Chris Herd

Let’s make sure everyone understands the facts with Kimmel. As the right is trying to paint this as “at-will” termination. -Nextar the parent company of Kimmel’s show is seeking FCC approval for a merger. -Kimmel made comments about Trump on Monday night (months after Trump openly said he wanted to get Kimmel fired next) -Reporting is that Trump had the FCC lean on Nextar over these comments. -Apparently they expressly used the line “we can do this the easy way, or the hard way” -Multiple executives at the network have on background said they “had no issue with Kimmel’s statements but the Trump threat loomed” referring to the merger. This was *NOT* a network dissatisfied with Kimmel. This was *NOT* a network embarrassed or horrified by what Kimmel said. This was *NOT* a network that thought he was unfunny, or underperforming. This was *NOT* a company freely choosing to fire an employee. This was expressly the federal government weaponizing federal departments, in retribution for someone being critical of the President. This is LITERALLY what the 1st Amendment exists for. It does not protect you from private actions by private entities. It protects you from actions by the government to censor your speech. Whether brazen and direct, or through coercion and threat. This is not about if Kimmel was offensive or not. This is about speech.