Depending on the topic of the day, I usually get anywhere from a handful of emails to dozens in response to The Poynter Report newsletter
Last week, the number of responses were among the most I’ve ever received in a week. Pretty much every one was about Jimmy Kimmel’s show being pulled off the air by ABC. And most — not all, but most — of those emails were a mixture of anger, frustration and, in some cases, hopelessness.
CNN’s Brian Stelter summed it up really well in his "Reliable Sources” newsletter by writing, “Imagine we're all stuck in an elevator together. The elevator is only moving in one direction — downward. Every time the doors open, we're at some new, lower level. No one knows how to reverse course. No one knows what awaits us at the very bottom.”
I’ll add this: No one knows where the very bottom is.
Last week, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission suggested Kimmel be suspended because of something Kimmel said on his late-night show. Within hours, two owners of local affiliates — Nexstar and Sinclair — said they wouldn’t air Kimmel’s show. Soon after, ABC announced the Kimmel show is being suspended “indefinitely.”
And that’s when a disturbing reality set in. A popular late-night host, in a country that so much believes in free speech that it’s the very first amendment to our Constitution, was booted off the air for something he said. Kimmel didn’t threaten anyone. He didn’t incite violence. And yet his show is off the air — because of his monologue. And, one could easily argue, it’s actually because President Donald Trump hasn’t liked him for years.
Throw in all the corporate tanglings involving Nexstar and Disney, which owns ABC, and the need for Trump's FCC to approve potential future business acquisitions and mergers and it’s easy to see why everything has gone down the way it has.
But how we got here and where we are is the troubling part. And, make no mistake, the president of the United States is leading the charge.
The New York Times’ Peter Baker wrote, “For him, it’s not about hate speech, but about speech that he hates — namely, speech that is critical of him and his administration.”
Baker continued, “He has suggested that a clutch of protesters who yelled at him in a restaurant be prosecuted under laws targeting mobsters. He demanded that multiple late-night comics who mocked him be taken off air. He threatened to shutter television broadcasters that he deemed unfair to him. He sued The New York Times for allegedly damaging his reputation. And that was just last week.”
Poynter, led by editor Ren LaForme and reporter Angela Fu, has even started something called the “Press Freedom Watch” to track all of the way the Trump administration is attacking the press.
Baker went on to write, “Mr. Trump is not the only president to bristle at opposition or news coverage, nor the first to try to punish those who angered him. But in modern times, no president has gone so far in using his power to pressure media figures and political opponents, historians say.”
We can only ask: How much lower can we go? And what will happen next?
Absolutely inappropriate
There is some hope. Free speech still has defenders across the political spectrum, including some Republicans who have pushed back against Trump’s efforts.
During an appearance on Sunday’s “Meet the Press” on NBC, Republican Congressman Rand Paul of Kentucky slammed FCC chair Brendan Carr for Carr’s comments on Kimmel that eventually led to Kimmel’s suspension. Appearing on a conservative podcast last week, Carr threatened punishment for Kimmel, saying he could “certainly see a path forward for suspension,” and adding, “we can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
When asked if Carr’s comments were appropriate, Rand told “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker, “Absolutely inappropriate. Brendan Carr has got no business weighing in on this.”
Paul said that people have the right to say "despicable comments,” but that doesn’t mean they have a right to employment. And, he said, one can be fired for breaking a code of conduct. However, Paul went on to say that “the FCC should have nothing to do with it.”
Rand added that “the government's got no business in it, and the FCC was wrong to weigh in. And I'll fight any, any, any attempt by the government to get involved with speech. I will fight.”
Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro also appeared on “Meet the Press” and was asked about his reaction to Kimmel’s show being pulled off the air.
“Fear,” Shapiro said. “Our foundational principle in this country … is about freedom of expression, freedom of speech. And to see that being undermined by the long arm of the federal government is extremely dangerous.”
Shapiro said it shouldn’t matter if you agree with Kimmel or not, or if you find him funny or not, or if you were offended by anything he might have said about Trump or Charlie Kirk. He said, “That is dangerous when we are selectively firing people because of their viewpoints.”
Another Republican who usually toes the conservative line is Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. But Cruz has come out strongly against Carr’s threats to pull ABC’s broadcast license — even though Cruz said he hated what Kimmel said in his monologue and was “thrilled” to see Kimmel yanked off the air.
“But let me tell you,” Cruz said on his podcast, “If the government gets in the business of saying, ‘We don’t like what you, the media, have said. We’re going to ban you from the airwaves if you don’t say what we like,’ that will end up bad for conservatives.”
Cruz wasn’t exactly defending freedom of speech as much as he seemed to be worried about retribution. He said, “Going down this road, there will come a time when a Democrat wins again — wins the White House … they will silence us. They will use this power, and they will use it ruthlessly. And that is dangerous.”
Nevertheless, in an editorial, The Wall Street Journal said it was Cruz’s “finest hour.”
The WSJ editorial board wrote, “Most Republicans are afraid of uttering even a syllable of disapproval about the Trump Administration, so kudos to Ted Cruz for noticing the danger from Brendan Carr’s use of regulatory threats to stifle free speech.”
They added, “As Mr. Trump and his appointees escalate their use of government to punish opponents and coerce business, Republicans will have to decide if they want to rubber stamp this misuse of regulatory and prosecutorial power. If they do, they won’t have grounds to complain when the same screws are turned on them by the next Democratic President.”
Cruz might be able to do more than just talk. As CNN’s Michael Williams notes, “Cruz also chairs the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, which has broad authority over the FCC.”
When asked by reporters if the committee could hold hearings if Carr continues to act in the way he did in the Kimmel matter, Cruz said, “There’s no doubt the Commerce Committee has oversight, authority and responsibility over the FCC, and when the Democrats had the majority, they did not engage in oversight. … We will do our job and engage in oversight.”
Rage tweet
Just a day after late-night legend David Letterman criticized Trump for Kimmel’s suspension, Trump responded as he often does in such situations: He rage-tweeted.
Letterman appeared last Thursday at The Atlantic Festival in New York City in the aftermath of Kimmel being pulled off the air. Letterman said, “I just, I feel bad about this because we all see where this is going, correct? It’s managed media and it’s no good. It’s silly; it’s ridiculous; and you can’t go around firing somebody because you’re fearful or trying to suck up to an authoritarian criminal administration in the Oval Office. That’s just not how this works.”
On Friday night, Trump responded on Truth Social, writing, “Whatever happened to the very highly overrated David Letterman, whose ratings were never very good, either. He looks like hell, but at least he knew when to quit. LOSER!!!”
Letterman, of course, stands alongside Johnny Carson as, arguably, the best late-night talk-show host ever. Letterman’s run on late night went all the way back to the Ronald Reagan administration, and he noted during his appearance last week that he joked about all administrations, especially Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
Letterman said, “The point is beating up on these people, rightly or wrongly, accurately or perhaps inaccurately, in the name of comedy — not once were we squeezed by anyone from any governmental agency, let alone the dreaded FCC. The institution of the president of the United States ought to be bigger than a guy doing a talk show.”
What’s next with Kimmel
