ReportWire

Tag: kimmel

  • Jimmy Kimmel defends free speech in ‘alternative Christmas message’ for Britain

    Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel took aim at U.S. President Donald Trump as he warned Thursday about the rise of fascism in an address to U.K. viewers dubbed “The Alternative Christmas Message.”The message, aired on Channel 4 on Christmas Day, reflected on the impact of the second term in office for Trump, who Kimmel said acts like he’s a king.”From a fascism perspective, this has been a really great year,” he said. “Tyranny is booming over here.”The channel began a tradition of airing an alternative Christmas message in 1993, as a counterpart to the British monarch’s annual televised address to the nation. Channel 4 said the message is often a thought-provoking and personal reflection pertinent to the events of the year.The comedian has skewered Trump since returning to the air after ABC indefinitely suspended the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” show in September following criticism of comments the host made over the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.Kimmel made remarks in reference to the reaction to Kirk’s shooting, suggesting that many Trump supporters were trying to capitalize on the death.Trump celebrated the suspension of the veteran late-night comic and his frequent critic, calling it “great news for America.” He also called for other late-night hosts to be fired.The incident, one of Trump’s many disputes and legal battles waged with the media, drew widespread concerns about freedom of speech and freedom of the press.Hundreds of leading Hollywood stars and others in the entertainment industry urged Americans to “fight to defend and preserve our constitutionally protected rights.” The show returned to the air less than a week later.Kimmel told the U.K. audience that a Christmas miracle had happened in September when millions of people — some who hated his show — had spoken up for free speech.”We won, the president lost, and now I’m back on the air every night giving the most powerful politician on earth a right and richly deserved bollocking,” he said.Channel 4 previously invited whistle-blower Edward Snowden and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to deliver the alternative Christmas message.Kimmel, who said he didn’t expect Brits to know who he was, warned that silencing critics is not just something that happens in Russia or North Korea.Despite the split that led to the American Revolution 250 years ago, he said the two nations still shared a special relationship and urged the U.K. not to give up on the U.S. as it was “going through a bit of a wobble right now.””Here in the United States right now, we are both figuratively and literally tearing down the structures of our democracy from the free press to science to medicine to judicial independence to the actual White House itself,” Kimmel said, in reference to demolition of the building’s East Wing. “We are a right mess, and we know this is also affecting you, and I just wanted to say sorry.”

    Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel took aim at U.S. President Donald Trump as he warned Thursday about the rise of fascism in an address to U.K. viewers dubbed “The Alternative Christmas Message.”

    The message, aired on Channel 4 on Christmas Day, reflected on the impact of the second term in office for Trump, who Kimmel said acts like he’s a king.

    “From a fascism perspective, this has been a really great year,” he said. “Tyranny is booming over here.”

    The channel began a tradition of airing an alternative Christmas message in 1993, as a counterpart to the British monarch’s annual televised address to the nation. Channel 4 said the message is often a thought-provoking and personal reflection pertinent to the events of the year.

    The comedian has skewered Trump since returning to the air after ABC indefinitely suspended the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” show in September following criticism of comments the host made over the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

    Kimmel made remarks in reference to the reaction to Kirk’s shooting, suggesting that many Trump supporters were trying to capitalize on the death.

    Trump celebrated the suspension of the veteran late-night comic and his frequent critic, calling it “great news for America.” He also called for other late-night hosts to be fired.

    The incident, one of Trump’s many disputes and legal battles waged with the media, drew widespread concerns about freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

    Hundreds of leading Hollywood stars and others in the entertainment industry urged Americans to “fight to defend and preserve our constitutionally protected rights.” The show returned to the air less than a week later.

    Kimmel told the U.K. audience that a Christmas miracle had happened in September when millions of people — some who hated his show — had spoken up for free speech.

    “We won, the president lost, and now I’m back on the air every night giving the most powerful politician on earth a right and richly deserved bollocking,” he said.

    Channel 4 previously invited whistle-blower Edward Snowden and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to deliver the alternative Christmas message.

    Kimmel, who said he didn’t expect Brits to know who he was, warned that silencing critics is not just something that happens in Russia or North Korea.

    Despite the split that led to the American Revolution 250 years ago, he said the two nations still shared a special relationship and urged the U.K. not to give up on the U.S. as it was “going through a bit of a wobble right now.”

    “Here in the United States right now, we are both figuratively and literally tearing down the structures of our democracy from the free press to science to medicine to judicial independence to the actual White House itself,” Kimmel said, in reference to demolition of the building’s East Wing. “We are a right mess, and we know this is also affecting you, and I just wanted to say sorry.”

    Source link

  • Cleto Escobedo III, Jimmy Kimmel’s Bandleader And Childhood Friend, Dies At 59 – KXL

    (AP) – Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel is mourning the death of one of his oldest friends — his show’s bandleader, Cleto Escobedo III.

    Kimmel announced Escobedo’s death Tuesday on Instagram, saying “that we are heartbroken is an understatement.” Escobedo was 59.

    Escobedo and Kimmel met as children in Las Vegas, where they grew up across the street from each other.

    “We just met one day on the street, and there were a few kids on the street, and him and I just became really close friends, and we kind of had the same sense of humor. We just became pals, and we’ve been pals ever since,” Escobedo said in a 2022 interview for Texas Tech University’s Southwest Collection oral history archive, disclosing that he and Kimmel were huge fans of David Letterman as kids.

    Escobedo would grow up to become a professional musician, specializing in the saxophone, and touring with Earth, Wind and Fire’s Phillip Bailey and Paula Abdul. He recorded with Marc Anthony, Tom Scott and Take Six. When Kimmel got his own ABC late-night talk show in 2003, he lobbied for Escobedo to lead the house band on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

    “Of course I wanted great musicians, but I wanted somebody I had chemistry with,” Kimmel told WABC in 2015. “And there’s nobody in my life I have better chemistry with than him.”

    In 2016, on Escobedo’s 50th birthday, Kimmel dedicated a segment to his friend, recalling pranks with a BB gun or mooning people from the back of his mom’s car.

    “Cleto had a bicycle with a sidecar attached to it. We called it the side hack. I would get in the sidecar and then Cleto would drive me directly into garbage cans and bushes,” Kimmel recalled.

    News of Escobedo’s death comes after Thursday’s episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” was abruptly canceled. David Duchovny, Joe Keery and Madison Beer were set as the show’s guests. The date and cause of Escobedo’s death weren’t immediately known.

    Escobedo’s father is also a member of the Kimmel house band and plays tenor and alto saxophones. In January 2022, the father-son duo celebrated nearly two decades of performing on-screen together.

    “Jimmy asked me, ‘Who are we going to get in the band?’ I said, ‘Well, my normal guys,’ and he knew my guys because he had been coming to see us and stuff before he was famous, just to come support me and whatever. I’d invite him to gigs, and if he didn’t have anything to do he’d come check it out, so he knew my guys,” Escobedo recounted in the 2022 interview. “Then he just said, ‘Hey, man, what about your dad? Wouldn’t that be kind of cool?’ I was like, ‘That would be way cool.’”

    In the 2022 interview, Escobedo said the bandleader job had one major benefit: family time.

