since Disney announced late-night host Jimmy Kimmel's Tuesday return after yanking him off the air last week, Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group, which collectively control about a quarter of local ABC affiliates nationwide, have said they will preempt his show—a move seen by critics as deferential to the Trump administration and related to their business interests.
Shortly after Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr suggested during a podcast interview that the FCC may retaliate against Disney-owned ABC for Kimmel's remarks about US President Donald Trump and the recent assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, the host was suspended "indefinitely."
The public, free speech advocates, other entertainers, and elected officials have sounded the alarm about both Carr's threat—which the FCC chair now claims is just "projection and distortion" by critics—and the host's suspension. Faced with a growing boycott movement, Disney revealed Monday that he would be back on air the following night.
Sinclair—which previously praised Carr's comments and argued that Kimmel's suspension was "not enough"—responded by announcing that it "will be preempting 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' across our ABC affiliate stations and replacing it with news programming," and "discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show's potential return."
Before Kimmel was suspended, Nexstar had planned to preempt his show due to his Kirk commentary. The company said Tuesday that "we stand by that decision pending assurance that all parties are committed to fostering an environment of respectful, constructive dialogue in the markets we serve."
"In the meantime, we note that 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' will be available nationwide on multiple Disney-owned streaming products, while our stations will focus on continuing to produce local news and other programming relevant to their respective markets," Nexstar added.
Critics suggested the preemption decisions may be tied to the companies' current business dealings. David Sirota, founder of The Lever, pointed out on social media Monday that "Sinclair is currently lobbying the Trump FCC to relax local media ownership rules."
Sirota linked to his outlet's reporting from last month. As his colleague Freddy Brewster detailed:
The Nexstar Media Group, which operates more than 200 local television stations in 116 markets across the country, and the Sinclair Broadcast Group, a conservative news company that operates 185 stations in 85 markets nationwide, filed comment letters in April with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) asking the agency to move forward with its proposal to gut rules barring companies from owning more than two major news channels in one market area or reaching more than 39% of the general public.
The ownership caps were designed to "promote localism and competition by restricting the number of media outlets that a single entity may own or control within a geographic market," according to a 2021 congressional analysis. But in their comment letters, the broadcast companies argue they need to purchase more stations to compete with technology companies like Google, Meta, and Amazon that have come to dominate viewership and ad revenue.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) similarly said on social media Tuesday that "Nexstar, the largest TV broadcaster, needs Donald Trump's approval for a $6 billion deal. If approved, Nexstar would control TV stations reaching 80% of households—violating the cap set by Congress to protect against monopolies. This censorship of Kimmel reeks of corruption."
While Kimmel's imminent return has been celebrated as a victory for free speech and public pressure, advocates have also continued to highlight the ongoing threats from Trump, his allies, and corporate giants.
"ABC made the right call to return Jimmy Kimmel to air," ACLU executive director Anthony Romero said in a Monday statement. "It should never have suspended him to begin with, and resisted the government’s desire to control what people say. Hopefully, other media outlets will also find their spines and resist the Trump administration's efforts to cudgel them into obeisance."
Before Disney's announcement on Monday, "more than 475 artists came together to speak up with one voice, and more than 40,000 people added their names in solidarity in just a few hours," he noted. "We can rest assured this won't be the administration's last attempt to pressure private companies into punishing employees for speech it does not like. Let this be a lesson to companies who consider caving: We the people are watching, and we'll remember who stood strong in defense of free expression, and who followed the federal government's bidding."
Meanwhile, Campaign for Accountability on Tuesday filed a bar complaint asking the District of Columbia Office of Disciplinary Counsel and the Maryland Attorney Grievance Commission to investigate Carr. The nonprofit watchdog group's executive director, Michelle Kuppersmith, said that his "actions undermine public trust in not only the agency he leads, but in government neutrality across the board," and called for thorough probes and "appropriate disciplinary measures."
