The Mouse Has No Balls

Disney owns the American Broadcasting Company, which aired a late night show hosted by comedian Jimmy Kimmel. Donald Trump did not like one of Kimmel’s jokes about Charlie Kirk’s killer’s political leanings. Brendan Carr, commissioner of the FCC, didn’t like it either, and told some fellow with a podcast named Benny that he was going to use his authority to punish ABC.

ABC, fresh off its $15 million payoff to Trump to avoid retaliation for George Stephanopoulos’ questionable statement that Trump was found civilly liable for raping E. Jean Carroll, has already proven that it will cave at a moment’s notice upon threat of government abuse of power against it. And so it did again.

ABC announced on Wednesday evening that it was pulling Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show “indefinitely” after conservatives accused the longtime host of inaccurately describing the politics of the man who is accused of fatally shooting the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.

The abrupt decision by the network, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company, came hours after the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, assailed Mr. Kimmel and suggested that his regulatory agency might take action against ABC because of remarks the host made on his Monday telecast.

The network did not explain its decision, but the sequence of events on Wednesday amounted to an extraordinary exertion of political pressure on a major broadcast network by the Trump administration.

Carr was pleased. Trump was pleased.

CBS, you may recall, paid $16 million to settle a wholly frivolous lawsuit over 60 Minutes editing an interview with Kamala Harris, with Stephen Colbert’s show coincidentally being cancelled. That’s two of the three legacy networks, with only NBC yet to capitulate to Trump. It would appear that NBC is the next target from Trump’s twit. No mention of FOX, which paid a $787 million settlement to Dominion Voting Systems over its broadcasting that it was responsible for rigging the 2020 election that Trump lost.

That this is a flagrant violation of the First Amendment and a gross abuse of the FCC’s authority isn’t a worthwhile discussion. It is and the government not only doesn’t care, but is damn proud of itself for having brought ABC to its knees. Curiously, CBS’s owner, Paramount was involved in a merger with Skydance which needed FCC approval, and Nexstar, which owns a group of ABC affiliated stations, is seeking a $6.2 billion merger with Tegna requiring FCC approval. Nexstar pulled Kimmel first, which garnered Brendan Carr’s appreciation.

The argument being made is that the FCC has a duty to oversee networks serving the “public interest.” Of course, it’s not up to the FCC to decide what is truth or to punish networks that don’t tell the government’s version of “truth,” and to the extent the Biden administration did the same about Covid, it was wrong. The same could be said of FOX claiming the 2020 election was stolen.

But the government can’t do this without the networks making a “business decision” to drop to their knees and beg for the king’s mercy. They have a choice: capitulate or fight. The former is likely the better business decision, as they can make money dishing out Trump’s alternate reality rather than, you know, reality, without having the levers of power pulled against them at every turn. After all, who needs the FCC to reject a merger not because there is any actual justification to do so, but to punish the network for being mean to Trump and his cohorts.

At this point, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to blame Trump for using the weapons at his disposal as they seem to be working remarkably well. The networks are dropping like flies. Trump has now sued the New York Times for $16 billion for being mean to him and endorsing Harris. As much as the suit is stunning ridiculous, he’s had great success in getting corporations to pay him off for peace with the government. No one doubts he will do whatever he can to abuse government power and do as much damage as possible until they fill his personal bank account with oodles of lucre.

Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney, made the decision to pull the plug on Kimmel “indefinitely.” It was an act of monumental cowardice. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. You, Bob, are a coward.

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6 thoughts on “The Mouse Has No Balls”

  2. Anonymous Coward

    It’s also possible that Disney seized on the political pressure as an excuse. Late night shows are expensive, and less popular than in the glory days of Letterman. This makes Bob Iger look worse, but my opinion of Disney is already so low it’s subterranean.

  3. Redditlaw

    Public Service Announcement:

    The right to free speech means the government can’t arrest you for what you say.

    It doesn’t mean that anyone else has to listen to your bullshit, or host you while you share it.

    The 1st Amendment doesn’t shield you from criticism or consequences.

    If you’re yelled at, boycotted, have your show cancelled, or get banned from an internet community, your free speech rights aren’t being violated.

    It’s just that the people listening think your an asshole.

    And they’re showing you the door.

    –XKCD comic.

    I hope that everyone now sees what a bunch of smug nonsense that comic contained when it was posted several years ago in reaction to the cancelling of right-wing figures. As for me, I am trying very hard to work up some sympathy for Mr. Kimmel and his boss, Daddy BigCorp, but my outrage has yet to reach critical mass.

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