    “Touring and all that stuff is fun, but it’s more of a young man’s game. Touring, also, too, is not really conducive for family life. I’ve learned over the years, being on the road and watching how hard it is, leaving your kids for so long. Sometimes they’re babies; you come back and then they’re talking, it’s like, ‘What?’” he said.

    Escobedo’s survivors also include his wife Lori and their two children.

    “The fact that we got to work together every day is a dream neither of us could ever have imagined would come true. Cherish your friends and please keep Cleto’s wife, children and parents in your prayers,” Kimmel wrote.

    Jordan Vawter

    Source link

  • Jimmy Kimmel explains how he learned he was being yanked off the air — and thought he’d never return

    When ABC executives told Jimmy Kimmel last month that his show was being pulled off the air, the late-night show’s audience was seated, a guest chef had already started making food, the musical guest had performed a warm-up act, and Kimmel was in the bathroom.”It was about 3:00; we tape our show at 4:30,” Kimmel told Stephen Colbert on an episode of “The Late Show” Tuesday. “I’m in my office, typing away as I usually do. I get a phone call. It’s ABC. They say they want to talk to me. This is unusual: They, as far as I knew, didn’t even know I was doing a show previous to this.”Kimmel said he had five writers in his office at the time, and the only private place where he could take the call was the bathroom.”So I go into the bathroom, and I’m on the phone with the ABC executives. and they say, ‘Listen, we want to take the temperature down. We’re concerned about what you’re going to say tonight, and we decided that the best route is to take the show off the air.’”The audience booed, and Kimmel joked: “That’s what I said: I started booing.””I said, ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea,’ and they said, ‘Well, we think it’s a good idea.’ Then there was a vote, and I lost the vote.”Kimmel said he called some of the show’s executive producers into his office to share the news, and he turned white.”I thought, that’s it. It’s over, it’s over. I was like, I’m never coming back on the air.”Kimmel said the show had to send the seated audience home. Chef Christian Petroni’s prepared meatballs and polenta that he had been cooking before the taping went to waste. Future musical guest Howard Jones, however, taped a song for a future episode: “Things Can Only Get Better,” which Kimmel acknowledged was ironic.ABC suspended Kimmel’s show in mid-September for a few days after a controversial monologue that mentioned Charlie Kirk’s suspected killer – and the right-wing reaction to Kirk’s murder. Two days later, FCC Chair Brendan Carr, on a conservative podcast, threatened to pull ABC affiliate broadcast licenses in response. Then Nexstar — the station group which airs “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” in approximately two dozen markets — announced they would not air the show. Another affiliate, Sinclair, followed suit. And hours later, Kimmel took ABC executives’ call in the bathroom.Kimmel returned to the air the following Tuesday with an emotional monologue — and mega-ratings.Colbert couldn’t get the line outColbert, who also appeared as a guest on Brooklyn taping of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” Tuesday, said he could empathize with Kimmel. The CBS star said executives had made the decision to end his show while Colbert was on vacation. His manager, James Dixon, whom he shares with Kimmel, waited until Colbert returned to share the news.Recounting his desire to tell his audience about the news immediately — despite the fact that “Late Night” is set to run through the spring of 2026 — Colbert told Kimmel that at the end of the following show, he asked his audience to remain in their seats for one more segment. But he had trouble delivering his lines and flubbed the line — twice.”I was so nervous about doing it right, ’cause there was nothing in the prompter. I was just speaking off the cuff,” Colbert said. “They started going, ‘Come on Stephen, you can do it,” because I always messed up on the sentence that told them what was happening. And then I got to the sentence that actually told them what’s happening, and they didn’t laugh.”Although CBS owner Paramount said the cancellation of “The Late Show” was strictly a business decision, many media critics — and Kimmel — questioned that rationale, and some have said it was likely a political decision to appease the Trump administration that needed to approve Paramount’s merger with Skydance.Both Colbert and Kimmel have been frequent and unabashed critics of President Donald Trump and his administration. Trump publicly celebrated when Colbert was canceled, saying in a social media post that Kimmel and NBC’s Seth Meyers were “next.” Trump again celebrated when Kimmel was pulled off the air but criticized — and threatened — ABC when it brought him back on.Meyers made an appearance on Kimmel’s show Tuesday, and the three late night hosts posed for a photograph posted to Instagram. Kimmel added the caption: “Hi Donald!”Kimmel joked with Colbert that Tuesday’s taping was, “The show the FCC doesn’t want you to see.” He introduced Colbert as, “The Emmy-winning late-night talk show host who, thanks to the Trump administration, is now available for a limited-time only.”Kimmel quipped that he was “so honored to be here with my fellow no-talent, late-night loser.” As for the rationale for inviting Colbert onto his program: “We thought it might be a fun way to drive the president nuts.”

    CNN —

    When ABC executives told Jimmy Kimmel last month that his show was being pulled off the air, the late-night show’s audience was seated, a guest chef had already started making food, the musical guest had performed a warm-up act, and Kimmel was in the bathroom.

    “It was about 3:00; we tape our show at 4:30,” Kimmel told Stephen Colbert on an episode of “The Late Show” Tuesday. “I’m in my office, typing away as I usually do. I get a phone call. It’s ABC. They say they want to talk to me. This is unusual: They, as far as I knew, didn’t even know I was doing a show previous to this.”

    Kimmel said he had five writers in his office at the time, and the only private place where he could take the call was the bathroom.

    “So I go into the bathroom, and I’m on the phone with the ABC executives. and they say, ‘Listen, we want to take the temperature down. We’re concerned about what you’re going to say tonight, and we decided that the best route is to take the show off the air.’”

    The audience booed, and Kimmel joked: “That’s what I said: I started booing.”

    “I said, ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea,’ and they said, ‘Well, we think it’s a good idea.’ Then there was a vote, and I lost the vote.”

    Kimmel said he called some of the show’s executive producers into his office to share the news, and he turned white.

    “I thought, that’s it. It’s over, it’s over. I was like, I’m never coming back on the air.”

    Kimmel said the show had to send the seated audience home. Chef Christian Petroni’s prepared meatballs and polenta that he had been cooking before the taping went to waste. Future musical guest Howard Jones, however, taped a song for a future episode: “Things Can Only Get Better,” which Kimmel acknowledged was ironic.

    ABC suspended Kimmel’s show in mid-September for a few days after a controversial monologue that mentioned Charlie Kirk’s suspected killer – and the right-wing reaction to Kirk’s murder. Two days later, FCC Chair Brendan Carr, on a conservative podcast, threatened to pull ABC affiliate broadcast licenses in response. Then Nexstar — the station group which airs “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” in approximately two dozen markets — announced they would not air the show. Another affiliate, Sinclair, followed suit. And hours later, Kimmel took ABC executives’ call in the bathroom.

    Kimmel returned to the air the following Tuesday with an emotional monologue — and mega-ratings.

    Colbert couldn’t get the line out

    Colbert, who also appeared as a guest on Brooklyn taping of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” Tuesday, said he could empathize with Kimmel. The CBS star said executives had made the decision to end his show while Colbert was on vacation. His manager, James Dixon, whom he shares with Kimmel, waited until Colbert returned to share the news.

    Recounting his desire to tell his audience about the news immediately — despite the fact that “Late Night” is set to run through the spring of 2026 — Colbert told Kimmel that at the end of the following show, he asked his audience to remain in their seats for one more segment. But he had trouble delivering his lines and flubbed the line — twice.

