The
flood
of
outrage
at
the
Disney/FCC
cancellation
of
Jimmy
Kimmel
ultimately forced
the
company
to
retreat and
put
Kimmel
back
on
the
air.
Disney
apparently
didn’t
much
like
the
wave
of
folks
cancelling
their
Disney+
streaming
video
subscriptions
in
response
to
the
government
and
a
major
corporation
coordinating
a
frontal
assault
on
the
First
Amendment.
Some
insiders
at
Disney
indicated
that
Disney
had
a
planned
Disney+
price
hike
coming
this
week,
and
executives
worried
the
backlash
to
both
was
going
to
cause
significant
financial
harm
to
their
quarterly
numbers,
as
revealed
by
independent
journalist
Marisa
Kabas.
Indeed,
on
Tuesday
morning the
price
hike was
confirmed.
Local
ABC
broadcast
affiliate
owner
Sinclair
Broadcasting,
however,
appears
intent
on
pushing
its
luck.
We’ve
long
pointed
out
how
the
right-wing
broadcaster
is
basically
GOP
propaganda
pretending
to
be
local
news.
The
company
has
an
extended
history
of
kissing
Trump’s
ass,
airing
all
kinds
of pro-Trump
propaganda (the
company’s
infamous “must
run”
segments),
and
is often
cozy with white
nationalists.
Sinclair says
it
will
continue
to
“pre-empt”
Jimmy
Kimmel
Live! as
some
sort
of
misguided
punishment
for
Kimmel’s
(fairly
tame)
criticism
of
their
beloved
President:
“Beginning
Tuesday
night,
Sinclair
will
be
preempting Jimmy
Kimmel
Live! across
our
ABC
affiliate
stations
and
replacing
it
with
news
programming. Discussions
with
ABC
are
ongoing
as
we
evaluate
the
show’s
potential
return.”
Soon
after
Sinclair’s
announcement,
Nexstar
followed
suit
and said
it
would
also
not
show Kimmel’s
show
despite
the
high
ratings
it
was
guaranteed
to
get
last
night.
Sinclair
owns
39
ABC-affiliated
stations
across
the
country,
including
WJLA-TV
in
Washington,
D.C.
The
company,
along
with
the
nation’s
other
major
right-wing
local
broadcaster,
Nexstar,
originally
demanded
Kimmel
issue
an
apology
(for
doing
nothing
really
wrong),
and
donate
to
Charlie
Kirk’s
right-wing
outreach
(and
dim
college
kid
disinformation
project),
Turning
Point
USA.
Nexstar
is
pushing
for
Trump
FCC
approval
of
a
$6.2
billion
deal
merger
with
Tegna,
which
is
part
of a
massive
new
wave
of
harmful
media
consolidation
under
Trump
2.0.
The
Kimmel
saga
began
when
FCC
boss
Brendan
Carr,
once
again
abused
the
agency’s
regulatory
approval
powers
to
convince
Sinclair
and
Nexstar
that
pre-empting
Kimmel
for
criticizing
the
President would
be
in
their
best
interests.
That’s
clearly
an
illegal
government
effort
to
cancel
free
speech,
and
Disney
has
paid
the
price
already.
The
censorship
effort
saw
widespread,
bipartisan
backlash,
including
(somewhat
surprisingly)
from
the
likes
of Senators
Ted
Cruz
and
Mitch
McConnell,
and
former
Fox
News
propagandist
Tucker
Carlson.
They’re
at
least
aware
enough
to
know
that
this
sort
of
abuse
of
government
power
could
inevitably
be
turned
against them.
Sinclair
likely
still
believes
that
pushing
its
luck
and
continuing
to
“pre-empt”
Kimmel
gives
them
additional
leeway
within
the
Trump
administration,
cements
their
power
in
the
right-wing
propaganda
ecosystem,
and
makes
merger
approval
more
likely.
But
that’s
going
to
come
with
an
obvious
ratings
cost,
and
any
costs
incurred
by
those
identifying
Sinclair
stations
and
contacting
their
advertisers
to
complain
in
the
weeks
to
come:
Ultimately
Sinclair
and
Nexstar
may
get
more
harmful
media
consolidation
approved,
but
it’s
likely
going
to
be
more
trouble
than
it
was
worth.
The
MAGA
set
clearly
thinks
they
can
exploit
Charlie
Kirk’s
death
to
escalate
their
war
on
their
ideological
enemies,
but
having
been
pickled
in
their
own
propaganda,
one
gets
the
sense
they’re really
not
tuned
into
how
violently
unpopular
their
“movement”
is
becoming (something
set
to
get
worse
as
the
impacts
of
things
like
tariffs,
the elimination
of
all
corporate
oversight,
and
the
evisceration
of
the
social
safety
net
begin
to
arrive
in
concussive
waves).
Meanwhile,
local
broadcast
television
was
also already
seeing
steady
viewership
declines
as
their
mostly
older
audience
dies
off;
advertising
yourself
as
a
bunch
of
weird
censorial
zealots
engaged
in
fake
journalism
in
service
to
an
unpopular
idiot
king
isn’t
likely
to
help
the
company
make
inroads
with
a
younger
target
demographic
essential
for
the
company’s
longer
term
survival.
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