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'The Fight Doesn’t End Here': Despite Kimmel's Return, Accountability Demanded for Trump's FCC Chair, Media Execs
"Congress should investigate and put everyone involved under oath at a public hearing to get to the bottom of this threat to free speech," said the co-CEO of Free Press.
Sep 23, 2025
Jimmy Kimmel will return to the airwaves Tuesday night after his suspension by ABC was met with a massive public backlash. But while they say the comedian's reinstatement is cause for celebration, advocates say that it's just one small victory in a much larger fight against the Trump administration's campaign to censor dissent.
Andrew O’Neill, the advocacy director of the group Indivisible, which called on its members to boycott ABC's parent company Disney in response to the company's capitulation to President Donald Trump, said that Kimmel "wasn’t reinstated because Disney executives slept on it and had a change of heart."
"He’s back on air because those executives got a wake-up call from the American public," O'Neill said. "People all over the country showed up, canceling subscriptions, protesting outside ABC and Disney, Nexstar and more, and made it damn clear this political alliance with Trump was not in Disney’s best interest. Trump’s authoritarian playbook is unpopular, and when these CEOs comply, it’s not only cowardly. It’s unstrategic."
Kimmel's program was suspended last week after Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr threatened the broadcast licenses of local ABC affiliates, which led to pressure from the media conglomerates the Sinclair Broadcast Group and Nexstar to take action against Kimmel following comments he made criticizing Trump and his administration's reaction to the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
Craig Aaron, co-CEO of the media monitoring nonprofit Free Press, said that Kimmel's reinstatement shows that "protest works." However, he said, "the Trump regime’s war on free speech is no joke—and it’s not over. Brendan Carr threatened the licenses of ABC affiliates with coercive, mafia-like threats because his boss in the White House didn’t like Kimmel’s views, a chilling First Amendment violation that would have forced any previous FCC chair to resign."
“The next time the Trump administration uses its power to shut down dissent, a rich and famous comedian likely won’t be the target," Aaron continued. "We are seeing journalists being fired and even deported for simply reporting the facts about this administration. Their stories are not making headline news, but the government’s attacks on their speech are no less important."
In the days after Kimmel was forced off the air, Trump also threatened to strip the broadcasting licenses of networks that gave him "bad press," saying, "They're not allowed to do that."
"While we’re glad Kimmel is back on air," O'Neill said, "the fight doesn’t end here. FCC Chairman Carr still must be hauled up to Congress to testify. Sinclair and Nexstar must commit to airing the program and drop their wild demands. And Bob Iger and Disney must make it clear they are fully opposed to being bullied by Trump and his cronies."
Sinclair and Nexstar, which own a combined 20% of ABC's local news affiliates, said Tuesday that they will refuse to air Kimmel's broadcast. In order for Kimmel to return, Sinclair—known for its efforts to push right-wing talking points into the mouths of local anchors—has demanded that Kimmel issue a public apology and make a "meaningful personal donation" to Kirk's family and to his conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA.
As Aaron noted, Sinclair and Nexstar, two of the US's largest owners of local media, are currently "lobbying for a major merger requiring FCC approval," which he said may explain why they were so eager to pressure ABC to comply with Carr's demands. Last week, Democrats in the House of Representatives called on Carr to resign from his post and threatened to subject him to an investigation.
Beyond Carr, Aaron said that "Congress should investigate and put everyone involved under oath at a public hearing to get to the bottom of this threat to free speech" including Nexstar founder Perry Sook, Sinclair CEO Christopher Ripley and chairman David Smith, and Disney's Iger, so the public can understand "what pressure the government put on these media companies and what they were promised in exchange for cutting shows from their lineup and silencing network voices."
Lina Khan, the former chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), told MSNBC's Ali Velshi that the Kimmel saga is emblematic of a much broader problem of capitulation by corporations that have grown less accountable due to unchecked consolidation.
"Overwhelmingly, we have seen that some of the most powerful corporations in this country... have chosen profit and self-enrichment over any kind of commitment to democracy or the principles of liberty," Khan said. "We've heard people say, 'Well, actually, we really need to protect and pacify corporate interests because they're going to be the ones that are going to stand up to government abuse. This moment should entirely disabuse us of that illusion."
