Viewers Revolt: Local TV Giants Bring Back Kimmel

Local TV giants end Jimmy Kimmel boycott Two of the country's largest station owners, Sinclair and nexstar, are putting Jimmy Kimmel back on the air. According to the Times, both groups have been preempting Jimmy Kimmel Live since Tuesday, when the late night host returned from suspension with a monologue about the man accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk. The blackout deprived millions of viewers in dozens of market ABCs or flagship late night show, including Washington, D.C. and quickly became a flashpoint in the national free speech debate. Sinclair initially demanded that Kimmel apologize and donate to Turning Point usa. By Friday, both companies reversed course, citing viewer backlash, lost ad revenue and, quote, thoughtful feedback from community leaders. Disney, ABC's parent, declined comment. But industry analysts note the boycott coincided with Nexstar's circ $6.2 billion bid to acquire Tegna, a deal that requires approval from the fcc, where Chairman Brendan Carr had applauded the blackout. Ratings pressure and political calculations appear to have played a role in the sudden about phase. Okay, this warms my heart. I have to tell you, this is profoundly, foundly good news. If you believe in democracy, if you believe in free speech. So what's the real message here, the message to Trump, the fcc, Sinclair, nextstar, these other companies that said, we're going to muzzle you, Jimmy Kimmel, you got to get down on bedded knee, you got to give contributions to right wing causes. The message is, no, we don't. Jimmy Kimmel is back. He's back better than ever. He doesn't have to apologize to anyone and he certainly doesn't have to give a campaign contribution to a right wing propaganda organization, which what these TV companies were demanding. Let's dig a little bit deeper here. This does show the entire country is not just ready to roll over and play dead to authoritarianism. This shows you can stand up to bullies. This shows that not every American who's a centrist, who's a moderate right of center, who believes in the Constitution, is ready to just kick the bucket and give in to right wing dictatorship. This is probably in many respects the most positive thing to happen in America, as I see it, in the last nine months, because it's a sign that the center that Democrats, little D Democrats, that is people who believe in democracy haven't just given up. This does show the power of people speaking up because initially it was Brendan Carr, the henchman of the Trump regime, saying on a podcast, basically, you know, we could do this the hard way, we could do this the easy way, threatening these TV stations and these TV networks And Disney to saying, you better take off Jimmy Kimmel. And they did fold. Bob Iger, the CEO of the parent company Disney, chickened out and said, oh yeah, I better take him off. Want to lose our licenses. And everything was going according to the plan. Very similar to what happened with universities caving and saying, oh, we're sorry dear leader. Here's money. We'll change all of our policies. Very similar to big law firms saying, oh, we're sorry, dear leader. Yeah, we'll do whatever you want. We'll do pro bono work for you. We won't support any bad Democratic clients anymore. Institution after institution after institution in this country has rolled over and played dead to this far right dictatorial regime we now have in Washington. And finally somebody stood up. You, the people, actual human beings, viewers. It was because of people canceling their Disney plus membership, because of people saying, we're not going to go to Disney parks because of 400 movie stars and TV stars and creators saying we're not going to work with Disney anymore. All of this pressure on Disney had an impact and it really had an impact on these two really slimy companies. I gotta tell you, Sinclair and nexstar are two of the slimiest companies in the country. They talk about how they care about, you know, factual information and Jimmy Kimmel's not factual. Meanwhile, one of these two has Armstrong Williams on. It was a complete right wing hack and true story. I was debating Armstrong Williams on the old Montel Williams show. This was 30 some years ago. And he looked at me and pointed and said, you know, tj, you, you liberals are just, you're ilk, you're destroying America and our traditional family values. Well, a few months later, all the men in his office basically sued him for touchy feely grabbing their private parts. This is the guy, Armstrong Williams, that is regularly on one of these station groups spewing misinformation on a regular basis. It's been well documented, documented. So what they mean and what increasingly we're hearing from the Trump administration is there's free speech for anyone who wants to make up stuff and just tell lies about any centrist Democrat, liberal, progressive, certainly George Soros, it's practically required. There's free speech if you want to lie like crazy as long as it's negative about someone their team doesn't like. But if you're saying anything, even if it is truthful, that hurts the feelings of Dear Leader or MAGA or Republicans or now you're spewing hate speech. Now