Wednesday, September 24, 2025

FCC: Fed Censorship Commission (Fresh Air)


Examining Kimmel's suspension and Trump's threats to free speech
Fresh Air (WHYY via NPR) with Terry Gross, Sept. 24, 2025 (43-minute audio)
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I'm just a court jester for blind kings
Jimmy Kimmel Live! is back, but New York Times reporter Adam Liptak and former Washington Post editor Martin Baron say the Trump administration is using federal power to control speech and [stifle] the press.
TRANSCRIPT 
TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Jimmy Kimmel and his show "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" returned to ABC last night after he was suspended indefinitely a week ago. The story of his suspension and return has implications beyond Kimmel, pertaining to conglomerate ownership of broadcast networks and news publications, the First Amendment and freedom of the press, the FCC and Pres. Trump. Here to talk about the larger story are [journalists] Marty Baron and Adam Liptak.

Collision of Power: Trump...
Baron was the editor of The Washington Post from 2013 until his retirement in 2021. During most of his tenure, The Post was owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Baron's memoir about that time is titled Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and the Washington Post. He was previously the editor of The Boston Globe. In the movie Spotlight, a drama based on The Globe's investigation, revealing sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, Baron was portrayed by Liev Schreiber.

Adam Liptak covers the courts and legal issues for The New York Times. Before joining the Times' news staff, he practiced law for 14 years, concentrating on First Amendment issues, including in The New York Times Company's corporate legal department. Let's start with a clip from Jimmy Kimmel's monologue last night.
I, BB, will decide what you hear.
The sure mark of an Orwellian dystopia is the use of Newspeak: euphemismistic bill names.
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Big Brother is Watching You (1984)
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!") JIMMY KIMMEL: I've been hearing a lot about what I need to say and do tonight, and the truth is, I don't think what I have to say is going to make much of a difference. If you like me, you like me. If you don't, you don't. I have no illusions about changing anyone's mind. But I do want to make something clear because it's important to me as a human, and that is you understand that it was never my intention to make light of the murder (CRYING) of a young man. I don't... (APPLAUSE)

Federal Censorship Commission (FCC)
KIMMEL: ...I don't think there's anything funny about it. I posted a message on Instagram on the day he was killed, sending love to his family and asking for compassion, and I meant it. And I still do. Nor was it my intention to blame any specific group for the actions of what -- it was obviously a deeply disturbed individual. That was really the opposite of the point I was trying to make. But I understand that to some that felt either ill-timed or unclear, or maybe both. And for those who think I did point a finger, I get why you're upset. If the situation was reversed, there's a good chance I'd have felt the same way. I have many friends and family members on the other side who I love and remain close to, even though we don't agree on politics at all. I don't think the murderer who shot Charlie Kirk represents anyone. This was a sick person who believed violence was a solution, and it isn't. It - ever. And also selfishly... (APPLAUSE)

KIMMEL: ...I am a person who gets a lot of threats. I get many ugly and scary threats against my life, my wife, my kids, my coworkers because of what I choose to say. And I know those threats don't come from the kind of people on the right who I know and love. So that's what I wanted to say on that subject. But I don't want to make this about me because - and I know this is what people say when they make things about them. (LAUGHTER)

KIMMEL: But I really don't. This show is not important. What is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Woo!

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Yeah! (CHEERING)
KIMMEL: I've had the opportunity to meet and spend time with comedians and talk show hosts from countries like Russia, countries in the Middle East, who tell me they would get thrown in prison for making fun of those in power, and worse than being thrown in prison. They know how lucky we are here. Our freedom to speak is what they admire most about this country. And that's something I'm embarrassed to say I took for granted until they pulled my friend Stephen [Colbert] off the air and tried to coerce the affiliates who run our show in the cities that you live in to take my show off the air. That's not legal. That's not American. That is un-American. And it is so dangerous. (CHEERING)

I am the King of the USA!
GROSS: All right, so that was an excerpt of last night's monologue by Jimmy Kimmel. Kimmel went on to praise Charlie Kirk's widow, Erika Kirk, for forgiving her husband's assassin. And he added while tearing up...

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!") KIMMEL: There it was. That's it, a selfless act of grace, forgiveness from a grieving widow. (Crying) And it touched me deeply. And I hope it... (APPLAUSE)

KIMMEL: ...It touches many. And if there's anything we should take from this tragedy to carry forward, I hope it can be that, and not this.

GROSS: So, Marty Baron, Adam Liptak, welcome to FRESH AIR. What was your reaction to last night's monologue?

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MARTY BARON: Well, it was very moving, very emotional and, I think, very effective. I really think that this could end up being an extraordinarily important moment in the history of the country. And you know, I think back to the 1950s, actually. It recalled for me the Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954, when Joseph Welch was representing the U.S. Army. He told Senator Joseph McCarthy, have you no decency, sir? And that really proved to be a turning point when the country turned against McCarthy and his incredibly malicious behavior. So, you know, now we live in a time where - era where performative behavior is rewarded. It's all about spectacle. You know, we have a president who really revels in showmanship. So maybe what we need is a different spectacle in this instance, from an entertainer like Jimmy Kimmel, really, as a counterweight, as a corrective, because the standard forms of argument just aren't as effective as they once were. So I thought it was highly effective and effective in a way that traditional debate hasn't been.

GROSS: Adam Liptak, what are your thoughts?

Nineteen Eighty-Four (Orwell)
ADAM LIPTAK: I agree with Marty. It was, among other things, a robust defense of free speech in the sense that you don't have to agree with what Jimmy Kimmel was saying, although it's hard to disagree with much of what he said because it was so moving. But what free speech requires is that you hear him out and you consider it, and you don't try to stifle it or censor it. That said, my viewing of this was a little frustrating because I live in Washington, D.C., and I learned last night, as I tried to watch Jimmy Kimmel, that the local ABC affiliate is owned by Sinclair, and they had chosen not to air it. And while it appeared on YouTube soon enough, this is not an unalloyed victory. In much of the country, Kimmel remains unavailable, and this fight is not over.

GROSS: Yeah. I think that between Sinclair and Nexstar, they own about 20% of the ABC affiliates.

BARON: Yeah, I think they...

GROSS: They own 70 stations, and I think it's like 20% of...

BARON: ...Households. More
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