Transcription
Disney is bringing him back on the air tomorrow. ABC says in a statement that we made the decision last week to suspend production to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment. But now, after having thoughtful conversations with Ji the ABC says we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday. So Kimmel's getting back to work.
Wow, Brian, that is significant, especially given that some of the outside of Disney in a corporate setting like Nexstar and Sinclair, they essentially have deals that allowed them to preempt his and that's part of the reason that it was suspended. Do we know how they might react? We don't. And that becomes the big question. Will these local station affiliates choose to air Jimmy Kimmel Live? Or will they continue to protest the comedian, even though the network is bringing him back nationwide?
ABC does generally chastise Kimmel in this statement. The statement says, quote, the decision to suspend. We made it because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive. So they're very gently saying they disagreed with Kimmel last week, but obviously they're bringing it back as of Tuesday. And we don't know, obviously, all of the considerations that went into this, Brian. But I would say leaders obviously at ABC and Disney have had the benefit of a few days of feedback. Yeah, including from Disney employees who were very disturbed, including from Hollywood stars and showrunners, the kind of people Disney wants to work with, and for free speech groups, politicians, even some Republican politicians like Ted Cruz. We know the condemnation of Disney has been widespread now, but we don't know yet. Is what the counter-reaction will be from President Trump and his allies.
That's a really good point. Brian, please stand by. Terry, your reaction to this news? It's great news. It's great news. And I think you're absolutely right. And Brian is absolutely right. This was a community standing up for the rights of Jimmy Kimmel and all people who speak in public, entertainers. And we're journalists and all of us. And it worked, at least with the with the head of Disney. And it makes good sense because they would have won in court. One thing that gets lost in this, you do not lose your First Amendment rights because you have a broadcast license. Supreme Court has been clear on that. The government cannot take your license because a speech they don't like. You were talking about Katharine Graham when the news broke. And these are the considerations bigger companies about how they're going to handle this and how they're going to think about it. They do have the benefit of some time. They do consider these moves. Right. Well, Katharine Graham, when Nixon threatened to take her FCC, The Washington Post, FCC licenses, they had some local stations. It was a main source of income. She published them anyway. She said, forget about it. And that kind of corporate courage is rare, especially in the face of an administration that exceeds, by many orders of magnitude, any other presidency trying to silence speech it does not like.
If we still have Brian, I want to go back to him because one of the interesting bits of reporting that we got over the last few days was that Kimmel was actually preparing a monologue that would up the ante against some of the feedback that he got from the Trump administration. I mean, can you imagine, Brian, what he might be formulating in terms of a response when he gets back on the air? Hey, Kimmel wanted to defend himself. So now Tuesday night's monologue becomes even more interesting. What you will be critical and it might affect what local stations decide to do going forward. Yeah. Certainly will.
The. I want to know what you think, Terry, about, just sort of the moment that we're in when it comes to free speech. And I also want to play a moment from the White House press briefing today. This was, a correspondent for Turning Point USA frontline, associated with the group that Charlie Kirk founded, who asked the White House press secretary what her message is to Americans who are too afraid to express their beliefs. Here's a brief part of what Caroline Leavitt said. We have a right to free speech in this country. The president supports it. It is protected by our beautiful Constitution. And Americans should not cower in fear. They should rise up in courage to continue speaking the truth. What do you think about what you're hearing from the White House there, as we just get this news that Jimmy Kimmel will return to air tomorrow night?
Right. Well, see what the White House says. Everybody should speak up except the ones that the president doesn't like. He just barked at my former colleague Jonathan Karl. Maybe he'll come after you, because I don't like the content of your news coverage. All of this is bedrock First Amendment rights that we all have. And I think I think they have overreached. Most Americans, even many, many who support President Trump, did not like the kind of gangster talk that the head of the FCC said, you know, you can do this the easy way. You can do it the hard way. And they understand how precious this right is, even for people that they disagree strongly with. There's good common sense about our First Amendment rights. And I think Trump is running up against that. Yeah. Senator Ted Cruz said it was out of Goodfellas. To your point there, Terry, thank you so much for being with us. Really appreciate it. And this is the breaking news just in from Disney. Jimmy Kimmel, his show will return to air tomorrow night. Big news there, as a lot of conservatives who had been very pleased that his show was yanked off the air indefinitely, initially, we're characterizing it as a win. His show will return.