you're fomenting Violence, well, now you're a terrorist organization. So now you have to be banned, taken off the air, indicted, maybe imprisoned or deported or all of those things. That is the message that is coming out of Washington D.C. and our broader culture. And finally, what happened this week, not only with Jimmy Kimmel returning to the airs, but these station groups, the Sinclair and Nexdar, unfolding without getting what they want. And they were the bullies. They were telling Jimmy Kimmel, you have to not only apologize, even though we never pointed out a single thing you factually said that was wrong, you have to apologize for hurting our feelings. And you have to donate money to Turning Point, which is an organization devoted to supporting Donald Trump Republican issues, MAGA issues. By a guy who says that, founded by a guy who said Martin Luther King was awful. By a guy who says, you know, when the Bible says gay people should be stoned to death, sounds like the right policy, policies that are extraordinarily extremist in the eyes not of liberals, not of Democrats, but the vast, vast majority of all decent Americans. And they were telling Jimmy Kimmel, we're not going to show your program on our station, including places like Washington D.C. unless you give money to support a political extremist organization where they support candidates and policies that are anathema to you. Well, my friends, that is not the free market. That is tyranny. Fortunately, in this case, the free market did in fact speak out the marketplace, actual consumers, actual viewers of these TV sticks. Because I could tell you having lived in Washington D.C. and Virginia, the surrounding area, there are a lot of people who like to watch ABC and like to watch late night TV who are not full fledged Kool aid drinking MAGA members and MAGA supporters. And they were not happy about this. They were not happy about getting, not being able to watch what they wanted to watch. And they spoke out. And guess what? It worked. My only advice to you, if you're an American and if you're joining us today in India and Egypt and other places where we frequently do get a lot of viewers, I want to thank you for spending time with us and let you know I do try to most of the time talk about issues that affect everyone in the world. But sadly these days, when the leading free market democracy in the world turns its back on basic principles, it does affect the whole world in a profoundly negative way. So I'm assuming that is why you're also watching. Now, a couple of things to keep in mind. What happened here and why these interconnections are so powerful. Both Sinclair and nexstar are, are trying to expand. They want to buy more TV stations in America. And in America you can make the case this is an archaic rule, but there's a rule where no one company is supposed to own TV stations that cover more than 39% of the country. Now, this rule was made back in the day before there was cable tv, before there was the Internet. So the fear was it would be too much power for any one company to be able to cover the whole country because there were only three TV stations available to most people in most cities. You can make the case the rules are correct, but it's still still rule and the FCC has to enforce the rules. So what both of these companies are wanting is an exemption, a change the rules in their favor. And you have to assume that they said, we want the FCC to like us. Here's the FCC saying, we don't like Jimmy Kimmel, we don't like abc, so put pressure on them to take him off the air. So you have to assume they said, let's just pander to the fcc. And the FCC can say, well, we didn't call and tell them to do that. Well, you don't have to. It's obvious the head of the FCC is saying publicly on podcast he wants this guy off the year. So if you're the head of Sinclair or nexjar and you think we want the FCC to like us, here's what they want. Let's just deliver it to them again. They have a pending $6.25 billion merger that is looming. I'm guessing they're still going to get it because the whole idea of regulating the marketplace to help consumers is not exactly a concept that has a lot of currency in Washington D.C. these days. The only thing that seems to matter is how can you align the pockets of a family member of Trumps. That seems to be the only criteria. So maybe, maybe Nextar or Sinclair will just say, hey, we'll just give Tiffany Trump 5% of the company. Like this merger goes through. Sounds crazy, sounds outrageous. In the past, a lot of things sounded crazy and outrageous. They are now the norm. We have a sitting president who has started meme coin after fake business after scam after scam, has enriched himself depending on who is doing the accounting, hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars while sitting in the White House. So nothing is beyond the pale anymore. And thanks to Anna for writing in. Says, I love your content. Keep it up. Anna, thank you so much for joining. If you are watching this live, we typically do show this live every day, warts and all, if I make a mistake or blunder reading the teleprompter, you do see it right here. 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