    “I was so nervous about doing it right, ’cause there was nothing in the prompter. I was just speaking off the cuff,” Colbert said. “They started going, ‘Come on Stephen, you can do it,” because I always messed up on the sentence that told them what was happening. And then I got to the sentence that actually told them what’s happening, and they didn’t laugh.”

    Although CBS owner Paramount said the cancellation of “The Late Show” was strictly a business decision, many media critics — and Kimmel — questioned that rationale, and some have said it was likely a political decision to appease the Trump administration that needed to approve Paramount’s merger with Skydance.

    Both Colbert and Kimmel have been frequent and unabashed critics of President Donald Trump and his administration. Trump publicly celebrated when Colbert was canceled, saying in a social media post that Kimmel and NBC’s Seth Meyers were “next.” Trump again celebrated when Kimmel was pulled off the air but criticized — and threatened — ABC when it brought him back on.

    Meyers made an appearance on Kimmel’s show Tuesday, and the three late night hosts posed for a photograph posted to Instagram. Kimmel added the caption: “Hi Donald!”

    Kimmel joked with Colbert that Tuesday’s taping was, “The show the FCC doesn’t want you to see.” He introduced Colbert as, “The Emmy-winning late-night talk show host who, thanks to the Trump administration, is now available for a limited-time only.”

    Kimmel quipped that he was “so honored to be here with my fellow no-talent, late-night loser.” As for the rationale for inviting Colbert onto his program: “We thought it might be a fun way to drive the president nuts.”

    Source link

  • Nexstar And Sinclair Bring Jimmy Kimmel’s Show Back On Local TV Stations, Ending Boycotts – KXL

    NEW YORK (AP) — Nexstar Media Group joined Sinclair Broadcast Group in bringing Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show back to its local TV stations on Friday night, ending a dayslong TV blackout for dozens of cities across the U.S.

    The companies suspended the program over remarks the comedian made in the wake of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s killing. The move means “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” will return to local TV on Nexstar’s ABC affiliates in 28 cities, along with the 38 stations where Sinclair agreed to restore the show.

    The show will also return to Sinclair’s local TV markets from Seattle to Washington, D.C.

    Disney-owned ABC suspended Kimmel on Sept. 17, following threats of potential repercussions from the Trump-appointed head of the Federal Communications Commission. Sinclair also condemned the host — confirming that it would stop airing the show the same day.

    The Maryland-based broadcast giant, which is known for conservative political content, called on Kimmel at the time to apologize to Kirk’s family — and taking it a step further, asked him to “make a meaningful personal donation” to Turning Point USA, the nonprofit that Kirk founded.

    On the day Kirk was killed, Kimmel shared a message of support for Kirk’s family and other victims of gun violence on social media, which he reiterated during his Tuesday return to ABC. He had also called the conservative activist’s assassination a “senseless murder” prior to being taken off air.

    Kimmel’s original comments didn’t otherwise focus on Kirk. He instead lambasted President Donald Trump and his administration’s response to the killing. The comedian did not apologize on Tuesday, but did say “it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man” and acknowledged that to some, his comments “felt either ill-timed or unclear or maybe both.”

    He also used a blend of humor and pointed messages to emphasize the importance of free speech.

    Even after Disney brought Kimmel back to its national airways, both Sinclair and Nexstar continued to preempt the show.

    New episodes of the show air Monday through Thursday. Friday night’s rerun will be of Tuesday’s show — so viewers of Sinclair stations can see Kimmel’s emotional return to the air.

    In its statement Friday, Sinclair pointed to its “responsibility as local broadcasters to provide programming that serves the interests of our communities, while also honoring our obligations to air national network programming.”

    The company, which operates 38 ABC-affiliated stations, added that it had received “thoughtful feedback from viewers, advertisers and community leaders representing a wide range of perspectives,” and noticed “troubling acts of violence,” referencing the shooting into the lobby of a Sacramento station.

    “These events underscore why responsible broadcasting matters and why respectful dialogue between differing voices remains so important,” Sinclair added.

    As a result of Sinclair and Nexstar’s boycott, viewers in cities representing roughly a quarter of ABC’s local TV affiliates had been left without the late-night program on local TV. The blackouts escalated nationwide uproar around First Amendment protections — particularly as the Trump administration and other conservatives police speech after Kirk’s killing. They also cast a spotlight on political influence in the media landscape, with critics lambasting companies that they accuse of censoring content.

    Ahead of his suspension, Kimmel took aim at the president and his “MAGA gang” of supporters for their response to Kirk’s killing, which Kimmel said included “finger-pointing” and attempts to characterize the alleged shooter as “anything other than one of them.”

    These remarks angered many supporters of Kirk — as well as FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, who accused Kimmel of appearing to “directly mislead the American public” with his remarks about the man accused of the killing. Ahead of Kimmel’s suspension, Carr warned that Disney and ABC’s local affiliates could face repercussions if the comedian was not punished.

    He later applauded Sinclair, as well as Nexstar, for their decisions to preempt the show.

    On Sept. 17, Sinclair Vice Chairman Jason Smith called Kimmel’s comments “inappropriate and deeply insensitive” and said that ABC’s suspension wasn’t enough. Smith added that Sinclair appreciated Carr’s comments — and called for “immediate regulatory action” from the FCC “to address control held over local broadcasters by the big national networks.”

    Still, in Friday’s announcement, Sinclair maintained that its decision to preempt Kimmel’s show was “independent of any government interaction or influence,” Sinclair’s statement Friday read, adding that broadcasters had the right to exercise their own judgment.

    While local TV affiliates broadcast their own programming, such as local news, they also contract with larger national broadcasters — and pay them to air their national content, splitting advertising revenue and fees from cable companies.

    Sinclair said “constructive” discussions with ABC were ongoing, and said its proposals to the network to strengthen accountability, feedback and dialogue and appoint an ombudsman had not yet been adopted.

    Representatives for ABC declined to comment on Friday.

    Matthew Dolgin, senior equity analyst at research firm Morningstar, said he wasn’t surprised by Sinclair’s decision.

    “The relationship with Disney is far too important for these firms to risk,” Dolgin said. And setting aside legal rights from either side, he added, “Disney would’ve been free to take its affiliate agreements elsewhere in 2026 if these relationships were too difficult. That scenario would be devastating to Nexstar and Sinclair.”

    Jordan Vawter

    Source link

  • Trump’s attacks on Kimmel and ABC put him at odds with high-profile conservatives

    The return of Jimmy Kimmel to ABC’s airwaves flipped the political script, for a time aligning the late-night comedian with several conservative figures who staunchly disagree with federal regulators trying to shut him down over free speech — even as President Trump continued to threaten the network.

    “I want to thank the people who don’t support my show and what I believe, but support my right to share those beliefs anyway,” Kimmel told viewers during his opening monologue Tuesday night.

    Trump in recent days has ramped up efforts to stifle his political opposition and what he perceives to be liberal bias in media coverage through lawsuits and regulatory actions, a move that has increasingly concerned the president’s supporters and influential conservative personalities.

