The press divisions of large entertainment companies have long been worried that their business owners bow against political pressure. But the latest confrontation between the Trump administration and a media company does not concern the cover of striking news, but rather a remark badly founded by an actor at the end of the evening, Jimmy Kimmel, whose show ABC suspended this week.
Disney’s political row and rapid response, ABC’s parent company, highlights the growing propensity of President Donald Trump and his allies to use the government’s powers to force and punish the institutions – from universities to law firms to media entities. He also shows how societies can be pressed by pressure from above, in the form of regulatory action threats, and among the campaigns based on social media to shame and punish discourse.
Mr. Kimmel ignited a storm of fire on the right by opening his monologue on Monday evening with a comment on the shooter accused of Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist killed last week. “We have 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,” he said.
Why we wrote this
The sidelining of the late evening show of actor Jimmy Kimmel could point out a broader effect on freedom of expression, under pressure from President Donald Trump and regulators under him. This decision also comes as media companies face a difficult environment for profits.
It was in contradiction with what the prosecutors revealed about Tyler Robinson, who, according to the police, killed Mr. Kirk at a September 10 event at Utah Valley University in Orem, in Utah. He also came in the midst of an increasing conservative tumult on publications on social networks considered to glorifying or tolerating filming; Government employees and private sector workers have been dismissed or suspended for such comments.
Kimmel then commented on how Mr. Trump answered the question of a journalist on his sorrow on Mr. Kirk speaking of the construction of plans for a new ballroom in the White House. “It is at the fourth stadium of sorrow: construction,” said Kimmel.
On Wednesday, Brendan Carr, president of the Federal Commission for Federal Communications, criticized Mr. Kimmel’s remarks and he suggested that the FCC would take regulatory measures against ABC and its affiliated companies to deceive the public. Later in the day, ABC said that he had “indefinitely suspended” the show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
The suspension of Mr. Kimmel follows the eviction of Stephen Colbert, another end of the evening host, whose longtime spectacle on CBS has not been renewed in July while the parent company Paramount was pressure on the FCC to approve a merger. Mr. Colbert’s show will remain in difficulty until May. The two programs would have lost money and could have been targets for business costs. But the ax of two liberal actors who made fun of Mr. Trump and incurred his anger could point out more stringent borders on political speech and satire by media societies with cases before the Trump administration.
“Can actors can no longer criticize the president?” said Victor Pickard, professor of media policy and political economy at the University of Pennsylvania. “If we saw this in another country, we will condemn this country as an authoritarian.”
Trump applauded ABC on Wednesday evening for suspending Mr. Kimmel in an article on social networks, saying that he had “no talent” and bad grades. He urged the “false NBC news” to cancel two other late evening programs organized by Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon, saying that the two have “horrible” notes.
Trump doubled on Thursday, suggesting journalists that networks could lose their licenses to disseminate negative coverage of him. “I read somewhere that the networks were 97% against me. … I think that may their license should be removed.”
The Democrats of the Congress criticized Mr. Carr for putting pressure on ABC to chop Mr. Kimmel’s program and called him to testify on his actions. The head of the House minority, Hakeem Jeffries, said in a statement on Thursday that Mr. Carr should resign, and he accused the Trump administration of having violated freedom of expression in what “could also be part of a corrupt payment regime”.
At a press conference at the Capitol also on Thursday, the Democratic Senator Alex Padilla in California said that the cancellation of actors was part of a model of abuse under President Trump, who had continued the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times for defamation on stories criticizing him.
“What happened to Jimmy Kimmel last night, and Stephen Colbert elsewhere, it is not only an actor or a television personality or a single network. It is a question of knowing if we, as Americans, still have the freedom to laugh at those in power,” he said.
Political pressure and sensitivities of companies
Mr. Carr made his comments on Mr. Kimmel and Disney on Wednesday on a podcast organized by an far -right activist, Benny Johnson, who was a protégé of Mr. Kirk. On the podcast, Mr. Carr said that Mr. Kimmel had lied to the public about the ideological beliefs of Mr. Kirk’s alleged killer, which implies that he was a conservative. Mr. Carr said it was “a very serious problem right now for Disney. We can do it the simplest way or the hard way ”.
