Media consolidation is shaping who folds under political pressure — and who could be next
Hours after Brendan Carr — the head of the government agency responsible for regulating broadcast transmissions — threatened to use his power to go after ABC “the hard way,” the network caved.
ABC announced late Wednesday it was pulling Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show off the air “indefinitely.” Earlier in the week, Kimmel had attracted ire from some conservatives, including Carr, for his comments about the killing of right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk. During his show Monday, Kimmel criticized the right for politicizing the killing by “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.”
Media watchers called Kimmel’s sidelining an alarming act of capitulation — one that fit into a larger pattern of media giants self-censoring in anticipatory obedience to President Donald Trump and his administration.
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