By Trump Pressure Behind ABC’s Suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Sparks Free-Speech Concerns
LOS ANGELES, Sept 20 (AfrikTimes) – ABC’s abrupt suspension of talk show host Jimmy Kimmel under pressure from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is the latest demonstration of the power President Donald Trump wields to bend media, entertainment and digital platforms to his will, as he uses political pressure to mute criticism and punish institutions he sees as biased against him.
The move, which came after Kimmel’s remarks about the accused killer of slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, has jolted the U.S. media and entertainment industries and intensified free-speech fears as the Trump-appointed FCC chair Brendan Carr threatened to revoke broadcast licenses from stations that carry what he called “garbage.”
Major media and tech companies are now controlled by Trump supporters or billionaire business leaders who lined up behind Trump during his inauguration, donated to his inaugural fund, or visited the White House bearing gifts. Billionaire GOP donor Larry Ellison’s Oracle is part of a consortium of investors with the inside track to take control of the U.S. operations of the video-sharing platform TikTok. This week, the Trump administration announced it had agreed to a framework for a deal with China that would allow the sale of TikTok’s U.S. assets to continue to operate in the U.S.
Companies such as CBS, Meta Platforms (META.O), and the editorial pages of the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times have made editorial or operational changes following Trump’s re-election in ways that lay the groundwork for less adversarial coverage of the president.
People walk past the El Capitan Entertainment Centre on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, where “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” is recorded, on September 17, 2025. The walk-by came after Germany’s main journalists’ union urged major U.S. media outlets to support journalists following Walt Disney-owned ABC’s decision to pull the show over host Jimmy Kimmel’s comments about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
“There is a continued lurch to the right throughout much of our major media in the United States right now,” said Victor Pickard, professor of media policy and political economy at the Annenberg School of Communication at University of Pennsylvania. “I expect to see more of this to come. There’s no countervailing force against it.”
The decision Wednesday night is the second time since Trump’s re-election that ABC parent company Walt Disney (DIS.N) has taken action in response to on-air comments. In December, ABC News agreed to give $15 million to Trump’s presidential library to settle a lawsuit Trump had filed over remarks that anchor George Stephanopoulos made involving sex abuse claims brought against Trump by writer E. Jean Carroll.
“They’re all terrified,” said Steve Kroft, who was a longtime “60 Minutes” correspondent, specifically citing the nightly broadcast news. “The thing that scares me the most about this administration is this retaliatory mindset, to go after its enemies. And I think they’re clearly going after the news people. That’s the top of their list.”
Disney declined to comment on Kimmel’s suspension.
“Jimmy Kimmel is free to make whatever bad jokes he wants, but a private company is under no obligation to lose money producing an unpopular show,” said White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson. “Jimmy Kimmel’s terrible product isn’t a free speech problem; it’s a talent problem.”
AfrikTimes could not independently verify the profitability of Kimmel’s show.
A photo illustration showing U.S. President Donald Trump bidding farewell to Jimmy Kimmel, following ABC’s decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel Live off the air after the host’s remarks about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Trump welcomed Disney’s move, calling it “great news for America,” and urged NBC to also drop comedians Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers.
CAMPAIGN AGAINST PERCEIVED BIAS
Pressure on traditional media comes after conservatives successfully pushed digital platforms to pare back content moderation which they portrayed as biased.
Elon Musk acquired Twitter in 2022, which had banned Trump for “incitement of violence” after the January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol, and promised to restore “free speech” to the platform. Renamed X, Musk eliminated its Trust and Safety team in favor of a system that allows its users to fact-check posts, and restored accounts of conservatives who previously had violated Twitter’s policies.
Content on the platform has become more right-leaning since the acquisition, according to research from Queensland University.
Meta Platforms disbanded its third-party fact-checking program in the United States, changes that affected Facebook, Instagram and Threads. The company elected Dana White, a Trump ally and the chief executive of Ultimate Fighting Championship, to its board, and elevated prominent Republican policy executive Joel Kaplan as global affairs head.
People protest at the El Capitan Entertainment Centre, where “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” was recorded for broadcast, following his suspension for remarks he made regarding Charlie Kirk’s assassination, on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, U.S. September 18, 2025.
“We’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes and too much censorship. It’s time to get back to our roots around free expression,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in January.
