Today in Politics, Bulletin 209. 9/18/25

… Jimmy Kimmel’s show was taken off the air by ABC after Trump called for his firing and FCC Chair Brendan Carr threatened the network with revocation of their broadcast license and/or other govt penalties. Carr made this threat just hours before ABC made the announcement that they were canceling the show: “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take actions on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead. We can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way.”

… Rolling Stone: “In the hours leading up to the decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel, senior executives at ABC, its owner Disney, and affiliates convened emergency meetings to figure out how to minimize the damage. Multiple execs felt that Kimmel had not actually said anything over the line, but the threat of Trump admin retaliation loomed.”

… Right-wing Sinclair Broadcast Group, which controls a huge percentage of local TV stations in America, says it will air a one-hour tribute to Charlie Kirk on Friday on all of its ABC-affiliated stations in Kimmel’s 11:30 PM time slot: “Sinclair also calls upon Kimmel to issue a direct apology to the Kirk family. Furthermore, we ask Kimmel to make a meaningful personal donation to the Kirk family and Turning Point USA.”

… Sinclair is owned by Trump supporter and mega donor David Smith.

… Matt Gaetz: “Sinclair is a company run by deeply patriotic Americans.”

… Nexstar also canceled Kimmel from their stations. CNN’s Brian Stelter: "Nexstar already owns lots of TV stations. It wants to merge with Tegna, which owns lots of other stations. In order to do that, it needs Brandon Carr, the FCC Chair's, permission, and it actually needs the FCC to change the regulations entirely about how many stations an individual company can own.”

… This is what Kimmel said on Monday’s show: “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang 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 from it. In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving."

… Kimmel then played a viral clip from social media where Trump was asked how he was holding up after his good friend Kirk was killed. Trump said fine, then immediately launched into a rant about how great his new ballroom is going to be when it is finished while listing several other changes he is making to the WH. Kimmel mocked him about how quickly Trump moved through his stages of grief.

… Trump on AF1 today returning from England: “When you have a network and you have evening shows and all they do is hit Trump, that’s all they do — if you go back, I guess they haven’t had a conservative one in years, or something — when you go back and take a look, all they do is hit Trump. They’re licensed. They’re not allowed to do that.”

… CNN’s Kaitlan Collins from AF1: “Trump says because he won the election and networks give him ‘wholly bad publicity’ that ‘I would think maybe their license should be taken away.’ He tells reporters: ‘It will be up to Brendan Carr. I think Carr is outstanding. He's a patriot. He loves our country, and he's a tough guy.’”

… Republicans spent the last 24 hours trying to justify ABC pulling Kimmel based on reasons other than intimidation and threats from the Trump admin, then Trump goes full Col. Jessup from A Few Good Men and pisses all over the narrative by admitting he ordered the Code Red because Kimmel hurt his feelings.

… Carr went on Sean Hannity’s show to gloat about getting Kimmel fired. Hannity opened with this: “Pritzker, Newsom, predictably claiming this is a conservative censorship. That is a false. I can't find a single prominent conservative voice in the country that even remotely wanted or was pushing to get Jimmy Kimmel taken off the air.”

… Trump posted this on July 18: “I absolutely love that Colbert’ got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert! Greg Gutfeld is better than all of them combined, including the Moron on NBC who ruined the once great Tonight Show.”

… Trump posted this on July 22: “The word is, and it’s a strong word at that, Jimmy Kimmel is NEXT to go in the untalented Late Night Sweepstakes and, shortly thereafter, Fallon will be gone. These are people with absolutely NO TALENT, who were paid Millions of Dollars for, in all cases, destroying what used to be GREAT Television. It’s really good to see them go, and I hope I played a major part in it!”

… Then Trump last night called for Jimmy Fallon and Seth Myers to be fired: “Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible. That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!!”

