Something nice about the current landscape of late-night television is that all of the hosts get along really well and they go out of their way to support one another. When CBS canceled The Late Show, all of the other late-night hosts sat in Stephen Colbert’s audience. Well, on Wednesday, ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel for making a completely factual statement about Republicans’ attempts to use Charlie Kirk’s death for their own fascist/political purposes. The late-night-host WhatsApp must have been super-active throughout the day, because all of the other hosts talked about Kimmel on their shows. I’m including videos from The Late Show and Seth Meyers’ show below.
Kimmel was seen in LA yesterday – he was photographed in his car, heading to his lawyer’s office. Good. Get the lawyers involved. Get the unions involved. Maybe Kimmel will go down, but he should go down swinging. Speaking of, thin-skinned Trump is making it pretty easy for Kimmel’s lawyers:
In the immediate wake of the Jimmy Kimmel Live! controversy, President Donald Trump has now suggested that broadcast networks should have their FCC licenses revoked if they air overwhelmingly negative coverage of — or commentary about — him.
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, “I have read someplace that the networks were 97 percent against me, I get 97 percent negative, and yet I won and easily,” according to The New York Times. He added on the return flight from his U.K. visit: “I would think maybe their license should be taken away.”
Trump also called networks “an arm of the Democrat party” that are out to get him. The president’s latest remarks are an escalation of what many are calling an attack on free speech. While Trump has consistently berated his opponents and members of the Democratic Party, it appears he doesn’t want the same done to him — at least not on TV.
Many are treating Trump’s words and his FCC director’s threats as very serious. Fair enough, but we should also have a conversation about how this is all very childish, weak, flaccid and small. Real men don’t throw diaper-baby tantrums about a late-night host criticizing them. Real men don’t demand to live in a bubble where “free speech” means “no one can say mean things about me!” This is apparently what modern masculinity is to conservative men: being whiny, thin-skinned, immature and making everyone focus on your suckbaby feelings.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, JKL.
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- Jimmy Kimmel hosts the live ABC telecast of the 95th Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 12, 2023.,Image: 762329065, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: LCY / Avalon
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- Host Jimmy Kimmel on stage during the live ABC telecast of the 95th Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 12, 2023.,Image: 762344491, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Blaine Ohigashi / Avalon
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- Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Sir Keir Starmer and President of the United States Donald Trump as he arrives at Chequers US President Donald Trump state visit to the UK, Arrival, Day 3, Chequers – 18 Sep 2025,Image: 1038356869, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Victoria Jones/Shutterstock/Avalon
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- US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrive at Stansted Airport, in Essex, ahead of the US President’s second state visit to the UK Featuring: Melania Trump, Donald Trump Where: Stansted, United Kingdom When: 16 Sep 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- King Charles III and Queen Camilla stand with US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrive for the state banquet at Windsor Castle, Berkshire, on day one of the president’s second state visit to the UK Featuring: Queen Camilla, King Charles III, Donald Trump, Melania Trump Where: Windsor, United Kingdom When: 17 Sep 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
Yep this is how it starts. Control the press!!!!!!!!!!!
He is small and pathetic. The entire GOP has rendered themselves useless puppets.
I wrote to Disney sharing my cancelled subscription. I also wrote to ABC. Those entities are powerful enough to resist but too greedy to do so. F them.
“This is apparently what modern masculinity is to conservative men: being whiny, thin-skinned, immature and making everyone focus on your suckbaby feelings.”
THIS quote is everything.
Other point is that the threat to journalism is so very real considering the right wing monopolies that control the media. Very scary times.
TBH mainstream media has been slowly dying for years now. The latest capitulation to Trump is just the final death knell.
The future is definitely independent media and I think a lot of the big news outlets also see the writing on the wall. They could have fought Trump but they chose not to. They’ve spent decades slavishly cowing to conservatives’ demands and devoting themselves to both sides-ism instead of speaking truth to power and calling out fascism and corruption when they see it.
This is the natural repercussion of their actions.
JFC, I’m old enough to remember when the first President Bush became friends with Dana Carvey. That’s how you handle the situation, not with threats. Trump is the worst, an absolute embarrassment.