FCC POWER OVER MEDIA MERGERS
Beyond broadcast licenses, the Federal Communications Commission also oversees media mergers involving local broadcasters. David Ellison, son of longtime Trump supporter Larry Ellison, secured regulatory approval for his company Skydance Media to acquire Paramount (PSKY.O), promising that the CBS network would reflect the “varied ideological perspectives” of American viewers.
Prior to the deal, Paramount paid $16 million to settle a 2024 lawsuit Trump filed over a “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris, which he claimed gave a distorted view of his rival for the White House. The FCC has said the settlement and regulatory review were unrelated.
In the United States — the ‘Land of the Free’ — TV and film writers protest after the Walt Disney Corporation, through the ABC network, suspended talk show host Jimmy Kimmel for discussing the death of right-wing activist Charlie Krik and mocking President Donald Trump.
Last week, Paramount announced the appointment of its new ombudsman, Kenneth R. Weinstein, former president and CEO of the conservative Hudson Institute. The company is also reported to be in talks to acquire The Free Press and bring founder Bari Weiss into a leadership role at CBS News. Weiss, a former New York Times opinion writer, built a national following by challenging what she calls the illiberal left and “wokism.”
Now Paramount is preparing a bid to acquire Warner Bros Discovery(WBD.O), home to CNN, while Larry Ellison’s cloud giant Oracle is in play to buy TikTok, which would put a key communication tool that reaches 170 million Americans in the hands of a conservative billionaire.
When asked about allegations of a right-leaning shift at CBS, a spokeswoman for parent-company Paramount directed AfrikTimes to CEO David Ellison’s previous comments about the network’s political neutrality. “We’re an entertainment company first,” Ellison has said. “Everyone – left, right, young, old – is its audience. I’m not going to be in the position of making political statements about anything.”
Demonstrators picket in response to the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show outside of Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California.
‘THE EASY WAY OR THE HARD WAY’
Disney was attempting to find a way to defuse the social media backlash against Kimmel’s comments when the FCC’s Carr turned up the heat.
The regulator said Kimmel misled viewers about the alleged shooter’s affiliation with Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, and urged local stations to push back, raising the possibility of the FCC revoking the broadcast licenses of local television stations that did not comply. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said in an interview with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson on Wednesday.
ABC pulled Kimmel off the air after Nexstar Media Group(NXST.O), the largest owner of broadcast stations in the U.S., decided to preempt the show in the wake of his comments about Charlie Kirk. Sinclair Broadcast Group, the nation’s largest owner of ABC-affiliated TV stations, followed suit. Several ABC affiliates ran a Charlie Kirk special on Friday in Kimmel’s regular time slot.
Nexstar will need the FCC’s approval to complete its announced $6.2 billion acquisition of Tegna, the owner of 64 television stations and exceed the agency’s regulatory cap on station ownership.
“The decision to preempt ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ was made unilaterally by the senior executive team at Nexstar,” said Gary Weitman, the company’s chief communications officer. “And they had no communication with the FCC or any government agency prior to making that decision.”
A woman holds a sign during a protest outside Disneyland, after Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show was suspended for remarks he made regarding Charlie Kirk’s assassination, in Anaheim, California, U.S. September 19, 2025.
LAWFARE AGAINST THE PRESS
Trump has used the courts to attack major media outlets over unflattering coverage. He has filed nine media-related civil suits since 2020, including a $15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times and book publisher Penguin Random House filed this week, and a $10 billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal in July.
The Journal called the lawsuit meritless, while the Times said Trump’s lawsuit has no legitimate legal claims and is an attempt to stifle and discourage independent reporting. A federal judge on Friday struck the Times lawsuit over its content, saying that a complaint is not “a public forum for vituperation and invective” or “a protected platform to rage against an adversary” and gave Trump 28 days to file an amended complaint.
First Amendment scholars see the moves, taken together, as a broad attempt to suppress free speech in America. “The Trump administration is becoming increasingly brazen in its abuse of government power to silence its critics,” said Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, in a statement.
Even as some conservatives have targeted Kirk critics, others have also expressed concern about the use of government power to suppress speech.
“During the Biden administration, conservatives rightly complained when the government went after their speech,” said David Inserra, a fellow for free expression and technology at the Cato Institute. “But now the Trump administration is using many of the same arguments to justify censorship.”
Charlie Kirk, conservative activist and media figure, shown in 2024. His killing and the debate sparked by Jimmy Kimmel’s comments about it triggered backlash and censorship concerns.