She discussed that this moment comes after "40 years of a bipartisan choice to accept a philosophy that basically thought monopolies are good, that consolidation was good." This has been particularly evident in the media. As a recent article from the University of Chicago's business school notes:
In the past decade, consolidation of American TV broadcasting has accelerated and put 40% of all local TV news stations under the control of the three largest broadcast conglomerates: Gray Television, Nexstar Media Group, and Sinclair Broadcast Group. Their stations—each company now owns about 100 affiliated with ABC, CBS, FOX, or NBC—operate in more than 80 percent of US media markets.
"If you're somebody who cares about protecting democracy, of course, we need to care about voting rights, making sure that elections are fair," Khan said. "But we also need to make sure that we understand extreme concentration of economic power is incompatible with democracy, and that needs to be at the center of our democratic agenda too."
Update: This article has been updated to note additional reporting from the New York Times that Nexstar, as well as Sinclair, would refuse to air Kimmel's program Tuesday night.
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Jimmy Kimmel Returning to ABC After Grassroots Campaign Decrying His Suspension
"We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday," said Disney.
Sep 22, 2025
Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel will be back on the air this week after his suspension last week raised alarms about the Trump administration using the power of the federal government to silence critics.
ABC parent company Disney announced in a Monday statement that Kimmel, a little more than a week after he was suspended following a pressure campaign from Trump-appointed Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr.
"Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country," Disney explained. "It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive. We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday."
Kimmel was suspended last Wednesday over remarks he'd made two days earlier about slain right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. In his opening monologue, Kimmel accused US President Donald Trump and his allies of trying “to score political points," while also suggesting that Kirk's alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, could belong to the far right.
Following the monologue, Carr appeared on a right-wing podcast and said that ABC stations could have their licenses revoked unless they stopped showing Kimmel.
“There’s actions we can take on licensed broadcasters,” Carr said. “And frankly, I think that it’s sort of really past time that a lot of these licensed broadcasters themselves push back on Comcast and Disney and say... we are not going to run Kimmel anymore until you straighten this out because we licensed broadcasters are running the possibility of fines or license revocation from the FCC if we continue to run content that ends up being a pattern of these distortions.”
The decision to suspend Kimmel after threats from a Trump official sparked protests against Disney, and several prominent artists on Monday signed a letter organized by the ACLU that slammed the company for apparently caving to government demands for censorship.
"Jimmy Kimmel was taken off the air after our government threatened a private company with retaliation for Kimmel’s remarks. This is a dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation,” the letter stated. “This is unconstitutional and un-American. The government is threatening private companies and individuals that the president disagrees with. We can’t let this threat to our freedom of speech go unanswered.”
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Using Boycotts to Defend Free Speech: This Is Larger Than Jimmy Kimmel
Kimmel isn’t the only voice that’s been targeted for failing to toe the line in the wake of Kirk’s murder, but Kimmel’s firing is the one that’s outraged millions of Americans who aren’t political junkies, so it's the one that offers the best chance to act.
Sep 22, 2025
How can we effectively push back on the Jimmy Kimmel suspension, and its larger threats to free speech? After Charlie Kirk’s shooting, Kimmel posted, “Can we just for one day agree that it is horrible and monstrous to shoot another human?” And sent his family’s “love to the Kirks and to all the children, parents, and innocents who fall victim to senseless gun violence.” But that didn’t seem to matter, because Kimmel also dared to point out that the Trump administration was using the assassination to score political points.
US President Donald Trump had already warned in July that Kimmel should be the next to be fired after Stephen Colbert. After Kimmel spoke out following the assassination, Trump Federal Communications Commission head Brendan Carr threatened to revoke the licenses of stations carrying Kimmel’s show. Nexstar and Sinclair then jumped in saying they wouldn’t air Kimmel’s episodes. And ABC-Disney caved. Vladimir Putin and his oligarchs would be proud.
