The abrupt cancellation of Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show has ignited what free speech advocates and lawmakers are calling a “red alert moment” for American democracy. The decision by ABC to indefinitely pull “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” came just hours after Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair Brendan Carr, a Trump appointee, issued direct threats against the network and its parent company, Disney.
Carr’s intervention followed remarks Kimmel made about the political exploitation of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk’s murder. On his Monday broadcast, Kimmel criticized the rush by pro-Trump figures to cast the killing in partisan terms. “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,” Kimmel said.
Carr responded publicly on Wednesday, warning Disney and its affiliates: “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.” Within hours, Disney CEO Robert Iger and co-chair Dana Walden made the decision to suspend Kimmel’s program. According to Rolling Stone, executives privately admitted Kimmel had done nothing wrong, “but the threat of Trump administration retaliation loomed.”
Nexstar, the company that owns ABC affiliates nationwide and is currently seeking FCC approval for a $6.2 billion merger with Tegna, announced it would preempt Kimmel’s show after Carr’s remarks. Sinclair Broadcast Group followed, going further by demanding that Kimmel make a “meaningful personal donation” to Kirk’s family and Turning Point USA, the organization Kirk founded.
Craig Aaron, CEO of the First Amendment advocacy group Free Press, condemned the move as part of a dangerous pattern of corporate capitulation. “ABC keeps caving regardless of how meritless the administration’s claims are—and how much lasting damage they’re doing to free speech in America,” Aaron said. “These companies are turning the public airwaves into another propaganda arm of the Trump regime.” He added: “Donald Trump and Brendan Carr have turned the FCC into the Federal Censorship Commission, ignoring the First Amendment and replacing the rule of law with the whims of right-wing bloggers. They’re abusing their power to shake down media companies with their dangerous demands for dishonest coverage and Orwellian compliance with the administration’s demands. This is nothing more than censorship and extortion.”
ABC had previously sought to shield itself from the administration’s ire by paying $15 million to Trump’s presidential library in 2024 to settle a defamation lawsuit. But as Aaron noted, such attempts to appease Trump have not prevented further retaliation.
The controversy fits into a broader crackdown on dissent following Kirk’s September 10 assassination. Conservative leaders, including Vice President J.D. Vance, have vowed sweeping retribution against critics. “We will work to dismantle the institutions that promote violence and terrorism in our own country,” Vance declared while hosting Kirk’s podcast. Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff, echoed the call: “With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle, and destroy these networks and make America safe again for the American people. It will happen, and we will do it in Charlie’s name.”
The response has already extended beyond rhetoric. Employers, universities, and media outlets have disciplined or terminated individuals for expressing critical views about Kirk’s legacy. MSNBC fired political analyst Matthew Dowd after he remarked, “I always go back to, hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions.” The Washington Post dismissed columnist Karen Attiah over Bluesky posts that referenced Kirk’s past racist comments about Black women.
Conservative social media figures and websites have amplified the campaign, publicizing names, employers, and personal information of individuals accused of mocking Kirk’s death. One anonymous site, “Expose Charlie’s Murderers,” claimed to have received tens of thousands of submissions before being taken down by hackers. Many of those targeted, like IT technician Ali Nasrati, were falsely accused or impersonated. “By the time Nasrati figured out what was going on, his phone number and personal address had already spread widely and his job had suspended him,” Truthout reported.
Academic freedom has been particularly hard hit. At least 11 faculty members at colleges and universities have faced discipline since the shooting, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. PEN America warned that “colleges and universities risk undermining free inquiry and academic freedom if they treat all online expression as grounds for termination.” Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors, described the climate of fear among educators: “This terrain that has been created—where faculty are constantly a target of the right and a target in a way that’s getting escalated and escalated and escalated—scares the death out of my faculty. They are worried about a paper they wrote five years ago. They’re worried about walking to campus.”
Ken Paulson, director of the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University, drew historical parallels. “It is 1952 in too much of America right now,” he told Truthout, likening the current wave of repression to McCarthy-era blacklists.
The pressure on media corporations has been reinforced by their dependency on federal approval for mergers. CBS canceled “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” earlier this year while its parent company Paramount was awaiting approval of an $8.4 billion merger with Skydance, which was granted shortly afterward.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren criticized both Trump and corporate media executives. “Trump silencing free speech stifles our democracy,” she said. “It sure looks like giant media companies are enabling his authoritarianism.”
Sen. Chris Murphy warned of the broader consequences: “This is a moment for the country to mobilize. This is a moment for all of us to be out on the streets protesting because if you don’t raise your voices right now about the assault on free speech, about Donald Trump’s decision to disgustingly exploit the murder of Charlie Kirk, so as to try to permanently render powerless and impotent those who politically oppose him—there may be no democracy to save a year from now. This is a red alert moment.”
The Kimmel cancellation is only the latest example in a wider pattern. Earlier this year, pro-Palestinian student activists Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk were detained by immigration authorities and threatened with deportation for speaking out against U.S. support for Israel. Trump has also launched lawsuits against The New York Times and Penguin Random House in attempts to silence unfavorable reporting.
Christopher Anders, director of the Democracy and Technology Division at the ACLU, summarized the stakes: “Jimmy Kimmel is the latest target of the Trump administration’s unconstitutional plan to silence its critics and control what the American people watch and read. Cowering to threats, ABC and the biggest owner of its affiliate stations gave the Trump FCC chairman exactly what he wanted by suspending Kimmel indefinitely and dropping the show. This is beyond McCarthyism. Trump officials are repeatedly abusing their power to stop ideas they don’t like, deciding who can speak, write, and even joke. The Trump administration’s actions, paired with ABC‘s capitulation, represent a grave threat to our First Amendment freedoms.”
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