The FCC does not imagine television networks like ABC. But network emissions are broadcast by local affiliates, on which the FCC has a regulatory power. Mr. Carr clearly indicated his intention to exercise this authority.
“There are measures that we can undertake approved broadcasters,” he told Mr. Johnson. He said the affiliates “manage the possibility of FCC’s fiery or license revocations if they have airy content that distorts the news.
One of these licensees, Nexstar Media Group, who has more than 200 stations across the country, said on Wednesday that he would not broadcast Mr. Kimmel’s program on his ABC affiliates. “Mr. Kimmel’s comments on the death of Mr. Kirk are offensive and insensitive to a critical moment in our national political speech,” said Andrew Alford, president of the Nexstar broadcasting division, in a press release preceded the announcement by Disney of the show.
Nexstar’s sensitivity is part of its corporate ambitions: the company is currently looking for the FCC approval to merge with Tegna, another television station operator. Mr. Carr, who as president of the FCC is involved in the control of this merger, then praised Nexstar for his position.
Sinclair Broadcast Group, one of ABC’s greatest affiliates, also said that his stations would not bear Mr. Kimmel’s show and called Mr. Kimmel to apologize. He plans to broadcast a special tribute to Mr. Kirk on Friday in the time slot formerly allocated to Mr. Kimmel’s program. Sinclair is known for its conservative content and has benefited from the past of close relations with Mr. Trump.
Financial issues for news and entertainment companies accused of having harmed Mr. Trump and his allies seem to have deprived many of their business decisions in the past year.
In December, ABC paid $ 15 million to settle a defamation trial filed by Trump against the description in difficulty of George Stephanopoulos of Mr. Trump’s conviction in the E. Jean Carroll case in New York. Then, in July, Paramount, who owned CBS, paid $ 16 million to Mr. Trump after the president allegedly alleged that an interview with the candidate of the time, Kamala Harris, had been published misleading.
In both cases, media law experts and defamation said that companies had solid reasons to defend the actions of their news divisions. At the time of its regulation, Paramount asked for federal approval for a merger of $ 8 billion with Skydance Media. (It was also the period within which CBS said that “the end of the night with Stephen Colbert” would not be renewed.)
“What is exploited is the property of the company with a large part of our media in the United States, a property which is mainly motivated by profit,” explains Professor Pickard.
This tension between news as a public good and the reasons for profit from media societies is not new. But the rise of social media as a source of news and partisan influencers, in particular on the right, has eroded the profitability and the audience share of traditional news, while consolidation of media and entertainment companies means fewer autonomous press organizations.
The more a media conglomerate has, the more the pressure points can be exploited by an administration seeking to shape news and comments in his favor, explains Rodney Benson, professor of media, culture and communications at New York University. “It is the combination of their various participations and their subject of regulation by a very assertive FCC which probably causes these quick results,” he said by e-mail, referring to show the cancellations.
Protections of the first amendment for both parties
ABC’s decision to suspend Mr. Kimmel’s program could be considered a simple commercial decision to keep viewers and advertisers, explains Eugene Volokh, professor of emeritus law at the University of California in Los Angeles who is studying the first amendment. “They have the right to dismiss him. They can control what is on their channel. ”
But if ABC responds to a threat from the FCC to reprisals from the government for Mr. Kimmel’s freedom of expression, then this could be in violation of the first amendment, said Professor Volokh.
Last year, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the National Rifle Association, which said that New York regulators had punished it by forcing insurers to abandon the products endorsed by NRA. (Professor Volokh represented the NRA.) The court declared that a government official could not “force a private part to punish or suppress the unfavorable speech on his behalf”.
“It is a reminder that the protection of the conservatives now helps the Liberals tomorrow. Protections for the Liberals help the Conservatives today tomorrow, ”explains Professor Volokh.