Hearteningly, Americans are responding with appropriate outrage. The cancellation site of Disney+ streaming service has reportedly crashed from people ending their subscriptions. Conservative-leaning comedians have spoken out. Common Cause has launched a Turn Off Disney campaign and FreePress.Net has started a call-in campaign. Even Republican Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) called it “unbelievably dangerous for government to put itself in the position of saying we’re going to decide what speech we like and what we don’t, and we’re going to threaten to take you off air if we don’t like what you’re saying.”
The question is how to sustain the pushback, which means building the broadest possible coalition of fellow citizens who are outraged, whether or not they love Kimmel’s jokes and stands. And how to coordinate as many organizations as possible working together to promote approaches like:
- Boycotting ABC-Disney, including theme parks, cruises, movies, and streaming and TV channels like Disney+, ESPN, and Hulu. Asking international groups to do the same.
- Boycotting local stations of ABC, NextStar, and Sinclair. This could be particularly valuable given Sinclair’s longtime role demanding that their stations air their right-wing segments and talking points (plus demanding Kimmel donate to Turning Point or Kirk’s family). And Sinclair just backed off under pressure from their earlier announcement to schedule a Charlie Kirk Tribute in Kimmel’s slot. Public protests at the affiliates give people ways to act within their own communities, pressuring them to agree to carry Kimmel again and ask Sinclair to do so nationally. They can also spark general local coverage, along the lines of the Tesla Takedown campaigns.
- Targeting and pressuring station advertisers, both national and local. Local groups can publicly announce targets. People can find the advertisers by watching the local broadcasts. There’s also a crowdsourced map where people can take pictures of TV ads and then upload them with links to which advertiser and which station.
- Promoting all these actions on social media and in every other way. Hashtags circulating include #BoycottDisney, #CancelDisneyABC, #CancelDisneyPlus, #CancelHulu, #BoycottSinclair, and #IstandWithJimmyKimmel. Also here’s a link to related cartoons.
Successful boycotts and corporate campaigns need coalitions that act together and persist. I’m hoping other groups will now coordinate with Freepress.net and Common Cause to do this, and coordinate on common platforms to direct people. For instance, someone launched a boycottdisneyabc.com site with toolkits, templates, and an event page. But it’s not clear which, if any, groups are behind it or are using it. Pushback takes organization, as well as individual people acting.
Kimmel isn’t the only voice that’s been targeted for failing to toe the line in the wake of Kirk’s murder. MSNBC fired Matthew Dowd and the Washington Post fired columnist Karen Attiah. But Kimmel’s firing is the one that’s outraged millions of Americans who aren’t political junkies, so it's the one that offers the best chance to act. Kimmel’s suspension presents both a challenge to democracy, and an opportunity to keep this country one where governments can’t just shut down people who disagree with them.
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Trump Threatens to Strip Broadcast Licenses for Networks Giving Him 'Bad Press,' Ramping Up His 'Campaign of Censorship and Control'
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez says the commission "doesn't have the authority, the ability, or the constitutional right to revoke a license because of content."
Sep 18, 2025
President Donald Trump doubled down on his threats to silence his critics Thursday, telling reporters aboard Air Force One that outlets that give him "bad press" may have their broadcast licenses taken away.
The threat came just one day after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr, nominated by Trump, successfully pressured ABC into pulling Jimmy Kimmel's show from the air by threatening the broadcast licenses of its affiliates over a comment the comedian made about the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
"I read someplace that the networks were 97% against me," Trump told the press gaggle. "I get 97% negative, and yet I won it easily. I won all seven swing states, popular vote, I won everything. And they're 97% against, they give me wholly bad publicity... I mean, they're getting a license, I would think maybe their license should be taken away."
"When you have a network and you have evening shows and all they do is hit Trump, that’s all they do," the president continued. "If you go back, I guess they haven’t had a conservative on in years or something, somebody said, but when you go back and take a look, all they do is hit Trump. They’re licensed. They’re not allowed to do that.”
