{"id":182057,"date":"2025-09-26T02:27:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T02:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/182057\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T02:27:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T02:27:08","slug":"democrats-are-in-trouble-can-jimmy-kimmel-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/182057\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats Are In Trouble. Can Jimmy Kimmel Help?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFor Hollywood\u2019s political class, Jimmy Kimmel<\/a>\u2019s return to late night after a week-long suspension was a cause to celebrate \u2014 a crucial if momentary victory \u2014 for a town that\u2019s been casting about for a way forward since Donald Trump re-entered the oval office in January. The question on the minds of many is whether the Democrats and industry activists can leverage what many see as government overreach and an assault on free speech by President Trump and his Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr to their advantage.<\/p>\n

\n\tJust a few days ago CNN\u2019s chief data analyst Harry Enten gave a blistering on-air report that painted the Democrats \u2014 even amidst President Trump\u2019s sagging approval ratings following a string of recent controversies \u2014 as the party that\u2019s in trouble with American voters ahead of the 2026 midterms. \u201cAt this particular point, the ball may be on the ground, but the Democrats have not picked up the ball and run with it and if anything, it\u2019s the Republicans who are running with the ball on the top issues,\u201d he said. Nothing, it seemed, was working for the Democrats.<\/p>\n

\n\tThen came Kimmel. The abrupt decision last week by Disney CEO Bob Iger and co-chairman of Disney Entertainment Dana Walden to yank Kimmel off the air <\/a>sent waves of despair across an industry that had already seen various moguls and media companies bend the knee to the Trump administration over the past eight months. Both ABC News and Paramount paid out eight-figure sums to resolve various legal disputes with the administration and many viewed the announcement by CBS that Stephen Colbert\u2019s show would not be returning next season as yet another capitulation to Trump. The night of Kimmel\u2019s return, which saw a massive surge in viewers, the Democratic National Committee launched a digital ad campaign focused on Trump\u2019s attacks on media companies.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs far as campaigns go, it was a small spend \u2014 just five figures \u2014 but its impact highlights how potent free speech and censorship are as issues across party lines. The 30-second ad<\/a> was viewed over half a million times, and reached 40,000 unique voters, which is more than double the engagement that one would typically see on this type of campaign, says Abhi Rahman, deputy communications director for the Democratic National Committee.\u00a0\u201cFreedom of speech is an issue that transcends party lines,\u201d says Rahman, who noted that much of the DNC\u2019s spend went to pay for pre-roll ads that ran on both Ben Shapiro and Joe Rogan\u2019s shows.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the days following Kimmel\u2019s suspension, Senators Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) cautioned fellow Republicans about censorship and criticized Carr\u2019s statements, and a recent Quinnipiac poll<\/a> showed that fifty-three percent of voters say they\u2019re pessimistic about freedom of speech being protected in the United States, while 43 percent are optimistic. The Kimmel campaign didn\u2019t raise a huge sum of money, but according to Rahman, that wasn\u2019t the point. \u201cIt felt like this was existential,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a 24-hour news cycle, especially one that\u2019s largely controlled by the Trump Administration, it\u2019s anyone\u2019s guess how long the Kimmel imbroglio will still stay top of mind. On November 4, California will be holding a special election to vote on Proposition 50, that, if passed would allow for a temporary override of state\u2019s redistricting commission.\u00a0The whole Kimmel affair could very well be a distant memory by then.\u00a0 \u201cAs a stand-alone event it\u2019s not a magic bullet but it is part of a larger narrative of concerns and anxieties that many Americans \u2014 not just democrats but independents and even some Republicans \u2014 feel about government overreach in this moment,\u201d says Steve Caplan, a veteran strategic communications consultant who now teaches at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf nothing else, Kimmel\u2019s suspension and subsequent return re-centers Hollywood\u2019s political class. \u201cWill it bolster Hollywood and make donors more willing to engage? I think so. It shows relevancy and it\u2019s a momentary win,\u201d says Caplan. \u201cThe talent and the executives that stood tall and spoke out deserve credit, but I don\u2019t think it changes how Hollywood is perceived from a messaging standpoint, and I certainly don\u2019t think the battles with Trump are over by any stretch of the imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Hollywood\u2019s political class, Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s return to late night after a week-long suspension was a cause to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,17114,92],"class_list":["post-182057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-jimmy-kimmel","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}