    The firestorm over free speech came in the wake of comments Kimmel made about how the “MAGA gang” was trying to score political points from Charlie Kirk’s slaying. On a conservative podcast, Brendan Carr, a Trump loyalist who heads the Federal Communications Commission, accused Kimmel of “the sickest conduct” and suggested there could be regulatory consequences for local television stations whose programming did not serve the public interest.

    After Disney took “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” off the air at ABC last week, some high-profile Trump allies worried the threat of regulating speech was taking it too far — and that conservatives could be next if the federal government were to follow through.

    “If we embrace the FCC stripping licenses from anyone who says something you disagree with, the next Democrat president who gets in the White House will do this and will come after everyone right of center,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a critic of Kimmel’s, said Wednesday on his podcast, “Verdict With Ted Cruz,” reaffirming previous comments in which he likened Carr’s threats to mafia-like maneuvers. “That is a slippery slope to oblivion.”

    Trump, however, was dismayed by Kimmel’s return and threatened legal action, following a pattern in which he has sued major media outlets over negative coverage of him.

    “I think we are going to test ABC out on this. Let’s see how we do,” Trump wrote late Tuesday on his social media platform, suggesting a lawsuit against the network could potentially lead to a “lucrative” settlement. “A true bunch of losers! Let Jimmy Kimmel rot in his bad Ratings.”

    Combined, Trump’s legal threats and Carr’s comments have fueled a sharp debate about free speech, and whether Trump and Carr are trying to level the playing field for conservative voices or launching a coordinated and illegal attack to silence liberal ones. As a result, Carr — the author of an FCC chapter in the right-wing Project 2025 playbook — has landed in a glaring media spotlight and as the target of a congressional inquiry.

    Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and eight other Democratic senators wrote a letter to Carr on Wednesday expressing “grave concern” over the FCC’s apparent role in Kimmel’s suspension, and demanded answers about the role the agency played in it and its justification.

    “The FCC’s regulatory authority over broadcast licenses was never intended to serve as a weapon to silence criticism or punish satirical commentary,” the senators wrote. “Your agency’s mission is to serve the public interest, not to act as an enforcement arm for political retribution against media outlets that displease those in power.”

    California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta has also written to Carr, accusing the Trump administration of “waging a dangerous attack on those who dare to speak out against it” and calling on Carr to recommit to defending free speech, including by disavowing his previous remarks about Kimmel.

    In the days after Kimmel was sidelined, Cruz and other influential conservatives, who have long trashed the longtime late-night host, voiced opposition to his situation based on concerns that the FCC may be trying to regulate speech on the airwaves.

    “You don’t have to like what somebody says on TV to agree that the government shouldn’t be getting involved here,” former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said on a social media post Monday.

    Podcast host Joe Rogan said he did not “think the government should be involved, ever, in dictating what a comedian can or cannot say in a monologue” — and told conservatives they are “crazy” if they don’t think such tactics could be “used” against them. Candance Owens, a far-right influencer, said Kimmel’s suspension was an attack on free speech, and said she does not agree with the government controlling what can be said.

    Ben Shapiro raised concerns about potential government overreach.

    “I don’t want the FCC in the business of telling local affiliated that their licenses will be removed if they broadcast material that the FCC deems to be informationally false,” Shapiro said, warning that “one day the shoe will be on the other foot.”

    Conservative podcaster Tucker Carlson said last week he does not want to see “bad actors” use Kirk’s killing as a means to restrict free speech, which he said is a cornerstone of Kirk’s legacy.

    “You hope a year from now, the turmoil we’re seeing in the aftermath of his murder won’t be leveraged to bring hate speech laws to this country,” Carlson said.

    In his opening monologue, Kimmel touched on the same theme. He said Carr’s tactics were “un-American” and likened them to what happens in authoritarian countries such as Russia.

    “This show is not important,” he said. “What is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this.”

    On the podcast last week, Carr called Kimmel’s remarks about Kirk’s alleged shooter “some of the sickest conduct possible.” He then said: “Frankly, when you see stuff like this, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. There are ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

    On Monday, Carr denied claims that he threatened to pull television stations’ licenses and that he played a role in Kimmel’s suspension, saying “that didn’t happen in any way, shape or form.”

    “They’re completely misrepresenting the work of the FCC and what we’ve been doing,” he said during a conference in New York, accusing Democrats of engaging in a “campaign of projection and distortion.”

    Carr said the FCC wants to empower local television station owners to “push back on national programmers, even when they think there’s some content that they don’t think in their judgment — not my judgment, but their judgment — makes sense for the local communities.”

    What happened with Kimmel, Carr said, is that local television stations “for the first time in a long time stood up and said, ‘We don’t want to run that program, at least right now.’” He said Disney, a national programmer, then made its own business decision not to air Kimmel for a few days.

    After Disney brought back the show, station owners Sinclair Broadcast Group and Nexstar Media Group said they would not be running it on their ABC affiliates, hinting to future conflicts that could play out in the media landscape.

    Carr opened his Project 2025 chapter on the FCC by writing that the agency should “promote freedom of speech,” but has also sided with Trump in criticizing broadcasters for allegedly showing bias against conservatives and said that he would use the agency’s power to ensure that they better serve the “public interest.”

    Bob Shrum, director of the USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future, said the political brawl over Kimmel has been interesting to watch — in part because of the bipartisan backlash to the suspension and the administration’s apparent influence on it.

    “I’m encouraged by the fact that it’s not just Democrats who complained about this, it’s Republicans like Ted Cruz,” Shrum said. “That at least begins to set a deterrent for the federal government going too far on this.”

    While Trump was angered by Kimmel’s return, Shrum found it notable that his social media post ended with the line: “Let Jimmy Kimmel rot in his bad Ratings.” It showed the limits the president sees on his power to wipe Kimmel from the airwaves, he said.

    “That’s not the kind of last line that says, ‘We’re coming after you,’” Shrum said.

    Ana Ceballos, Kevin Rector

    Source link

  • Commentary: Please, Jimmy, don’t back down. Making fun of Trump is your patriotic duty

    So Jimmy Kimmel is coming back, fast enough that there are still folks out there who didn’t know he was gone.

    Hallelujah? Praise be to ABC? Free speech triumphs?

    It all depends on Tuesday night, when we see if Kimmel returns undaunted, or if he has been subdued. Of all the consequential, crazy, frightening events that have taken place in recent days, Kimmel’s return should be a moment we all watch — a real-time, late-night look at how successful our president is at forcing us to censor ourselves through fear.

    Please, Jimmy, don’t back down.

    If Kimmel tempers his comedy now, pulls his punches on making fun of power, he sends the message that we should all be afraid, that we should all bend. Maybe he didn’t sign up for this, but here he is — a person in a position of influence being forced to make a risky choice between safety and country.

    That sounds terribly dramatic, I know, but self-censorship is the heart of authoritarianism. When people of power are too scared to even crack a joke, what does that mean for the average person?

    If Kimmel, with his celebrity, clout and wealth, cannot stand up to this president, what chance do the rest of us have?

    Patriotism used to be a simple thing. A bit of apple pie, a flag on the Fourth of July, maybe even a twinge of pride when the national anthem plays and all the words pop into your mind even though you can’t find your car keys or remember what day it is.

    It’s just something there, running in the background — an unspoken acknowledgment that being American is a pretty terrific thing to be.

