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Jimmy Kimmel pulled indefinitely by ABC for Charlie Kirk comments.
Late night talk show hosts have waned from their glorious Letterman days, but boomers still care about then enough that they're still a scalp worth scraping off the skull. It's hard to think of a prominent figure on the right that would be equal in stature - Gina Carano? Piers Morgan? Roseanne Barr? nothing like him - if only for the fact that the entertainment industry is so aligned to the left. Indeed, even during the height of the progressive cancel culture era, it was liberal icons like Louis CK and JK Rowling that felt the heat.
If such a big figure can fall, who will be next?
With Colbert going off the air, and with the upcoming FCC hearings on Twitch, Reddit, Discord, and Steam, one can only anticipate the prizes that are coming. Destiny and Hasan are obvious trophies that the right would love to claim, but I have no doubt that the powerjanitors of Reddit are quaking in their boots. How many leftist/liberal commentators have made snarky comments on social media, as of late? This is the reddest of the red meat, dripping with blood, raw. The long march through the institutions has only just begun, and for the populist right base, it'll be a enjoyable hike indeed.
This has a 'fired with cause's smell to it. Firing a part-unionized crew with long term contracts is tricky. When someone is fired with cause, the potential followup lawsuits are easier to deal with. See how messy Colbert's firing became. Don't need that.
It has a 'never waste a good crisis' smell too. I suspect legacy media executives has wanted to rehaul the legacy TV for some time now. This is the perfect excuse to do it. Kimmel, Oliver and Colbert were hired for the ascendent woke era. Then woke died and executives were left holding expensive contracts. They have outloved their boom cycle. Kirk is convienient cover for long overdue cleanouts.
There is pressure from Trump, but more importantly, there is pressure for customers and the bottom line. It's why I think internet celebs like Destiny and Hasan are safe. Their bottom lines and viewers are still aligned with their platforms (yt, twitch). Reddit is a whole another discussion. Reddit is the last bastion of the wokes. From CEO, employees to users, they're very blue. Power mods are being shackled. But that's to normiefy Reddit, not because of Trump. That's also why I am not worried about other internet platforms. Tiktok, YT and Instagram are already normiefied. The polarization of Blue sky, Reddit and Twitter helps their bottom line and suits their users. Trump has no play for them.
"There is pressure from Trump, but more importantly..."
More importantly? I'd say secondarily. The more straightforward answer is that they were scared of the FCC: https://x.com/MattZeitlin/status/1968444362754269623
This is a slam dunk 1A case. And probably solid argument against any future fcc decision against disney with current admin.
No Murthy v. Missouri says otherwise.
Fairly sure that Disney have standing when FCC says to disney - change what you talk on you late night show or you may have trouble with your license.
The terms of an FCC broadcast license are more restrictive than straight 1A would imply (allowed on the basis that spectrum is a finite resource with not enough space for everyone to broadcast as much as they want). You may be right in this case, which certainly looks questionable for a few reasons, but there is a "public interest" requirement for broadcast that doesn't exist for newspapers and cable TV.
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isn't this just a muh plaintiffs don't have standing decision. if the plaintiffs weren't looking for relief against future violations from the government but instead focussed on current violations maybe they would have been successful.
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In the Murthy v Missouri case the implied threat was "we'll utterly ruin your whole business model by repealing section 230" not "we'll fine you for violating this specific provision of broadcaster regulations."
And that was in the context of regular check-ins with the FBI and other federal agents to ensure content rules were satisfactory, were being enforced, and also "we found a guy with five followers breaking a rule, please enforce the rule on him."
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the amount of people over the last 24 hours who had no idea this existed is...I mean it's not surprising at all but it has been amusing.
someone on the other site was like "When the government suggests to private industry to do something and then actors in private industry do it, that's government overreach and anti-free speech"
and I was like have I got a SCOTUS case for you!
wow it was a 6-3 ruling and the 3 liberal justices joined 3 conservatives to argue the no plaintiffs thing
amazing
wait so can Kimmel sue and be a valid plaintiff and resolve this question in 4+ years?
Depends on who has the standing - Kimmel or his parent company.
And Kimmel wasn't censored, he was fired. Fairly sure that Disney have a case against the government. Kimmel probably could sue Disney for wrongful termination or something.
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Is it, though?
The law courts of the US had a pretty lazy response when it came to the Left doing this with respect to threatening to sanction online platforms. Why should this be different?
(I'm not a fan of licensure being abused in this way, but then I remember debanking. This is one of those things that could and should be fixed with legislation.)
Yeah, but neither of the two branches of government can write legislation.
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