Donald Trump Immediately Returns To Threatening Disney Over Jimmy Kimmel’s Speech

from the censorial-asshat dept

We’ve repeated over and over again that anyone who believes Donald Trump’s claims of supporting free speech is either a brainwashed cultist or the dumbest person alive. And now, in his doddering old age, he’s becoming ever more brazen and belligerent in his attacks on speech. He’s not even trying to put forth a veneer of legitimacy anymore.

Last week, his FCC chair, Brendan Carr, went on a MAGA influencer’s podcast and clearly and obviously threatened both Disney and local ABC affiliates to punish Jimmy Kimmel for his speech. The affiliates (many of whom are trying to get FCC approval for consolidation mergers) got the message and pre-empted their showing of Kimmel’s show, leading Disney to temporarily suspend the show. After the public started canceling their Disney+ accounts in droves, Disney flipped its position and allowed Kimmel to come back last night (with a bang).

And, now facing bipartisan pressure for acting like a censorial bitch, Brendan Carr is trying to doublespeak his way out of what he said last week, insisting that of course he wasn’t abusing his power to punish Kimmel’s speech, a claim that I’m pretty sure exactly no one (including Brendan Carr) believes.

But, even if we wanted to take Carr at his word, his boss, Donald Trump, is not helping matters. Just as Kimmel was about to go back on the air, he posted this to his Unsocial Liars Truth Social site:

That is… [checks notes… checks notes again because surely that can’t be… well… okay] the President of these United States saying:

I can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back. The White House was told by ABC that his Show was cancelled! Something happened between then and now because his audience is GONE, and his “talent” was never there. Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, who’s not funny, and who puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE. He is yet another arm of the DNC and, to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major Illegal Campaign Contribution. I think we’re going to test ABC out on this. Let’s see how we do. Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative. A true bunch of losers! Let Jimmy Kimmel rot in his bad Ratings.

I mean, what do you even say anymore other than the man is the most censorial, anti-free speech President to hold the office in at least a century and probably more?

First, he’s admitting that the White House talked to Disney about Kimmel’s show, which is, if I remember correctly from all the MAGA whining during the Murthy v. Missouri case, absolutely verboten under the First Amendment.

Second, if it’s true that he had no audience and no talent, then… why would the FCC and Trump need to weigh in at all? It’s obvious he does have an audience and talent given that he has over 20 million subscribers on YouTube and the video from last night is over 15 million views in less than a day as I write this and will surely pass 20 million before too long.

Third, more seriously, the claim that Trump is going to sue over something wholly unrelated to what Carr was threatening an investigation over shows that this has nothing to do with any particular comment or with Kimmel’s ratings or popularity. It is, clearly, our most thin-skinned, can’t-take-a-joke, whiny, insecure, pathetic excuse of a President demanding that the guy making fun of him be silenced.

It’s not worth going into the details but, no, a late night TV host comic making jokes about the President is not, in any way, an “illegal campaign contribution.” That’s not how any of this works.

As for the $16 million payout for the “last time I went after them” that should reveal what bullshit all this is. Trump filed a very, very questionable defamation lawsuit against ABC over a minor technical misstatement by George Stephanopoulos, which the company caved on and decided to pay a settlement fee on (just like a few other media and tech companies in the last year) in the hopes of staying in Trump’s good graces.

But as we’ve said over and over again, when you appease bullies, they don’t go away. You just are asking for more bullying and more demands. Disney/ABC should have known that from the start, but here we are. Trump is basically demanding a payout as punishment because Jimmy Kimmel makes fun of him.

If Disney’s Bob Iger had any principles or any backbone at all, he’d do exactly what John Oliver told him to do earlier this week. Go back to the White House with “Fuck you, make me.”

Filed Under: 1st amendment, brendan carr, censorship, donald trump, free speech, jimmy kimmel, threats

Companies: abc, disney