Friend,

ABC executives yanked Jimmy Kimmel off the air on Wednesday under pressure from the Trump administration.

This is blatant government censorship and yet another appalling surrender from corporate media. We need to let these companies know that we’ve had enough of their capitulation, cowardice and corruption.

Tell your local station: Put Jimmy Kimmel back on the air and stop letting Trump censor what I want to watch.

We built a tool that makes it easy to find your local ABC affiliate station and its phone number. Go here and then call them up. Tell them your name, that you’re a local viewer and where you live.

Here's a script you can use:

Here’s what went down: After Kimmel made some comments on his Monday-night episode about right-wingers attempting to exploit Charlie Kirk’s murder, Trump FCC Chairman Brendan Carr went on an extremist podcast and threatened ABC’s TV licenses, saying — get this — “we can do this the easy way or the hard way.”

Then Nexstar — the nation’s largest owner of local broadcast stations, including two-dozen local ABC stations — announced it wouldn’t carry Kimmel’s show.

This is the same Nexstar that’s trying to get the Trump FCC to approve a $6.2 billion takeover of fellow media company Tegna — and trash the few remaining limits on local-media ownership.

The right-wing Sinclair Broadcast Group — which owns hundreds of stations and is a propaganda arm for Trump — said it would preempt the show until Kimmel made a donation to Charlie Kirk’s far-right political organization. It’s Orwellian.

But instead of standing up for Kimmel and his staff — and the First Amendment — Disney/ABC folded like a cheap umbrella. Guess what? Disney has its own mega-deals pending before Trump’s FCC.

This is a new low for the FCC and corporate media — and that’s saying something. The rest of us must speak out now against this abuse of power and unite to defend free expression.

Call your local ABC station and tell them: Stop caving to Trump. Stop the corruption. Stand up for free speech.

A single station isn’t used to getting this many calls. Be polite but make sure the person you speak with understands how upset you and other viewers are. It will get their attention — and the attention of their bosses.

These are all stations licensed to use the public airwaves — and they need to listen to the public.

As MSNBC’s Chris Hayes said after the news broke: “The test of a free society is whether or not comedians can make fun of the country's leader on TV without repercussions.”

Yesterday, it was Jimmy Kimmel. Today, it could be of any of us. Tomorrow, it could be all of us. That’s why it’s so important to speak up now and let ABC know its actions are wrong — and we’re not going to stay silent.

Thanks for all you do,

Craig and the rest of us at Free Press

P.S. Many ABC affiliates operate across state lines. If our call form didn’t show you the station(s) closest to you, you can search in our spreadsheet instead.