… Carr on Fox: “We at the FCC will enforce the public interest obligation. If there are broadcasters that do not like it, they can turn their license into the FCC but that is our job, and we are making some progress now. They are now facing the consequences of the choices they have made to appeal to a very narrow audience. You can do that, you can start a podcast, but if you are going to have a license with the FCC, we expect you to broadly serve the public interest.”

… Carr posted this today: “Broadcast TV stations have always been required by their licenses to operate in the public interest—that includes serving the needs of their local communities. And broadcasters have long retained the right to not air national programs that they believe are inconsistent with the public interest, including their local communities’ values. I am glad to see that many broadcasters are responding to their viewers as intended.”

… But the network wasn’t responding to their viewers. They acted because they were intimidated by Trump and Carr’s threats.

… Zaid Jilani on Carr’s Hannity appearance: “It's funny how conservative accounts on Twitter are like, ‘Kimmel was suspended because he wasn't funny! Because he offended his audience and there was a huge backlash! Free market baby!’ And meanwhile the Trump people are going on TV being like, ‘yeah it was all us. The government.’”

… Carr was back on Fox this afternoon during his nonstop media blitz: “We're going to back to that era where local TV stations, judging the public interest, get to decide what the American people think. I don’t think this is the last shoe to drop. The consequences will continue to flow.”

… Political commentator David Burge: “The FCC is a anachronism of a long-ago expired world where people watched The Love Boat on rabbit ear antenna TVs. Its only remaining value is as a govt cudgel to beat campaign donations and contrary opinions out of the media industry.”

… Eli Lake, Editor of Commentary: “Let’s separate two things. Jimmy Kimmel is an unfunny mediocrity and his take on Charlie Kirk was tasteless, stupid and factually vacant. At the same time the chairman of the FCC should not be programming late night television. That’s a violation of the first amendment.”

… Ari Cohn, counsel at free speech advocacy group The Fire: "The govt pressured ABC — and ABC caved. The timing of ABC's decision, on the heels of the FCC chairman’s pledge to the network to ‘do this the easy way or the hard way,’ tells the whole story. Another media outlet withered under govt pressure, ensuring that the admin will continue to extort and exact retribution on broadcasters and publishers who criticize it. We cannot be a country where late night talk show hosts serve at the pleasure of the president. But until institutions grow a backbone and learn to resist govt pressure, that is the country we are."

… Nico Perrino, VP of The Fire: “You have to be pretty credulous to look at the below facts and conclude fed pressure had little to do with the Kimmel decision: 1) FCC Chair Carr said of ABC, ‘We can do this the easy way or the hard way.’ 2) Trump said ABC should be fined or lose its licenses for ‘their unfair coverage.’ 3) Trump accuses ABC of ‘hate speech,’ suggests DOJ investigation. 4) ABC execs reportedly ‘pissing themselves’ over fear of govt retaliation. 5) Nexstar, which carries ABC programming and announced it wouldn't carry Kimmel's show, is currently awaiting FCC approval for a major acquisition, and that acquisition requires an exception to existing FCC rules.”

… Garry Kasparov: “Time again to remind that an early sign of Putin's autocratic ambitions was the cancellation of a puppet show that regularly parodied him.”

… Sam Greene, Kings College (UK) Professor of Russia Studies: “I’d go one step further, as a scholar of authoritarianism: When companies or institutions cave despite the law being on their side, they are the ones who are making the law irrelevant. Law only works if you make it work. It has no agency of its own. We are all its agents.”

… Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI): “This has nothing to do with Kimmel and everything to do with Brendan Carr. This has nothing to do with what the comedian said and everything to do with the First Amendment. This was the govt using regulatory leverage to crush speech. Absolutely sailing past the red line.”

… IL Gov JB Pritzker: “A free and democratic society cannot silence comedians because the President doesn’t like what they say. This is an attack on free speech and cannot be allowed to stand. All elected officials need to speak up and push back on this undemocratic act.

… Barstool Sports Podcast host Kirk Minihane went after Barstool founder Dave Portnoy, who defended Kimmel being canceled: "Right now in 2025 the extreme right are the biggest group of pussies that has ever existed in America. Led by the duo of Donald Trump and Consequence Culture Dave Portnoy, who is waving his arms at the right to like him again."