He said that the decision would be left up to Carr, who has threatened to take away licenses from networks that air what he called "distorted" content.
It is unclear where Trump's statistic that networks have been "97% against" him originates, nor the claim that mainstream news networks "haven't had a conservative on in years."
But even if it were true, FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez says "the FCC doesn't have the authority, the ability, or the constitutional right to revoke a license because of content."
In comments made to Axios Thursday, Gomez—the lone Democrat on the five-member panel—said that the Trump administration was "weaponizing its licensing authority in order to bring broadcasters to heel," as part of a "campaign of censorship and control."
National news networks like ABC, CBS, and NBC do not have broadcasting licenses approved by the FCC, nor do cable networks like CNN, MSNBC, or Fox News. The licenses threatened by Carr are for local affiliates, which—despite having the branding of the big networks—are owned by less well-known companies like Nexstar Media Group and the Sinclair Broadcasting Group, both of which pushed in favor of ABC's decision to ax Kimmel.
Gomez said that with Trump's intimidation of broadcasters, the "threat is the point."
"It is a very hard standard to meet to revoke a license, which is why it's so rarely done, but broadcast license to the broadcasters are extremely valuable," she said. "And so they don't want to be dragged before the FCC either in order to answer to an enforcement complaint of some kind or under the threat of possible revocation."
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House Democratic Leaders Demand 'Corrupt' Trump FCC Chair Resign After Kimmel Firing
"The censoring of artists and cancellation of shows is an act of cowardice," said the Democratic lawmakers.
Sep 18, 2025
Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives on Thursday issued a joint statement demanding the resignation of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr over his role in getting ABC to suspend late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel.
The statement, which was signed by Reps. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) and Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), accused Carr of corruption with his overt threats against ABC unless the network stopped airing Kimmel's show.
"Brendan Carr, the so-called chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has engaged in the corrupt abuse of power," they said. "He has disgraced the office he holds by bullying ABC, the employer of Jimmy Kimmel, and forcing the company to bend the knee to the Trump administration."
The Democrats also took shots at ABC for so quickly caving to pressure from the Trump administration and vowed to investigate the incident.
"Media companies, such as the one that suspended Mr. Kimmel, have a lot to explain," they said. "The censoring of artists and cancellation of shows is an act of cowardice. It may also be part of a corrupt pay-to-play scheme. House Democrats will make sure the American people learn the truth, even if that requires the relentless unleashing of congressional subpoena power. This will not be forgotten."
ABC announced that Kimmel would be suspended indefinitely just hours after car told right-wing influencer Benny Johnson in a podcast episode that the network could have its broadcast license revoked unless Kimmel was taken off the air.
"There’s actions we can take on licensed broadcasters," Carr said. "And frankly, I think that it's sort of really past time that a lot of these licensed broadcasters themselves push back on Comcast and Disney and say... we are not going to run Kimmel anymore until you straighten this out because we licensed broadcasters are running the possibility of fines or license revocation from the FCC if we continue to run content that ends up being a pattern of these distortions."
The Trump administration has shown no intention of backing off its threats to broadcasters that air content it deems objectionable, and on Thursday morning White House Faith Liaison Jenny Korn hailed the suspension of Kimmel during an appearance on Newsmax while suggesting it was proper retaliation for his remarks about the slain right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
"Thank goodness for companies now who are firing nurses and teachers and people like Jimmy Kimmel, because people should not be able to celebrate others' deaths in a very public way and then keep their jobs," she said.
Kimmel never celebrated Kirk’s murder and explicitly condemned it, but drew the ire of conservatives this week when he mentioned how the far-right MAGA movement, including President Donald Trump, tried "to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and accused the right of trying "to score political points" from the killing. Activists claimed the remark suggested that the suspect in the killing, Tyler Robinson, could have been a Republican.
Leaked chats between Robinson and his roommate on Tuesday suggested that the suspect wasn't "firmly aligned with any political movement at all," as one journalist said.
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