🔥 Jimmy Kimmel Returns With Fury: “You Can Cancel My Show, But Not My Voice!” — A Fiery Comeback That’s Shaking Hollywood and Washington!

Earlier this month, Jimmy Kimmel joined a long line of comedians and entertainers to survive the government’s attempt to limit free speech.

“Walter Cronkite must be spinning in his grave right now. (He’s dead, right?),” Kimmel said during the opening monologue on his first show back after ABC suspended his late-night talk show. “Look, I never imagined I would be in a situation like this. I barely paid attention in school. But one thing I did learn from Lenny Bruce and George Carlin and Howard Stern is that a government threat to silence a comedian the president doesn’t like is anti-American. That’s anti-American.”

In our next installment of “Press in Peril,” our series on the value of a free press, we explore how the Trump administration’s attempt to censor late-night entertainment is an abuse of power, and how this administration’s attempts stand apart historically.

FCC Takes Action Against Jimmy Kimmel and Pressures Networks

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr threatened affiliate broadcast licenses if they did not “take action” against Kimmel for remarks he made on his show. ABC’s parent company, Disney, suspended “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” in mid-September following pressure from the FCC.

Carr’s threat was met with wide-spread outrage, with many individuals, prominent organizations, and the artist community, naming how dangerous Kimmel’s suspension is for free speech. The ACLU issued a letter cosigned by 475 artists, reading in part: “In an attempt to silence its critics, our government has resorted to threatening the livelihoods of journalists, talk show hosts, artists, creatives, and entertainers across the board. This runs counter to the values our nation was built upon, and our Constitution guarantees.”

In part because of the outcry, ABC announced Kimmel would return to the air six days after his suspension. Still, Nexstar and Sinclair, which own about 25% of local ABC affiliate stations across the country, refused to air the show on their stations. Both companies have business before the FCC, and hold some of the broadcast licenses threatened by Carr. Following additional public outrage and action from the ACLU directed at Nexstar and Sinclair, Kimmel’s show returned to television screens across the country.

“The president of the United States made it very clear he wants to see me and the hundreds of people who work here fired from our jobs. Our leader celebrates Americans losing their livelihoods because he can’t take a joke. He was somehow able to squeeze Colbert out of CBS. Then he turned his sights on me,” Kimmel said during his return. “We have to speak out against this because he’s not stopping.”

Comedy Has Historically Faced Censorship Issues

The attack on Kimmel came as a shock to free speech experts, who recognized it as an attempt to drastically expand the powers the FCC has to regulate content.

The FCC has only limited authority to police the airwaves. According to the FCC’s website, “The limitations on the FCC’s power to restrict or ban speech begin with the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which decrees that the federal government ‘shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.’” The FCC does, however, have limited authority to police broadcasts for indecency, which it can relegate to just late night hours, and obscenity, which it can bar from the air altogether.

In 1962, the comedian Lenny Bruce was criminally convicted of obscenity and indecency. That conviction was later overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court. Notably, the First Amendment does not protect obscene speech, but the definition of obscenity requires an assessment of whether material lacks “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.” That element gave considerable leeway to prosecutors. As a result, Bruce was charged with obscenity or indecency multiple times throughout the 1960s, marking a dark time for freedom of speech in America.

Bruce’s struggles inspired future entertainers like George Carlin to challenge social norms in their work. Carlin’s “Seven Dirty Words” bit – which satirized the seven words you can’t say on television – was meant to highlight the absurdity of why some vulgar words were so bad to hear. Carlin’s routine, and one of the radio stations that played it, first came under fire through an FCC complaint that claimed it was inappropriate for minors.

A radio station that was threatened with punishment for airing Carlin’s bit sued, and several years later, the case became a critical turning point for the FCC’s regulatory powers. The Supreme Court deemed Carlin’s routine indecent but not obscene and allowed the FCC to regulate what time indecent content could be aired. But, summarizing the debates over regulation and obscenity that continue to this day, then-Supreme Court Justice William Brennan dissented and called it a misapplication of free speech principles: “The Court’s decision may be seen for what, in the broader perspective, it really is: another of the dominant culture’s inevitable efforts to force those groups who do not share its mores to conform to its way of thinking, acting, and speaking.”

But even compared to debates over indecency and obscenity regulations, attempts to censor Kimmel were clearly different. The network faced threats to have its broadcast license revoked by the FCC based upon the political viewpoint and perceived accuracy of a joke. This is a clear violation of the First Amendment, which prevents the government from regulating any kind of speech based on its political stance, and largely precludes the government from acting as the “truth police.”

President Donald Trump himself has encouraged this move by the FCC to silence criticism in the late-night scene, often claiming that criticism is inaccurate. He once noted that all the major networks should have their broadcast licenses revoked because they are “97% against me.” Shortly after Kimmel’s show was first suspended, President Trump posted on Truth Social: “Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible. That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!! President DJT”

But the constitution is stronger than the president’s social media accounts would suggest, and his administration’s power over late night is finite, if we continue to stand up to abuses of power like this one.

President Trump Cannot Silence Media He Disagrees With

A free and independent press is critical to our democracy, but the administration has made clear that they intend to intimidate and silence any reporting the president dislikes. The Broadcast Freedom and Independence Act would block the FCC from revoking broadcast licenses or imposing unjust conditions on transaction approvals for broadcasters based on the viewpoints they broadcast. Introduced in March by Senator Ben Ray Lujan and Representative Doris Matsui, the bill is our chance to rein in these out-of-control and unconstitutional attacks.

A free and independent press is foundational to our democracy – and that includes our right to make a joke.