… Portnoy is the founder of Barstool and a Trump supporter. Barstool is typically a pretty conservative group of people who voted for Trump. Portnoy was busy trying to defend Kimmel’s firing while the rest of Barstool was denouncing it.

… Eric Nathan from Barstool: “Kimmel’s show was absolute unwatchable trash but you can be the most die hard conservative MAGA and still think this is overreach and pretty insane. Wish people didn’t let political affiliation blur how bananas things are right now.”

… Trump supporter Roseanne Barr: “I’m ready to fill in for Kimmel.”

… Former George W. Bush campaign manager Karl Rove on Fox: “‘They’ didn’t kill Charlie Kirk. Using Charlie’s murder to justify retaliation against political rivals is wrong and dangerous. It will further divide and embitter our country. No good thing will come of it. It is also an insult to his memory.”

… Mike Pence: "We gotta be careful about putting America on trial whenever we see evil overtake the heart of any individual. In this case, absent additional facts, there's one person responsible for Charlie Kirk's assassination."

… House Oversight ranking member Robert Garcia announced he will launch an investigation to examine communications between the Trump Admin, FCC officials, and media executives to determine whether political influence played a role in ABC’s programming decisions. The Oversight Committee has broad authority to subpoena documents and compel testimony: "We will not be silent as our freedoms are threatened by corrupt schemes and threats."

… Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) in committee today: “There’s going to be a Democratic majority in just over a year. To the FCC chairperson and anyone in involved in these dirty deals: get a lawyer and save your records because you’re going to be in this room answering questions.”

… Trump posted this on Truth Social: “I am pleased to inform our many U.S.A. Patriots that I am designating ANTIFA, A SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER, AS A MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION. I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices.”

… Political commentator Austin MacNamara: "‘Anti-Fascist-Action’ is a thing you do, not a group, not an organization. Outlawing antifascist actions is just telling us what you are, a fascist.”

… Malcolm Nance: “TERRORISM EXPERT HERE: You cannot designate an idea as a terrorist group. There is no organization called ANTIFA. There is no leadership or funding path. There is no membership. Also there is no law in American to charge terrorism. Ask Luigi. What he is doing is setting the stage to designate ANY American as a terrorist. That’s Fascism.”

… Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: “No law authorizes the president to designate something as a domestic terrorist org (only a foreign terrorist org), so it will be interesting to see what law he invokes here (if any). Congress granted the Secretary of State the power to designate foreign orgs as foreign terrorist orgs, and made it a crime to support or be a member of such an org. Congress has never done anything like that for domestic terrorism.”

Every day we get a new attack from the Trump admin on an individual, an institution, a tradition or a constitutional right. Today it was the first amendment, as they continue to use the levels of govt to extort compliance. And the oligarch class, comfortable with their yachts and wealth, continue to play along because they need the govt to enable them to get richer as they build their private empires.

We have to do something to strike back against companies like Sinclair Media who have an obvious right-wing agenda, along with ABC/Disney who continue to surrender to the detriment of us all. If that means boycotts, phone calls, protests - whatever it takes to make them listen to them listen to the people rather than the powerful. Thank you again for supporting my work by sharing and subscribing.

… Last night during Trump’s visit, UK Channel 4 aired a special program to counter-program his firehose of lies: “Channel 4 will broadcast Trump v The Truth, an unbroken catalogue of over 100 falsehoods, distortions and inaccuracies uttered or written by the US President since taking office in Jan. Running over several hours, these untrue statements will be punctuated by text-based fact-checks, offering viewers the truth behind the tweets, speeches and soundbites.”

… “As well as Trump v The Truth, the theme will run across the day, with a Trump impersonator taking over from Channel 4 continuity announcers, to deliver false information - from misleading programme synopses to exaggerated runtimes - as a sobering reminder of what can happen when once-trusted sources of truth cannot be