Something nice about the current landscape of late-night television is that all of the hosts get along really well and they go out of their way to support one another. When CBS canceled The Late Show, all of the other late-night hosts sat in Stephen Colbert’s audience. Well, on Wednesday, ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel for making a completely factual statement about Republicans’ attempts to use Charlie Kirk’s death for their own fascist/political purposes. The late-night-host WhatsApp must have been super-active throughout the day, because all of the other hosts talked about Kimmel on their shows. I’m including videos from The Late Show and Seth Meyers’ show below.
Kimmel was seen in LA yesterday – he was photographed in his car, heading to his lawyer’s office. Good. Get the lawyers involved. Get the unions involved. Maybe Kimmel will go down, but he should go down swinging. Speaking of, thin-skinned Trump is making it pretty easy for Kimmel’s lawyers:
In the immediate wake of the Jimmy Kimmel Live! controversy, President Donald Trump has now suggested that broadcast networks should have their FCC licenses revoked if they air overwhelmingly negative coverage of — or commentary about — him.
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, “I have read someplace that the networks were 97 percent against me, I get 97 percent negative, and yet I won and easily,” according to The New York Times. He added on the return flight from his U.K. visit: “I would think maybe their license should be taken away.”
Trump also called networks “an arm of the Democrat party” that are out to get him. The president’s latest remarks are an escalation of what many are calling an attack on free speech. While Trump has consistently berated his opponents and members of the Democratic Party, it appears he doesn’t want the same done to him — at least not on TV.
Many are treating Trump’s words and his FCC director’s threats as very serious. Fair enough, but we should also have a conversation about how this is all very childish, weak, flaccid and small. Real men don’t throw diaper-baby tantrums about a late-night host criticizing them. Real men don’t demand to live in a bubble where “free speech” means “no one can say mean things about me!” This is apparently what modern masculinity is to conservative men: being whiny, thin-skinned, immature and making everyone focus on your suckbaby feelings.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, JKL.
