Censorship is here. “Jimmy Kimmel …” ”Jimmy Kimmel …” “Jimmy Kimmel …” ”Jimmy Kimmel …” But doesn’t look the way we thought it would. “Off the air ——” “Indefinitely.” Government censorship is not really what we’re seeing here. We’re seeing a kind of corporate censorship. “Jimmy Kimmel was suspended by ABC.” They are firing or pausing programs that Donald Trump doesn’t like. We’re only nine months into Trump’s second administration, and already we are two late-night television hosts down. Brendan Carr, the head of the F.C.C., goes on Benny Johnson’s podcast and starts complaining about Jimmy Kimmel. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the F.C.C.” Disney, after hearing Brendan Carr’s statements on Benny Johnson’s podcast, they don’t decide to push back. They don’t decide to take a stand. They don’t decide to protect their talent. They don’t decide to be on the side of democracy because that’s expensive. Instead, they bench Jimmy Kimmel. So the question is, how did we get here? We have to look at Project 2025. There was a chapter called “The Federal Communications Commission,” and it was authored by Brendan Carr. He enacted some of this idea of the unitary executive theory. It takes away a lot of the checks and balances that the federal government has long had. That’s what we’re seeing here, is an F.C.C. that pretty much serves at the pleasure of one person, and that person happens to be Donald Trump. The net of this is that the government has something these corporations want: regulatory approval. That it is cheaper for them to silence free speech for shareholder value than it is to protect the speech of different individuals on their platforms. And that’s how corporate censorship works. They’re not telling you you can’t say stuff. They’re just incentivizing companies not to cover it. So there’s a real question about what you can do. if you don’t like what’s happening right now, there are numerous peaceful remedies. And they include registering voters, calling your electeds, marching peacefully. Slides to authoritarianism are gains of inches, not feet. It stops when the American people say it’s been enough. “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.” The big story is that Jimmy Kimmel was suspended by ABC. This morning, I woke up to 100 text messages from my dad saying, “I’m sorry they canceled your show.” That’s not me. That’s Jimmy Kimmel. I do know Jimmy Kimmel, and he’s a decent, funny and loving guy, and I hope he comes back.
