The show host Jimmy Kimmel delivers his opening monologue to the 96th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States, March 10, 2024.
Mike Blake | Reuters
President Donald Trump’s pressure on media societies rises.
Wednesday, the Walt Disney Company Taken “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Apart from the “indefinitely” tunes of its ABC network after the host made comments connecting the alleged killer of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk to the movement “Make America Great Again” of Trump.
This decision makes comparisons with the cancellation of CBS of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” in July and raising questions on the protection of freedom of expression in an environment of dissemination of the Trump era.
“We struck new stockings during the weekend with the gang Maga trying desperately to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as something other than one of them and do everything they can to score political points,” Kimmel said in a monologue broadcast on Tuesday evening.
“Between the point of pointing, there was mourning. Friday, the White House piloted the flags at half of the staff, which made criticism, but at a human level, you can see how hard the president takes it hard,” he continued, putting a Trump clip on the lawn of the White House.
We asked Trump how he was held following the death of Kirk, to which he replied: “I think that very well”, before pivoting to emphasize that the construction had started on the new $ 200 million fair project.
“He is at the fourth stadium of sorrow: construction,” joked Kimmel. “Demolition. Construction. It is not as an adult cries the murder of someone he called a friend. This is a 4 -year -old child crying a goldfish. Ok? And that did not happen once.”
Kimmel was not dismissed, but Disney Heads wanted to speak with the host of what he should say when he returns to the antenna, according to people familiar with the situation.
Trump weighed on the issue Thursday, saying: “They should have dismiss him a long time ago. … He was dismissed for a lack of talent.”
Kimmel, ABC and Disney are the last target of the maintenance by Trump of media companies, which intensified during its second term marked by high -level defamation proceedings, the financing of public broadcasters and regulatory interference from the Federal Communications Commission.
“An inexcusable act of political violence by a disturbed individual should never be exploited as justification of wider censorship and control,” wrote Anna Gomez, the solid Democratic Commissioner of the FCC on Wednesday. “This administration is increasingly using the weight of government power to remove legal expression.”
Gomez was frank on the interactions of the FCC and Trump with media companies. At the end of July, when the government agency approved the merger of Primordial And Skydance, she wrote a declaration of dissent, saying that she was troubled by the recent payment of Paramount to settle a prosecution brought by Trump against CBS belonging to Paramount on a “60 -minute” interview with the president of the time, Kamala Harris.
“Primordial payment and this reckless approval have embarked on those who believe that the government can-and should it take advantage of its power to extract financial and ideological concessions, the demand for favored treatment and guarantee positive media coverage,” she wrote at the time.
FCC approval
The suspension of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” came among the declarations of the President of the FCC, Brendan Carr, who suggested that the ABC dissemination permit was in danger due to the remarks.
In an interview with Podcast on Wednesday, before ABC’s announcement, Carr said that the FCC “was going to have remedies that we can examine” with regard to Kimmel’s comments.
“Frankly, when you see things like that, I mean, we can do it the simplest way or the hard way,” said Carr. “These companies can find ways to change driving and act, frankly, on Kimmel, or there will be additional work for the FCC to come.”
In August, Trump posted on his Truth social platform according to which ABC and NBC should lose their dissemination licenses for what he called the “unfair coverage of Republicans and / or Conservatives”.
“Trusted” journalism “should not be rewarded, it should be dismissed,” said Trump in the post.
Carr told CNBC on Thursday “Squawk in the street” that Kimmel seemed to “induce” the American public on the facts concerning the murder of Charlie Kirk in the days preceding the suspension of his program.
“The problem that arose here, where many, many people were upset, was not a joke,” said Carr.
“It was not making fun,” said Carr. “He seemed directly to mislead the American public on an important fact This is probably one of the most important political events we have had for a long time, for the most important political assassination that we have seen for a long time. “”
The suspension of the show also intervened after Nexstar Media Group said that its stations affiliated to the ABC would preempt the Kimmel program “for the foreseeable future” from Wednesday.
Nexstar requests the FCC approval for its expected melting of $ 6.2 billion with Tegna. About 10% of around 225 ABC affiliation stations belong to Nexstar. Tegna holds around 5% of ABC affiliation stations.
– Alex Sherman, Luke Fountain and Dan Mangan contributed to this report.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of Nbcuniversal, owner of CNBC. Square would become the new mother company of CNBC on the spin-off of Comcast de Visant.