ABC Just Put Late Night on Mute After an FCC Shakedown
Ben Cable (Originally Posted Sep 18, 2025 on Substack)
America, meet your new vibe: censor first, explain later. ABC yanked Jimmy Kimmel Live off the air “indefinitely” less than a day after the FCC chair publicly rattled the network’s cage over Kimmel’s monologue about Trump’s reaction regarding a reporter’s question about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Trump pivoted the question to talk about Trump’s ballroom planned for our White House. According to multiple outlets, affiliates bolted, the FCC saber-rattled, and Disney/ABC flinched. This isn’t a programming tweak, it’s a live demo of how political power can muzzle culture in real time.
I have been to Jimmy Kimmel’s show tapeings in Hollywood several times. He is very funny, and of course irreverent, that is his appeal. I can’t think of any other reason to watch or subscribe to Disney/ABC now. Other than the White House lawn exchanges this week (I will go into detail below), ABC News has become soft and bias, and Disney has disappointed me several times in LGBTQ+ and DEI decisions. I don’t need to boycott; I just won’t support ABC or Disney any longer.
What just happened (and how fast)
- The flashpoint. Kimmel’s commentary about the reaction to Kirk’s killing triggered a conservative pile-on and affiliate backlash led by Nexstar, which announced it would stop carrying the show. Within hours, ABC/Disney “preempted” the show indefinitely.
- The threat. FCC Chair Brendan Carr all but said “nice broadcast licenses you’ve got there, shame if something happened,” publicly warning ABC/Disney and cheering affiliates that pulled Kimmel.
- The chill. By Thursday morning, international press-freedom groups and U.S. lawmakers were calling it censorship in plain sight. Germany’s DJV union blasted the decision as capitulation to political pressure.
- The victory lap. President Trump applauded the suspension, feeding the perception that government pressure produced a media scalp.
The players
- Disney/ABC: Sitting on a mountain of regulatory exposure and affiliate relationships. When the regulator holding your oxygen tank growls, corporate legal advises “de-risk.” Translation: protect licenses, protect deals, and swap a late-night host for “Celebrity Family Feud” reruns.
- FCC Chair Brendan Carr: A regulator using the bullhorn, and the specter of licensing muscle — to police taste and punishment. His public posture (“we can do this the easy way or the hard way”) signaled consequences if ABC didn’t play ball.
- Nexstar (and other affiliates): Station groups with their own D.C. agendas, regulatory asks, and political sensitivities. Dropping Kimmel telegraphed “we’re on the ‘community standards’ side” while strengthening their hand with the FCC.
- The Trump White House & allies: Publicly celebrating the suspension cements a narrative: criticize the movement, lose your mic. It also reinforces the climate created by other recent media pressure campaigns, a slow normalization of state-adjacent interference in editorial decisions.
- Kimmel & the writers’ room: The immediate losers. Audience turned away at the studio. Monologue canned. The longest-running ABC late-night franchise tossed into limbo because a joke ran afoul of the government-politics-broadcast triangle.
Trump’s Lawn Show: Threats, Bluster, & Targeting the Press
As if to teach a civics class on intimidation, Trump marched onto the White House lawn and hurled threats at ABC reporters, first targeting an Australian ABC journalist, John Lyons, then turning his fire toward Jonathan Karl, ABC’s Washington Chief Correspondent.
- When Lyons asked about business dealings, Trump snapped: “Oh, the Australian-you’re hurting Australia. In my opinion, you are hurting Australia very much right now… Your leader is coming over to see me very soon. I’m going to tell him about you. You set a very bad tone.” He ordered Lyons to be “quiet,” making a public spectacle.
- Then, in a different exchange with Jonathan Karl, Trump threatened to come after him and ABC. Karl asked: “What do you make of Pam Bondi saying she’s going to go after hate speech? A lot of people say hate speech is free speech.” Trump replied: “She’d probably go after people like you, because you treat me so unfairly. It’s hate. You have a lot of hate in your heart. Maybe they’ll come after ABC. ABC paid me $16 million recently for a form of hate speech, right? Your company paid me $16 million … so maybe they’ll have to go after you.”
