Jimmy Kimmel is a casualty of Trump’s state run media

After allegedly saying some things considered unflattering of Charlie Kirk, Jimmy Kimmel was given his walking papers by ABC’s parent company, the Disney Entertainment division of the Walt Disney Company — an event that occurred in the fallout of the state-run media that Donald Trump began to assemble during his first term in office.

Disney’s decision came just hours after FCC Chairman Brendan Carr publicly criticized Kimmel’s remarks and suggested that regulatory consequences would follow. It coincides with Nexstar Media Group’s pending $6.2 billion merger with Tegna — which is subject to FCC approval — in a clear example of how Trump’s state run media can apply political pressure against networks currying his favor.

Additionally, Trump has suggested that networks that regularly criticize him should have their licenses taken revoked (via Newsweek):

President Donald Trump on Thursday floated the idea of revoking broadcast licenses from television networks he claims are biased against him. Speaking to reporters, Trump said, “They’re 97% against, they give me only bad press. They’re getting a license. I would think maybe their license should be taken away.”

The remarks came one day after ABC suspended *Jimmy Kimmel Live!* following the host’s comments linking the alleged killer of Charlie Kirk to Trump’s MAGA movement. Trump referenced his 2024 election win, saying he prevailed in “all 7 swing states” despite overwhelmingly negative media coverage.

Trump indicated that any licensing decision would fall to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, whom he praised as “a patriot” and “a tough guy.”

Sinclair Broadcast Group, the nation’s largest ABC affiliate operator, announced Wednesday it will not air Jimmy Kimmel Live! until specific conditions are met, following the network’s decision to suspend the show indefinitely. The move came after Kimmel’s controversial remarks about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and mounting pressure from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr.

“Mr. Kimmel’s remarks were inappropriate and deeply insensitive at a critical moment for our country,” said Sinclair vice chairman Jason Smith in a statement. “We believe broadcasters have a responsibility to educate and elevate respectful, constructive dialogue in our communities.”

Sinclair outlined three demands for reinstating the show: formal discussions with ABC about its commitment to professionalism, a direct apology from Kimmel to the Kirk family, and a personal donation to both the family and Turning Point USA, Kirk’s nonprofit.

FCC Chair Carr praised Sinclair’s swift action, saying it reflects “the needs and values of the local communities you serve.” Nexstar Media Group, another major ABC affiliate owner, also pulled the show and is currently seeking FCC approval for a $6.2 billion merger with Tegna. (Emphasis mine)

Donald Trump has never been a fan of the First Amendment rights to Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Speech. Throughout his 2016 campaign and continuing throughout his first term, Trump routinely played the worn-out “Fake News” card against any media outlet that reported stories that failed to massage his massive ego. Declaring them to be “the enemy of the people” — Joseph Goebbels would be so proud — Trump threatened to silence his critics in the press through the use of libel lawsuits and by revoking the broadcast licenses of major networks.

Trump began setting things in motion for creating a state-run media in the first year of his first term in office when he gave Sinclair a sweetheart deal that would have allowed the media giant to have control over a large majority of US households. In October 2017, his FCC Chairman, Ajit Pai — a holdover from the Obama administration — reinstated an old rule meant to pave the way for a $3.9 billion TV merger between Sinclair and Tribune — allowing the company to own enough stations to reach over 70% of US households.

Pai also issued a second decision that eliminated the requirement for TV stations to maintain local studios in the markets where they are licensed, thus opening the door for “local news” to be controlled in places like Washington DC.

Combined, these decisions would have given Sinclair control of TV news in approximately 72 percent of US households. Besides the fact that this consolidation ran in direct opposition to the FCC’s mission of promoting competition, diversity, and locality of the public airwaves, there was a conflict of interest involved because Sinclair had close ties to Trump, Steve Bannon, and Breitbart News at the time.

Nexstar’s attempt to join Trump’s state-run media has been less direct and has taken a little longer to create.

We begin with (where else?) FOX News, the network home of his first-term advisor and shadow chief of staff, Sean Hannity. Like Sinclair, Trump wanted to reward the network that once branded itself “fair and balanced” for the part they played in his election in 2016. This is when, early in the second year of his first term, that Trump selected the former co-president of FOX News Bill Shine — after a major push from Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly — to the White House to serve in a senior communications role.

The selection was controversial at the time because, in addition to his tainted history of turning FOX into Trump TV, Shine’s past was clouded by his forced resignation from FOX News after his poor handling of sexual harassment scandals involving former Chief Executive Roger Ailes and the aforementioned Bill O’Reilly (more on the Shine/O’Reilly connection in a minute). About a year later, Shine resigned as Trump’s communications guy to be the senior advisor to Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign.

After that failure, Shine took a position as an advisor with NewsNation, a news network owned by . . . you guessed it . . . Nexstar. One of the personalities featured on the upstart news network is none other than Bill O’Reilly who, in likely obedience to Nexstar execs, recently declared that the decision to cancel Jimmy Kimmel was about “responsibility,” not “censorship.”

What possible reason other than joining Trump’s state-run media could Nexstar have for cancelling Jimmy Kimmel? Is Trump holding Nexstar ransom? I’m glad you asked. (via Business Insider):

After cancelling Kimmel’s show, Nexstar’s chief communications officer Gary Weitman said the decision to pull “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” was made “unilaterally by the senior executive team at Nexstar, and they had no communication with the FCC or any government agency prior to making that decision,” Variety reported.

[However], in August, Nexstar announced it wanted to buy Tegna, another local TV operator, for $6.2 billion in a deal that would require FCC approval. That same month, Sinclair said it was reviewing its business and considering “acquisitions, strategic partnerships, and business combinations,” which would also be subject to FCC review.

I don’t want you to miss this: Nexstar claims they didn’t communicate with the FCC, they just recently announced their desire to buy Tegna, and Sinclair is once again looking at new acquisitions (maybe another run at Tribune?). I’ll let you put the pieces together, but buying Tegna would give Nexstar control of more than 39% of US households.

Ultimately, for the deal to proceed, the companies will likely need an FCC waiver or an increase in the national ownership cap, which would require a rule change. But according to Rob Frieden, a telecommunications and law professor at Penn State University, that may not be a problem. “The FCC has recently issued a notice of inquiry, and they have solicited comments to refresh the record because they are certainly looking for ways to accommodate these mega mergers,” Frieden recently said.

Staying in Trump’s good graces has become standard operating procedure for the media outlets who want to be a part of his state-run media, so caving to the FCC chair when he complains about a late-night TV host shouldn’t be all that surprising, particularly when we remember that Jimmy Kimmel isn’t the first to go down.

Stephen Colbert was the first late-night TV hose to get cancelled, his by CBS. A week following the cancellation, the FCC approved Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount CBS. And I’m sure this is purely coincidental, but Sinclair and Nexstar both own local CBS affiliates, with Nexstar being the largest independent operator of CBS affiliates. What are the odds?

Trump has been using Charlie Kirk’s murder to advance his longstanding war on free speech, but the state-run media he’s creating and making in the image of those used by dictators throughout history is responsible for Jimmy Kimmel and others being cancelled.

And there will be much, much more of this in the days ahead.

 

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David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties. He the author of The New Axis of Evil: Exposing the Bipartisan War on Liberty.

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