    Now, of course, patriotism is the most loaded of words. It’s been masticated and barfed out by the MAGA movement into a specific gruel — a white, Western-centric dogma that demands a narrow and angry Christianity dominate civic life.

    There have been a deluge of examples of this subversion in recent days. The Pentagon is threatening to punish journalists who report information it doesn’t explicitly provide. The president used social media to demand U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi go after his perceived enemies.

    The one that put a knot in my stomach was the speech by Stephen Miller, Trump’s immigration czar, speaking, without humor, at the memorial for Charlie Kirk.

    “We are the storm,” Miller said, hinting back at a QAnon conspiracy theory about a violent reordering of society.

    That’s disturbing, but actually mild compared with what he said next, a now-familiar Christian nationalist rant.

    “Our lineage and our legacy hails back to Athens, to Rome, to Philadelphia, to Monticello,” Miller said. “Our ancestors built the cities they produced, the art and architecture they built. The industry.”

    Who’s going to tell him about Sally Hemings? But he continued with an attack on the “yous” who don’t agree with this worldview, the “yous,” like Kimmel, one presumes (though Kimmel’s name did not come up) who oppose this cruel version of America.

    “You are wickedness, you are jealousy, you are envy, you are hatred, you are nothing,” Miller said. “You can build nothing. You can produce nothing. You can create nothing.”

    Humor, of course, ain’t nothing, which is why this administration can’t stand it.

    Humor builds camaraderie. It produces dopamine and serotonin, the glue of human bonding. It drains away fear, and creates hope.

    Which is why autocrats always go after comedians pretty early on. It’s not thin skin, though Trump seems to have that. It’s effective management of dissent.

    Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels knew it. In 1939, after his party had set up a Chamber of Culture that required all performers to adhere to certain rules, he banned five German comedians — Werner Finck, Peter Sachse, Helmuth Buth, Wilhelm Meissner and Manfred Dlugi — for making political jokes that didn’t support the regime. He basically ended their careers for daring satire against Nazi leaders, claiming people didn’t find it funny.

    “(I)n their public appearances they displayed a lack of any positive attitude toward National Socialism and therewith caused grave annoyance in public and especially to party comrades,” the New York Times reported the German government claiming at the time.

    Sounds familiar.

    Kimmel, of course, is not the only comedian speaking out. Jon Stewart has hit back on “The Daily Show,” pretending to be scared into submission, perhaps a hat tip to Finck, who famously joked, “I am not saying anything. And even that I am not saying.”

    Stephen Colbert roasted Disney with a very funny parody video. Political cartoonists are having a field day.

    And there are plenty of others pushing back. Gov. Gavin Newsom has taken to all-caps rebuttals. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, whom Trump called “nothing,” is also vocal in his opposition, especially of National Guard troops in Chicago.

    The collective power of the powerful is no joke. It means something.

    But all the sober talk in the world can’t rival one spot-on dig when it comes to kicking the clay feet of would-be dictators. Mark Twain said it best: Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand. Which is what makes Kimmel so relevant in this moment.

    Can he come back with a laugh — proving we have nothing to fear but fear itself — or are we seriously in trouble?

    Anita Chabria

    Source link

  • ABC Ends Jimmy Kimmel’s Suspension And His Show Will Return Tuesday – KXL


    Oscar Villanueva holds a sign outside El Capitan Entertainment Centre, where the late-night show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” is staged, Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

    NEW YORK (AP) — ABC will reinstate Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show in the wake of criticism over his comments about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, officials with the network said Monday.

    “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 a statement from the network.

    ABC suspended Kimmel indefinitely after comments he made about Kirk, who was killed Sept. 10, in a monologue. Kimmel said “many in MAGA land are working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk” and that “the MAGA gang” was “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.”

    Kimmel has hosted “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on ABC since 2003 and has been a fixture in television and comedy for even longer. He is also well known as a presenter, having hosted the Academy Awards four times.

    Backlash to Kimmel’s comments about Kirk was swift. Nexstar and Sinclair, two of ABC’s largest affiliate owners, said they would be pulling “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” from their stations. Others, including several fellow comedians, came to his defense.

    President Donald Trump, one of Kimmel’s frequent targets, posted on social media that Kimmel’s suspension was “great news for America.” He also called for other late night hosts to be fired.

    Kimmel was asked in an interview with Variety this past summer if he was worried that the administration would come after comedians. He expressed concern that a crackdown could be on the way.

    “Well, you’d have to be naive not to worry a little bit,” he said. “But that can’t change what you’re doing.”

    Kimmel’s suspension arrived in a time when Trump and his administration have pursued threats, lawsuits and federal government pressure to try to exert more control over the media industry. Trump has reached settlements with ABC and CBS over their coverage.

    Trump has also filed defamation lawsuits against The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. Republicans in Congress stripped federal funding from NPR and PBS.

    Brendan Carr, the head of the Federal Communications Commission, issued a warning prior to Kimmel’s suspension that criticized Kimmel’s remarks about the Kirk assassination.

    “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said. “These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

    The suspension also happened at a time when the late night landscape is shifting. CBS announced the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s show over the summer

    Kimmel’s contract with The Walt Disney Co.-owned network had been set to expire in May 2026.

    Word of the reinstatement came as hundreds of Hollywood and Broadway stars — including Robert De Niro, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Selena Gomez, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep — urged Americans “fight to defend and preserve our constitutionally protected rights” in the wake of Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension.

    More than 430 movie, TV and stage stars as well as comedians, directors and writers added their names to an open letter Monday from the American Civil Liberties Union that argues it is “a dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation.”

    Also Monday, ABC’s “The View” weighed in on the controversy after not raising it for two episodes after Kimmel was suspended. Co-host Whoopi Goldberg opened the show saying: “No one silences us” and she and her fellow hosts condemned Disney’s decision.

    More about:


    Jordan Vawter

    Source link

  • Jimmy Kimmel celebrated Hollywood Boulevard’s wacky character. Locals fear life without him

    Spider-Man and a Hollywood tour guide were having it out.

    They stood right outside Jimmy Kimmel’s studio on Hollywood Boulevard, arguing about whether ABC was right to yank the host’s TV show off the air last week after he commented on the political response to right-wing activist Charlie Kirk’s killing.

    “I like Kimmel!” said the Spider-Man impersonator, who wore pink Nike sneakers and leaned in close so he could hear through his thin, face-covering costume. “What he said is free speech.”

    A tour bus drives past what was Jimmy Kimmel’s studio on Hollywood Boulevard on Sept. 18, 2025.

    (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

    Todd Doten, a tour agent for Beverly Hills Tours of Hollywood, pushed back. He said he believed broadcasters are held to a different standard than private citizens, and that the Federal Communications Commission — which pushed to get Kimmel’s show canceled — “has somewhat of a point.”

    The men verbally sparred beside singer Little Richard’s cracked star on the Walk of Fame. Then Doten patted the selfie-hawking superhero on the back and they parted ways amicably.

    The scene on Friday afternoon captured the Hollywood that Kimmel embraced and aggressively promoted: Weird, gritty and surprisingly poignant.