Not that anyone wants to be friends with Trump, but still.
LOL…I remember when Gerald Ford was friendly with Chevy Chase.
Y’all, I remember that Nixon on Laugh In episode.
Frankly terrifying times ahead and this sets a terrible example for other countries around the world where right-wing extremists will just follow along.
This is getting extremely dark, extremely fast.
Yes Sue! Omg at this time last year I was at a Kamala Harris rally with my kid. The energy was electrifying – I had never seen anything like it and I was at an Obama rally before he won in 2008. What a different world it would be if she were president. My heart really mourns what the USA and the world have lost.
We were so full of hope a year ago.
I’ll always cherish the memory of sitting in Bryant Park the night before the 2008 election with my friend and talking about how great a president we knew Obama was going to be.
I am so sad and scared for our country. I am so sad and scared for my daughter who has to grow up with this. I am so frustrated with the idiots who couldn’t bother to learn basic history to realize that dictatorships don’t end in 4 years and that EVERYONE loses.
Sigh…😢
I identify with all of those feelings Sue. I remember 2008 we were all so joyous and full of hope. This is such a nightmare. I went home to Canada. I have US citizenship as well but it was a matter of time (I am brown skinned person) before they came for me. I didn’t want to live in fear like that or die in a camp.
I am terrified about what is happening over there. I don’t even find comfort in knowing DT is at the end because Vance is just as terrifying only younger. He plays pretend Hillbilly but he went to Yale law school and although he doesn’t come from money he is backed by the elites behind Project 2025. He knows exactly what he is doing.
I don’t know what to say about the situation but the top picture is hilarious. Donald looks demented (he needs lipstick that goes with the make up) and Mel looks like she’s just been told that the bank transfer still hasn’t come through.
We should do a caption contest.
lol
A coup d’Etat has been taking place in the United States of America since 2016
💔
President Biden temporarily slowed it. But it is happening
Personally I think it started in 2000, when they knew they lost Florida but found a way to put Bush II in the WH.
And it accelerated when Obama was elected, twice, because a black man in the White House was simply not acceptable.
It started, when Nixon coordinated with the Vietnamese to hold off peace, until after he was elected. It got another push, when Reagan coordinated with the Iranians to hold on to the hostages, until after he was elected. Republican power is not derived from informed public consent.
What can we do today??!
A few things you can do to try to help turn the tide against ABC, and all the companies capitulating in advance to Trump. I saw this list on Wonkette.
https://cmarmitage.substack.com/p/the-kimmel-cancel-response-blueprint?r=1zr8b&triedRedirect=true
Money is THE only thing that will invoke change followed by voting. All the protest marches in the word make a great visual but how many of those out there bought the materials to make their signs, or their comfy shoes, etc from Amazon? Then went home to spend the day watching Hulu or whatever with their families. Investors do not want one less zero in their dividend deposits…the rest they don’t give a darn about.
Thank you, that link has excellent suggestions for concrete actions.
Exactly! Why do some people think this is the behavior of a strong, secure, emotionally mature man? We actually have a plurality of voters who think a bully makes a great leader. A toddler would make a better president.
Overinflated egos and tiny peepees – male Republicans in a nutshell. They pick and choose what amendments to defend just like they do with the Bible.
I wish Kimmel would devote some of his time and money to take them to court. It’s a big ask of one person but it’s the kind of pushback that really, really needs to happen now by those that can.
This is a real and present danger that will force us all to make the hard decisions to do everything to resist or risk an ultimate surrender.
And yet the g*ddamn Fox reporter who said mentally ill homeless people should just be killed still has his job. I would write to the FCC but I know that’s useless. I email Fox every day about this, but that just doesn’t feel like enough. 😕
Save free speech
Start speaking up or we will lose it and the rest of our rights
I remember, when Trump was coming up, they all normalized him. I remember Colbert played with Trump’s hair. Now, they’re reaping what they sowed. Heaven help us.
Stephen would never! It was Jimmy Fallon.
That was Jimmy Fallon.