The stunning suspension of Jimmy Kimmel over a comment about the assassination of Charlie Kirk is drawing reactions from all across political and social spectrums because of its perceived assault on free speech and what it says about the current climate of the country.
Kimmel was stood down by ABC after a controversial comment regarding the political beliefs of Kirk’s assassin. This came following direct, public pressure from the FCC and also protests from station owners Nexstar and Sinclair. Ultimately, ABC and Disney CEO Bob Iger found Kimmel’s position untenable, suspending the host and his show indefinitely.
Was Disney making a principled stand to try to lower the temperature because of the comments? Or was it caving to political pressure?
According to Dan Le Batard, it was a case of Iger and Disney showing “cowardice” in “bending the knee” once more to Donald Trump and his administration. In a somber commentary on his own show, Le Batard sad that Iger put corporate interests first and everyone in media is now on watch.
“Seeing Jimmy Kimmel not have the protection of something as powerful as Disney because corporate interests in media are filled with such cowardice that you have a situation where not even Bob Iger has the money or the power to stand up to the threat that is presently upon the shores of everyone in media because of how compromised they are by a series of mergers and money interests,” Le Batard said.
“And to see Bob Iger show this kind of cowardice and bend the knee again, again with Trump, not the first time because what happens here is once you’re a coward who’s extorted the bully is going to keep extorting the coward.”
It’s no mystery that there are business and government interests involved here. Nexstar has a $6 billion acquisition of fellow local station owner Tegna hanging in the balance that depends upon government approval. Likewise, Disney has its own megadeal with ESPN and the NFL that will one day face scrutiny from regulators.
Dan Le Batard connected these actions to ABC settling with Trump after he sued the network for defamation over inaccurate comments made by anchor George Stephanopoulos over his assessments of his civil sexual assault trial. Trump has routinely sued media companies in an attempt to influence coverage and his administration has routinely made threats to media companies and broadcasters, as FCC chairman Brendan Carr did in the hours before Jimmy Kimmel was benched.
He also compared the current situation in America to his family’s upbringing in Cuba under state-controlled media and said the media is running scared from the Trump administration and the political pressure being exerted.
“And when the gave Trump $16 million on something that Stephanopoulos said, they opened the doors now to all of media feeling like it needs to capitulate to a threat and now you get dangerously close to state-run media,” the Meadowlark Media host added.
“And I will tell you as someone who descends, grandparents and parents, from a childhood filled with ‘you can’t trust the media, it’s all propaganda,’ I’ve never seen in my lifetime America in the position it’s presently in where the media is running this kind of scared from power as if we’re not a place that one of the chief principles is free speech,”
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