    Ever since he began filming at the El Capitan Entertainment Centre in 2003, Kimmel has been one of the famed neighborhood’s biggest ambassadors. He drew tourists to the storied Hollywood Boulevard, which — despite being home to the Academy Awards, TCL Chinese Theatre and the Walk of Fame — has long struggled with crime, homelessness and blight. He used his celebrity to help homeless youth and opened a donation center on his show’s backlot for victims of the January wildfires.

    And he filmed many a sketch with Hollywood itself as the bizarro backdrop — including one returning bit called “Who’s High?” in which he tried to guess which of three pedestrians was stoned.

    People protest in front of the Jimmy Kimmel Theater a day after ABC pulled the late-night host off air.

    Protesters in front of Jimmy Kimmel’s theater a day after ABC pulled the late-night host off air indefinitely over comments he made about the response to right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk’s death.

    (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

    Now, locals and entertainment industry officials alike worry what will happen if Kimmel’s show permanently disappears from a Hollywood still struggling to recover from the writers’ and actors’ strikes of 2023 and the COVID-19 pandemic that literally shut the neighborhood down. While his suspension has sparked a roiling debate over free speech rights nationwide, in this neighborhood, the impact is more close to home.

    “A hostile act toward Jimmy Kimmel is a hostile act toward Hollywood itself and one of its great champions,” former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told The Times on Friday.

    “Hollywood is both a place and an idea. It’s an industry and a geography. Jimmy is always big on both. He actually lives in Hollywood, at a time when not a lot of stars do.”

    Miguel Aguilar, a fruit vendor who often sets up near Kimmel’s theater, said Friday that business was always better on the days “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” filmed because so many audience members bought his strawberries and pineapples doused in chamoy. He was stunned when a Times reporter told him the show had been suspended.

    “Was it canceled by the government?” Aguilar asked. “We used to get a lot more customers [from the show]. That’s pretty scary.”

    A man holding a sign advertising at a nearby diner said he worried about Kimmel’s crew, including the gaffers and makeup artists.

    “How many people went down with Kimmel?” he asked.

    And Daniel Gomez, who lives down the street, said he feared that nearby businesses will suffer from the loss of foot traffic from the show, for which audience members lined up all the way down the block.

    “Tourists still will come to Hollywood no matter what, but a portion of that won’t be coming anymore,” Gomez said as he signed a large canvas outside the theater on which scores of fans and free speech advocates wrote messages about the show being axed.

    People protest in front of the Jimmy Kimmel Theater.

    Protesters in front of Jimmy Kimmel’s theater in Hollywood.

    (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

    “It’s pretty bad that he got shut down because of his comments,” Gomez added. “Comedians should be free to say whatever they want.”

    In a joint statement, a coalition of Hollywood labor groups including the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, said the kind of political pressure that Kimmel faced as a broadcaster “chills free speech and threatens the livelihoods of thousands of working Americans.”

    “At a time when America’s film and television industry is still struggling due to globalization and industry contraction, further unnecessary job losses only make a bad situation worse,” the statement read.

    During his monologue Monday, Kimmel made remarks about Tyler Robinson, the Utah man accused of fatally shooting Kirk. He said the “MAGA gang” was “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.”

    Ingrid Salazar, center, protests outside of Jimmy Kimmel Live.

    Ingrid Salazar protests outside of the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” studio on Thursday.

    (Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times)

    While Kimmel’s remarks could be interpreted in different ways, Kirk’s supporters immediately accused the talk show host of claiming Robinson was a Trump ally, which many of Kimmel’s supporters reject. Kimmel himself has not publicly responded.

    Kimmel also mocked President Trump for talking about the construction of a new White House ballroom after being asked how he was coping with the killing of his close ally.

    Nexstar Media Group responded on Wednesday, saying it would pull the show from its ABC affiliate stations because of Kimmel’s comments. Walt Disney Co., which owns ABC, then announced it would suspend “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” indefinitely.

    Nexstar’s decision to yank the show came after FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, a Trump appointee, threatened to take action against ABC and urged local ABC affiliate stations to stand up the network.

    “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr told right-wing podcast host Benny Johnson. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or, you know, there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

    Trump wrote on his Truth Social account: “Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done.”

    He also targeted late-night hosts Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, calling them “total losers.” He pressured NBC to cancel their shows, writing: “Do it NBC!!!”

    The president this summer praised CBS’s decision to cancel “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” after this season, writing on Truth Social on July 18: “I absolutely love that Colbert’ got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next.”

    Pedestrians walk across the street from the Jimmy Kimmel Theater.

    Pedestrians walk across the street from the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” theater a day after ABC has pulled the late-night host off air indefinitely.

    (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

    While the show is in limbo, it is unclear what will happen to Kimmel’s iconic theater in the historic former Hollywood Masonic Temple, a neoclassical 1921 building fronted by six imposing columns.

    Disney owns the building, as well as the adjacent 1920s office building that contains the El Capitan Theatre and the Ghirardelli Soda Fountain and Chocolate Shop. Kimmel’s production company, 12:05 AM Productions, occupies four floors — 26,000 square feet — in the six-story office building, according to real estate data provider CoStar.

    Disney did not respond to a request for comment.

    Garcetti, who long represented Hollywood on the L.A. City Council, said Kimmel was a major advocate for renovation of the old Masonic lodge and other revitalization Hollywood projects.

    And after the Oscars returned for good to the Kodak Theatre (now Dolby Theatre) across the street in 2002 after several years outside of Hollywood, Kimmel “helped usher in what I call Hollywood’s second golden age, when the Academy Awards came back and people saw actual stars in nightclubs and restaurants,” Garcetti said.

    When Garcetti was showing off the city to officials with the International Olympic Committee years ago in an effort to host the Games, Kimmel met their helicopter on the roof of a Hollywood hotel to brag about the neighborhood.

    Jimmy Kimmel celebrates as he receives his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

    Jimmy Kimmel, host and executive producer of the late-night talk show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” celebrates as he receives his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Jan. 25, 2013.

    (Reed Saxon/Associated Press)

    At the 2013 Hollywood Chamber of Commerce ceremony awarding Kimmel a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Garcetti quipped: “When you came here to Hollywood Boulevard, this place was full of drug dealers and prostitutes, and you welcomed them with open arms.”

    Kimmel joked that his parents brought him to the Walk of Fame as a 10-year-old and left him there to fend for himself.

    “I’m getting emotional,” he said during the ceremony. “This is embarrassing. I feel like I’m speaking at my own funeral. This is ridiculous. People are going to pee on this star.”

    Kimmel’s star is by his theater, near the stars for rapper Snoop Dogg — and Donald Duck.

    On his show in May, pop star Miley Cyrus told Kimmel she developed a serious infection after filming on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last year, where she rolled around on the sidewalk. Part of her leg, she said, started to “disintegrate.”

    “Have you been to the Walk of Fame in the middle of the night?” she asked.

    “I live here,” Kimmel said.

    “I thought it was my last day,” Cyrus responded.

    Hundreds of protesters have gathered outside Kimmel’s theater in recent days, decrying the suspension of his show.

    The cancellation occurred right after Dianne Hall and Michael Talbur of Kansas City got tickets to a live taping of the show and traveled to Los Angeles. So, they attended a protest Thursday instead.

    Hall said she was expecting Kimmel’s monologue “to be something rude toward the [Kirk] family” but was surprised when she actually listened to it.

    “I kept thinking, ‘Surely something bad was said for him to get fired,’ ” Hall said. “But it was nothing like that.”