This is more than heated rhetoric. It’s a threat against press freedom spoken aloud by the President of the United States using official power (via Pam Bondi, the DOJ, and regulatory tools) as the stick.
The real motivation: licensing blackmail in prime time + press suppression
Let’s drop the fig leaves. When a federal regulator publicly threatens a broadcaster and presto the show disappears, the message is bigger than any monologue: your license depends on pleasing the regime’s sensibilities.
Throw in Trump telling reporters “we’ll probably go after people like you” and suggesting legal retaliation via Pam Bondi, and it’s not just about one comedy show. It’s about demonstrating: if you speak critically, you might risk being punished. Corporate counsel, FCC chairs, and DOJ prosecutors all get that lesson loud and clear.
Echoes From Belarus: The Authoritarian Playbook
If you think this is just another TV kerfuffle, take a hard look east. In Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko turned free media into state-approved wallpaper. The script was textbook: lean on regulators, yank licenses, slap “extremist” labels on independent outlets, and jail the loudest voices. By the time TUT.by and Belsat were silenced, there was no late-night laughter, no investigative exposés, no national satire, just propaganda and fear.
Sound extreme? That’s the point. Lukashenko didn’t outlaw democracy in one day. He strangled it slowly by killing off jokes, then journalists, then elections.
When ABC folds under FCC muscle and Trump threatens reporters by name, that’s not just American politics, that’s Belarus creeping into prime-time.
“In Minsk, they killed the jokes first.
Then they killed dissent.
Sound familiar, America?”
Ramifications for free speech going forward
- A blueprint for future silencing. Want a critic off the air? Rally a station group, threaten a license, and let corporate counsel do the rest.
- Affiliate veto power as a censorship tool. If one big owner can yank a network show over politics, every outspoken host now lives at the mercy of the most skittish station group’s “community standards.”
- Preemptive self-censorship. Writers’ rooms will sand down edges; bookers will avoid guests; executives will ask, “Is this joke worth a license review?” That’s how free speech dies — not with a ban, but with a memo.
- Press gagging becomes normalized. When the president publicly threatens a reporter for doing his job, the next reporter (in local news, small outlets, etc.) thinks twice.
- Legal precedent or chilling effect. Even if no lawsuit or license revocation follows, the fear of possible retaliation works. The First Amendment protects dissent, but it protects less when powerful people use vague threats of law enforcement to intimidate.
The losers
- Viewers. You didn’t just lose a show; you lost a guardrail. Late night and political comedy have long been pressure valves. Pull the valve and pressure builds elsewhere.
- Journalists & comedians. Every on-air critic now carries a price tag that lobbyists and regulators can calculate. The risk reward of speaking out tilts toward risk.
- Local newsrooms. When corporate owners posture for Washington, rank-and-file reporters eat the blow, from boycotts to legal threats.
- Democracy. A government that can bully jokes off the air can bully journalism off the front page. And when media fear reprisals, they may avoid covering crucial truths.
What you can do
- Flood the record. File comments and complaints with the FCC supporting viewpoint-neutral licensing and condemning political interference in content decisions.
- Call Congress. Demand hearings on regulatory retaliation against speech and the use of licensing to chill criticism. Make your House member and Senators go on the record.
- Back press-freedom orgs & unions. Donate to and amplify groups calling this what it is. Watchdogs already are.
- Pressure affiliates and advertisers. Tell station groups and brands you won’t reward or tolerate political censorship. Polite, firm, public pressure works.
- Support your political comedians. When silenced in one forum, I hope the curtain goes up in another. A good example is Substack’s Kathy Griffin, who is taking her act on a national tour starting in Las Vegas next month. Countless reporters, comedians, and politicians are now contributing to Substack.
- Support independent outlets. If the big four wilt under pressure, help build platforms that won’t. Subscribe, share, sustain.
Bottom line
ABC’s decision isn’t an isolated “programming choice.” With Trump’s threats, Pam Bondi’s posturing, FCC pressures, and affiliate walkouts, this is the architecture of silencing taking shape. Comedy, journalism, protest, all teetering not because of lack of truth, but fear of power. The next lesson will be easier. Unless the public makes it harder.
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Related Article: Further Erosion of Free Speech in America
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