What Everyone's Missing On The Jimmy Kimmel Firing

[Voluntarist]

Distilled:

The real issue isn’t Kimmel - it’s the machinery behind the suspension. Dr. Paul argues that both the Left and Right are missing the deeper problem: the increasing fusion of government influence and corporate media power. He sees Kimmel’s suspension not as a victory for decency or a loss for free speech, but as a symptom of a system where speech is policed by political pressure and media conglomerates acting in concert.
...
Dr. Paul sees FCC involvement as a red flag. He is especially concerned about FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s public condemnation of Kimmel. Even without direct censorship, he sees this as a form of state intimidation - nudging broadcasters toward compliance through regulatory threat.

Examples of this are Sinclair Broadcast Group (with 38 ABC stations - and 185 stations in total) and Nexstar Media Group (with 28 ABC affiliates - and over 200 affiliates/partners in total); neither will be broadcasting Kimmel's shows even though ABC is putting him back on the air. It certainly looks like both are succumbing to pressures from the government since both either have or expect to have regulatory business before the FCC.

Nexstar is in the process of acquiring Tegna in a $6.2 billion cash transaction (includes Tegna’s net debt and fees). The deal would make Nexstar the largest owner of local TV stations in the U.S., with 265 stations across 44 states, reaching 80% of U.S. households. FCC and antitrust paperwork is expected to be filed by 30SEP2025, with the deal projected to close in late 2026, pending regulatory approval. Nexstar has also been lobbying for the FCC to lift the 39% cap on national broadcast ownership, a rule Chairman Brendan Carr has called “arcane”.

Sinclair is conducting a strategic review of its broadcast assets, which could result in mergers, acquisitions, or spinoffs. The company is exploring separation of its ventures unit (e.g., Tennis Channel, Compulse) and has held deep discussions with potential merger partners, though no deal is finalized. Sinclair owns 185 stations in 85 markets, and its moves are seen as part of a broader push to lead industry consolidation, especially if FCC ownership rules are relaxed.

 

[GlennwaldSnowdenAssanged]

With the way our judicial system presently seems to work, some judge will probably rule that all ABC stations have to air Kimmel.

 

[Voluntarist]

With the way our judicial system presently seems to work, some judge will probably rule that all ABC stations have to air Kimmel.

There could be some basis for a legal case, but I'm not sure how the contracts between ABC and it's affiliates are constructed. If the affiliate is required to run the show, then the affiliate could still be responsible for paying ABC some percentage of the ad revenue that would have been generated from running the show.

 

[GlennwaldSnowdenAssanged]

There could be some basis for a legal case, but I'm not sure how the contracts between ABC and it's affiliates are constructed. If the affiliate is required to run the show, then the affiliate could still be responsible for paying ABC some percentage of the ad revenue that would have been generated from running the show.

My point is all it takes is for powerful judge to rule you can't do that. It happens all the time now. Whether there is legal precedent or not. Unless judges are held accountable for these rulings, they have no reason not to make them. Good business for the courts and lawyers.

 

[Voluntarist]

But what was the lie? Seriously? Can you or @Anti Federalist or anybody else explain to me what the lie is that Jimmy Kimmel said?

No, I can't. But since a lie is obviously needed to assuage the sensibilities of the right wing, allow me to take a shot at it on my own. Hmmmmmm:

=====

In the year of our bureaucratic Lord, 2025, a new ballroom was commissioned for the White House - a gilded cavern to host the nation's most solemn waltzes of denial. The blueprints, drafted in a fugue state by the Department of Symbolic Excess, called for a chandelier forged from the shattered remnants of a 2016 glass ceiling, and parquet floors inlaid with the splinters of bipartisan National Debt extension.

Construction began with ceremonial shovels, each wielded by a senator in sequined hard hat, chanting the national hymn in 7/8 time. Beneath the surface, the soil groaned - a tectonic sigh of institutional fatigue. Geologists warned of a latent sinkhole, a geological metaphor long overdue. But the Office of Patriotic Landscaping insisted it was merely “freedom settling.”

As the ballroom neared completion, its weight - both literal and symbolic - became unbearable. The chandelier trembled. The parquet buckled. And then, with a sound like a filibuster collapsing into a primal scream, the earth opened.

Down went the ballroom, the East Wing, the West Wing, and the annex that housed the Oval Office - swallowed whole by the hungry void. Not a scream was heard, only the faint echo of a string quartet playing “Hail to the Chief” in a minor key.

As the White House ballroom descended into the earth’s gaping mouth, a final tableau unfolded above the chaos. On the Truman Balcony - newly reinforced with the steel of stubborn legacy - stood Donald Trump and Melania, posed with operatic defiance.

He, arms outstretched in a gesture of triumphant surrender, comb-over catching the updraft like a golden pennant. She, poised behind him, one hand on his shoulder, the other grasping a clutch shaped like the Constitution. Together, they reenacted the Titanic’s most mythic scene - not as lovers adrift, but as avatars of a nation’s theatrical brinkmanship.

“I’m the President of the World!” he declared, as the chandelier below swung like a pendulum of fate.

The sinkhole widened. The ballroom vanished. The annex groaned. But the balcony held – at least for a few brief moments - before it too was pulled into the chasm ... a symbolic prow jutting over the abyss, where ritual and spectacle fused into one final pose.

In the aftermath, a crater remained. Tourists gathered at its rim, tossing in subpoenas, campaign buttons and pardon requests - like coins into a wishing well. The National Park Service declared it a sacred site: The Pit of Procedural Reckoning.

And somewhere deep below, in the ballroom without dance
The chandelier still swings - and bureaucrats still prance
Not with triumph, nor with purpose, nor with light to guide the way
Their shadows trace the paperwork which buried them that day

 

[TheTexan]

But what was the lie? Seriously? Can you or @Anti Federalist or anybody else explain to me what the lie is that Jimmy Kimmel said?

It's not a lie but it might as well be. The intention was to deceive people into thinking the dude is a right winger

 

[jmdrake]

It's not a lie but it might as well be. The intention was to deceive people into thinking the dude is a right winger

At this point we don't even know the guy is who the FBI is saying he is (the shooter) or whether the shot really came from a 30-06. We know Tyler Robinson was raised as a right winger. We know he had a trans roommate. We're being TOLD they were lovers based on text messages that look like they were generated by AI. And even before Tyler Robinson was announced as the suspect, the governor of Utah was praying that the shooter would not be "One of us." So no. The intention was not to deceive people but to point out the very real attempt at getting ahead of a narrative. Whether Tyler Robinson really did it and whether he really is some left winger is yet to be proven. But the right was actually desperate immediately for "left winger" narrative to be true. Pointing that out is not an "intention to deceive." The other thing Jimmy Kimmel pointed out is that Trump seemed to care more about his freaking ballroom than he did about his "friend" being murdered. I wonder if Trump will name the ballroom after Charlie Kirk? If he does, Candace Owens will have a cow.

 

[TheTexan]

We know he had a trans roommate. .... whether he really is some left winger is yet to be proven.

Dunno seems proven to me ^

The other thing Jimmy Kimmel pointed out is that Trump seemed to care more about his freaking ballroom than he did about his "friend" being murdered. I wonder if Trump will name the ballroom after Charlie Kirk? If he does, Candace Owens will have a cow.

To be fair it's probably going to be a really nice ballroom

Maybe Trump can host a party there to accept his peace prize