    Hollywood resident Ken Tullo said he’s “not a protesting type of guy, but enough’s enough” and he did not want his daughters to grow up with a fear of speaking freely.

    “The current administration cannot laugh at themselves,” Tullo said, “and they don’t want anybody else to laugh.”

    Times staff writer Roger Vincent contributed to this report.

    Christopher Buchanan, Hailey Branson-Potts

    Source link

  • Can FCC restrict speech for the public interest?

    Did Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr overstep the bounds of government oversight when he called for action against late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel?

    Kimmel sparked conservative criticism when he spoke about the suspect in the Sept. 10 assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on his show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” 

    In his Sept. 15 monologue, Kimmel said, “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang trying to characterize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them,” Kimmel said. 

    He also aired a clip showing Trump’s brief response to a question about how he was handling Kirk’s death. It showed Trump quickly pivoting to discussing the ballroom he’s building at the White House. But the bigger controversy stemmed from another comment about Kirk’s suspected shooter.

    Hours before ABC, which is owned by the Walt Disney Co., pulled Kimmel off the air, Carr appeared on conservative commentator Benny Johnson’s podcast, saying that broadcasters are “entirely different than people that use other forms of communication.”

    “They have a license granted by us at the FCC that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest,” Carr told Johnson. “I mean, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct to take actions, frankly on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.” Carr likened Kimmel’s comment to “news distortion,” which is against FCC’s rules for broadcasters. 

    Sign up for PolitiFact texts

    The commissioner’s comments were widely interpreted as being addressed to ABC, Kimmel’s employer, and the network’s independently-owned affiliates. The independent stations, as well as ABC — because it’s a network that also owns stations — fall under the FCC’s purview.

    Before ABC announced it was halting Kimmel’s show, two companies that own a range of ABC affiliates, Nexstar and Sinclair, said they would be preempting his show. Nexstar is seeking FCC approval for a merger with Tegna, while Nexstar and Sinclair are asking the FCC to repeal a rule that limits any broadcasting company from reaching more than 39% of U.S. households.

    In an interview after Kimmel’s show was pulled, Carr again cited his agency’s public interest obligation. Speaking with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Carr said: “We at the FCC are going to enforce the public interest obligation. If there’s broadcasters out there that don’t like it, they can turn their license in to the FCC. But that’s our job, and again we’re making some progress now.”

    Publications and legal experts say Carr overstepped his mandate, using the threat of government action to police what should qualify as free speech. 

    “When a network drops high-profile talent hours after the FCC chairman makes a barely veiled threat, then it’s no longer just a business decision. It’s government coercion,” wrote the right-of-center publication The Free Press. “Is it now Trump administration policy to punish broadcasters for comedy that doesn’t conform to its politics? That is censorship.”

    At issue in the Kimmel case is how much influence the FCC can bring to bear under its statutory authority and First Amendment protections for free speech. First Amendment experts said the law allows the FCC to regulate certain aspects of broadcasters’ actions, but that leveraging its authority to persuade private media companies to punish speech by a comedian on public matters falls beyond those boundaries.

    Ronnie London, general counsel with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a free-speech advocacy group, called Carr’s actions “a classic case of unconstitutional jawboning,” meaning the improper use of threatened government action to pursue policy goals.

    London and other experts pointed to a 2024 U.S. Supreme Court decision, National Rifle Association v. Vullo, in which the justices unanimously ruled that a New York regulator’s attempts to discourage companies from doing business with the NRA amounted to coercion and violated the First Amendment.

    PolitiFact reached out to the FCC for comment but did not hear back by publication.

    What is the FCC’s public interest authority?

    In the Kimmel case, Carr acted on his own, without formal action by the five-member FCC board. Anna Gomez, the only Democrat on the FCC, spoke out against Carr’s actions on CNN. 

    London said that Carr’s words carried weight because of the implied force of the government agency he heads.

    So where does the agency’s authority begin and end?

    The Communications Act of 1934 that established the FCC authorized it to award broadcast licenses to broadcasters who abide by the “public interest, convenience, and necessity.” 

    “This basically means that a licensee has the duty to air programs that are responsive to its local community’s priorities and needs,” Olivier Sylvain, a Fordham University law professor and senior policy research fellow at Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute. 

    Nexstar preempted Kimmel’s show even before ABC announced it was pulled. (Preempting a show means not running it in an affiliate’s market.)

    On its website, the FCC acknowledges that the First Amendment limits its power over speech, including in regard to the public interest.

    “The FCC has long held that ‘the public interest is best served by permitting free expression of views,’” the FCC says. “Rather than suppress speech, communications law and policy seeks to encourage responsive ‘counter-speech’ from others. Following this principle ensures that the most diverse and opposing opinions will be expressed, even though some views or expressions may be highly offensive.”

    What are the public interest rules for broadcasters?

    Over-the-air broadcasts by local TV and radio stations are subject to speech restraints in certain areas, but cable or satellite TV programs are generally not. The FCC does not regulate online content.

    FCC-imposed constraints on broadcasters involve topics typically identified by Congress or adopted by the FCC through rulemaking or formal proceedings. 

    They include indecency and obscenity, commercial content in children’s TV programming, sponsorship identification and the conduct of on-air contests,

    “When it comes to regulating content, the public interest standard is pretty circumscribed,” London said. The FCC’s regulatory powers “are not a blank check, and definitely not when it comes to regulating content on broadcast TV.”

    What is news distortion?

    Carr cited something else as Kimmel’s violation — broadcast news distortion. But Kimmel’s role as a late-night comedian and the content of his words may complicate that.

    The FCC says on its website that “news distortion must involve a significant event.” 

    There is a distinction between “deliberate distortion” and inaccuracies and differences of opinion. Broadcasters are only subject to enforcement if it can be proven that they deliberately distorted a factual news report, the FCC says. “Expressions of opinion or errors stemming from mistakes are not actionable.”

    On Johnson’s podcast, Carr said licensed stations that carry a nationally-distributed program like Kimmel’s have a public interest standard that is relevant to FCC oversight.

    “One thing that we’re trying to do is to empower those local stations to serve their own communities,” Carr said. “And the public interest means you can’t be running a narrow, partisan circus and still meeting your public interest obligations. That means you can’t be engaging in a pattern of news distortion, we have a rule on the book that interprets the public interest standard that says news distortion is something that is prohibited.”

    Legal experts said Carr’s commentary overlooks a few important factors with Kimmel’s show.

    “Jimmy Kimmel Live” runs out of ABC’s entertainment division, not its news division.

    In addition, it’s complicated to argue that Kimmel was knowingly sharing inaccurate information. At the time of his monologue, some news reports had discussed the relationship of the alleged shooter, Tyler Robinson, to a gender-transitioning roommate, but the charging documents had not yet been released.

    “I don’t receive Kimmel’s comments as a falsehood in the same way that a deceptive statement about a cryptocurrency or misdirection about a polling place is,” Sylvain said. “Nor can we say that Kimmel, an entertainer, was advancing anything other than an opinion.”

    Source link

  • Commentary: Wake up, Los Angeles. We are all Jimmy Kimmel

    Comics have long been on the front lines of democracy, the canary in the cat’s mouth, Looney Tunes style, when it comes to free speech being swallowed by regressive politics.

