\u201cAfter threats from Trump\u2019s FCC Chair, ABC yanked Kimmel off their air indefinitely. That is blatant censorship,\u201d Colbert said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith an autocrat, you cannot give an inch, and if ABC thinks this is going to satisfy the regime, they are woefully naive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Colbert\u2019s show was axed shortly after he criticised a decision by CBS\u2019s parent company, Paramount Global, to settle a lawsuit brought by Trump over an interview with former Vice-President Kamala Harris.<\/p>\n
CBS said in July that cancelling Colbert\u2019s programme was a \u201cpurely financial decision\u201d.<\/p>\n
Comedy Central\u2019s Jon Stewart delivered his own response to Kimmel\u2019s suspension, introduced on Thursday night as \u201cyour patriotically obedient host\u201d of the \u201call-new government-approved Daily Show\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome naysayers may argue that this administration\u2019s speech concerns are merely a cynical ploy… to obscure an unprecedented consolidation of power and unitary intimidation,\u201d Stewart said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people would say that – not me though, I think it\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once a staple for American audiences, late-night talk shows on network TV have seen declining viewership and advertising revenue in recent years amid a trend of cord-cutting.<\/p>\n
Linear ad spending for late-night segments on ABC, CBS and NBC nearly halved between 2018 and 2024, falling from US$439 million ($749.6m) to US$221m ($377.2m), the New York Times reported in May citing data from advertising data firm Guideline.<\/p>\n
\u2018Not done yet\u2019<\/p>\n
FCC chief Carr said on Thursday that the media ecosystem was experiencing a \u201cvery disruptive moment\u201d and that more changes were to come.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are in the midst of a massive shift in dynamics in the media ecosystem… including the permission structure that President Trump\u2019s election has provided,\u201d he said on a CNBC programme.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would simply say we\u2019re not done yet with seeing the consequences of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump earlier urged NBC to remove satirists Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, writing on his Truth Social platform that they were \u201ctotal losers\u201d.<\/p>\n
On The Tonight Show, Fallon praised Kimmel as a \u201cdecent, funny and loving guy and I hope he comes back\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people are worried that… we\u2019ll be censored, but I\u2019m going to cover the president\u2019s trip to the UK just like I normally would,\u201d Fallon told his audience.<\/p>\n
A voiceover was then played calling Trump \u201cincredibly handsome\u201d.<\/p>\n
Meyers said on Thursday that Trump\u2019s administration is \u201cpursuing a crackdown on free speech\u201d at home.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd completely unrelated, I just want to say… I\u2019ve always admired and respected Mr Trump,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019ve ever seen me say anything negative about him, that\u2019s just AI.\u201d<\/p>\n
Late-night legend David Letterman also defended Kimmel on Thursday, calling the ABC decision \u201cridiculous\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t go around firing somebody because you\u2019re fearful or trying to suck up to an authoritarian criminal administration in the Oval Office,\u201d Letterman said at a New York event.<\/p>\n
Fox News host Greg Gutfeld said on Thursday Kimmel was not being \u201ccensored\u201d after earlier calling him a clown.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile some say it\u2019s an attack on free speech, others believe it\u2019s an excuse to unload Jimmy due to his poor ratings and the cost to keep him on,\u201d Gutfeld said.<\/p>\n
– Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cAfter threats from Trump\u2019s FCC Chair, ABC yanked Kimmel off their air indefinitely. That is blatant censorship,\u201d Colbert…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6761,19053,74,95,30802,13599,15308,18151,5715,5782,10806,30801,2178,156,30799,1736,30798,11156,18152,29401,18153,8526,111,139,69,1523,2572,26525,18938,1305,30800,18150,6934,12066,2179],"class_list":["post-32441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-abc","tag-activist","tag-after","tag-and","tag-blatant","tag-censorship","tag-charlie","tag-colbert","tag-comics","tag-comments","tag-defend","tag-denounced","tag-donald","tag-entertainment","tag-fallon","tag-jimmy","tag-jon","tag-killing","tag-kimmel","tag-kimmels","tag-kirk","tag-latenight","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-president","tag-pulled","tag-rightwing","tag-show","tag-skewered","tag-stephen","tag-stewart","tag-suspension","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}