    So Jimmy Kimmel is in good company, though he may not like this particular historical party: Zero Mostel; Philip Loeb; even Lenny Bruce, who claimed, after being watched by the FBI and backroom blacklisted, that he was less a comic and more “the surgeon with the scalpel for false values.”

    During that era of McCarthyism in the 1950s (yes, I know Bruce’s troubles came later), America endured an attack on our 1st Amendment right to make fun of who we want, how we want — and survived — though careers and even lives were lost.

    Maybe we aren’t yet at the point of a new House Un-American Activities Committee, but the moment is feeling grim.

    Wake up, Los Angeles. This isn’t a Jimmy Kimmel problem. This is a Los Angeles problem.

    This is about punishing people who speak out. It’s about silencing dissent. It’s about misusing government power to go after enemies. You don’t need to agree with Kimmel’s politics to see where this is going.

    For a while, during Trump 2.0, the ire of the right was aimed at California in general and San Francisco in particular, that historical lefty bastion that, with its drug culture, openly LBGTQ+ ethos and Pelosi-Newsom political dynasty, seemed to make it the perfect example of what some consider society’s failures.

    But really, the difficulty with hating San Francisco is that it doesn’t care. It’s a city that has long acknowledged, even flaunted, America’s discomfort with it. That’s why the infamous newspaper columnist Herb Caen dubbed it “Baghdad by the Bay” more than 80 years ago, when the town had already fully embraced its outsider status.

    Los Angeles, on the other hand, has never considered itself a problem. Mostly, we’re too caught up in our own lives, through survival or striving, to think about what others think of our messy, vibrant, complicated city. Add to that, Angelenos don’t often think of themselves as a singular identity. There are a million different L.A.s for the more than 9 million people who live in our sprawling county.

    But to the rest of America, L.A. is increasingly a specific reality, a place that, like San Francisco once did, embodies all that is wrong for a certain slice of the American right.

    It was not happenstance that President Trump chose L.A. as the first stop for his National Guard tour, or that ICE’s roving patrols are on our streets. It’s not bad luck or even bad decisions that is driving the push to destroy UCLA as we know it.

    And it’s really not what Kimmel said about Charlie Kirk that got him pulled, because it truth, his statements were far from the most offensive that have been uttered on either side of the political spectrum.

    In fact, he wasn’t talking about Kirk, but about his alleged killer and how in the immediate aftermath, there was endless speculation about his political beliefs. Turns out that Kimmel wrongly insinuated the suspect was conservative, though all of us will likely have to wait until the trial to gain a full understanding of the evidence.

    “The MAGA gang [is] 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,” Kimmel said, before making fun of Trump’s response to the horrific killing.

    You can support what Kimmel said or be deeply offended by it. But it is rich for the people who just a few years ago were saying liberal “cancel culture” was ruining America to adopt the same tactics.

    If you need proof that this is more about control than content, look no further than Trump’s social media post on the issue, which directly encourages NBC to fire its own late-night hosts, who have made their share of digs at the president as well.

    “Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible. That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!!” Trump wrote.

    This is about making an example of America’s most vibrant and inclusive city, and the celebrity icons who dare to diss — the place that exemplifies better than any other what freedom looks like, lives like, jokes like.

    If a Kimmel can fall so easily, what does that mean the career of Hannah Einbinder, who shouted out a “free Palestine” at the Emmys? Will there be a quiet fear of hiring her?

    What does it mean for a union leader like David Huerta, who is still facing charges after being detained at an immigration protest? Will people think twice before joining a demonstration?

    What does it mean for you? The yous who live lives of expansiveness and inclusion. The yous who have forged your own path, made your own way, broken the boundaries of traditional society whether through your choices on who to love, what country to call your own, how to think of your identity or nurture your soul.

    You, Los Angeles, with your California dreams and anything-goes attitude, are the living embodiment of everything that needs to be crushed.

    I am not trying to send you into an anxiety spiral, but it’s important to understand what we stand to lose if civil rights continue to erode.

    Kimmel having his speech censored is in league with our immigrant neighbors being rounded up and detained; the federal government financially pressuring doctors into dropping care for transgender patients, and the University of California being forced to turn over the names of staff and students it may have a beef with.

    Being swept up by ICE may seem vastly different than a millionaire celebrity losing his show, but they are all the weaponization of government against its people.

    It was Disney, not Donald Trump, who took action against Kimmel. But Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr threatening to “take action” if ABC did not sounds a lot like the way the White House talks about Washington, Oakland and so many other blue cities, L.A. at the top of the list.

    Our Black mayor. Our Latino senator and representatives. Our 1 million undocumented residents. Our nearly 10% of the adult population identifies as LGBTQ+. Our comics, musicians, actors and writers who have long pushed us to see the world in new, often difficult, ways.

    Many of us are here because other places didn’t want us, didn’t understand us, tried to hold us back. (I am in Sacramento now, but remain an Angeleno at heart.) We came here, to California and Los Angeles, for the protection this state and city offers.

    But now it needs our protection.

    However this assault on democracy comes, we are all Jimmy Kimmel — we are all at risk. The very nature of this place is under siege, and standing together across the many fronts of these attacks is our best defense.

    Seeing that they are all one attack — whether it is against a celebrity, a car wash worker or our entire city — is critical.

    “Our democracy is not self-executing,” former President Obama said recently. “It depends on us all as citizens, regardless of our political affiliations, to stand up and fight for the core values that have made this country the envy of the world.”

    So here we are, L.A., in a moment that requires fortitude, requires insight, requires us to stand up and say the most ridiculous thing that has every been said in a town full of absurdity:

    I am Jimmy Kimmel, and I will not be silent.

    Anita Chabria

    Source link

  • Sal’s Pals With Jimmy Kimmel, Joel McHale, and Guillermo Rodriguez

    Sal’s Pals With Jimmy Kimmel, Joel McHale, and Guillermo Rodriguez

    In this week’s episode, we replay Sal’s interviews with Jimmy Kimmel and Joel McHale, then Guillermo Rodriguez of Jimmy Kimmel Live! joins.

    Host: Cousin Sal
    Guests: Jimmy Kimmel, Joel McHale, Guillermo Rodriguez
    Producers: Michael Szokoli, Joel Solomon, Jack Wilson, Chris Wohlers, Jonathan Frias

    Subscribe: Spotify / Apple Podcasts / Stitcher / RSS

    Cousin Sal Iacono

    Source link

  • Who Would Have Made the Most NIL Money? Plus, Jimmy Kimmel Joins.

    Who Would Have Made the Most NIL Money? Plus, Jimmy Kimmel Joins.

    Cousin Sal is joined by Jimmy Kimmel to discuss hosting the Oscars, the Jake Paul–Mike Tyson fight, and the glory years of UNLV basketball before being joined by the D3 to debate which former NCAA basketball player would’ve made the most NIL money.

    Host: Cousin Sal
    Guests: Darren Szokoli, Brian Szokoli, Harry Gagnon, and Jimmy Kimmel
    Producers: Michael Szokoli, Joel Solomon, Jack Wilson, and Chris Wohlers

    Subscribe: Spotify / Apple Podcasts / Stitcher / RSS

    Cousin Sal Iacono

    Source link