Jimmy Kimmel STOPS Trump GOLF GAME Today and he’s FURIOUS: “MY GAME IS RUINED!”

Jimmy Kimmel STOPS Trump GOLF GAME Today and he’s FURIOUS: “MY GAME IS RUINED!”

There have also been protests outside of Disney’s offices both in Los Angeles and in New York with Hollywood unions like the Writers Guild of America and SAG ARA backing Kimmel. Back to you, Elizabeth Wagmeister reporting. Thank you. Joining me now to talk more about this controversy surrounding the Jimmy Kimmel show and the escalating debate over free speech is Jim Rutenberg. He’s a writer at large for the New York Times who has written extensively about media and politics. Jim, thank you so much for joining us. Sure. Thanks for having me. And Jim, you pointed out in your article for the Times this week that President Trump v vowed to quote immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America at his second inauguration. What should people make of Trump’s claims now that critical media coverage of him is illegal? Well, he clearly had uh when he was giving his inaugural address, he clearly had in mind um moderation on social media, things that led to his own suspension from platforms like Facebook and Twitter. And so it does not apply apparently to uh analog media, broadcast media, newspapers, anything that uh does anything that he sees as cutting against his interests, agenda, or anything that’s positive about him. Um that’s already that already have been clear through his lawsuits against newspapers, including my own. But this move with Jimmy Kimmel and ABC, that was very different because it brought in to bear government power. Now, earlier we heard Republican Senator Ted Cruz denouncing the FCC chairman um for his threats to ABC. Do you think that that will open the door for more conservatives or Trump allies to take a stand for free speech, even for those who they don’t agree with, which is the point of free speech? Well, it could. I thought that was very interesting. Senator Cruz uh was making his own political calculation and I think we’ll see why maybe as his Senate race picks up or you know we’ll see some polling. I thought that was very interesting whether it was a finger to the wind mood that he’s picking up on something. But I want to say something else. It could it’s also been conservative Republican principle for our entire lifetimes uh or certainly since the Ronald Reagan years that the FCC should not get involved in government uh in in content uh in media content. It even the rights that the FCC has to poke its nose into content. It’s always been the conservative position that it shouldn’t even have that. So what S was saying would have never been surprising coming from a Republican again since Ronald Reagan. This is all very new for a Republican administration to talk about the FCC monitoring content on television in this way. Do you see any sort of political fallout with Republican constituents um also being outraged by this sort of in the same way we saw with with the Epstein files? Do you see this traversing along that line? I mean, quite possibly. I’m not seeing it yet. We’re seeing some voices that are saying again what had been traditional Republican orthodoxy. Um, we’re seeing some voices that are not saying that or or we’re seeing people who are very upset about content moderation on social media now pointing to factors. Maybe it was Jimmy Kimmel’s ratings that really led ABC to to uh suspend his show. Whether it’s a cancellation, we’ll see. But none of the reporting that anyone’s produced so far has said anything about rating factor in this. So again, um there is a seems to be a split right now. It doesn’t feel like Epstein. I’m not saying that won’t happen. Um this story really got the public’s attention in a way that the previous lawsuits against media hadn’t. So this really is a breakthrough moment. It remains to be seen where it’s going to go. Fair. Now, at the White House yesterday, Trump once again lashed out at the press and critical media coverage of him. Take a listen. I I just want to settle this free speech question because you’ve said that you’ve restored free speech in America. Is that free speech, including for people who are harshly critical of you, for your political opponents, for people who say things you don’t like. I become immune to it unfairly. I’ve become immune to it. There’s never been a person that’s had more unfair publicity than me. And that’s why your network paid me $15 million or $16 million, I believe, to be exact, George Slopadopoulos. And that’s why CBS paid me a lot of money, too. Now, those comments came on the same day a federal judge rejected Trump’s 15 billion dollar defamation lawsuit against your employer, the New York Times. That’s just one of several lawsuits the president has filed or threatened to file against media companies. What do you see as the big picture impact of these lawsuits and threats when it comes to free speech or perhaps a chilling effect that could occur as well? Well, first of all, in terms of those lawsuits, of course, neither CBS or ABC said in settling them, uh, yes, uh, we were overly negative toward the president. I didn’t see anything in any documentation that said that. So, just to sort of address what he said, but of course there could be a chilling effect. I mean, the fact is that when ABC and CBS did settle those suits, suits that had to varying degrees been uh given long odds in in court by legal experts, it did not appease President Trump. It’s it’s clearly, as he’s saying, outright emboldened him to see what more he to reign in media that he doesn’t like. Um, the question that we all have, I think, right now at institutions like mine that that thankfully are are economically secure and can fight a suit is what’s happening at smaller news organizations that are more economically vulnerable. What stories aren’t they covering will perhaps never know. Jim Rutenberg, thank you. particularly some of these major companies like NextStar, Sinclair Broadcasting, Tegna, those that hold the licenses here in a great share of the majority of these television networks that air the affiliates for, for example, ABC and network entities. Lots of layers to all of this. Von Hillyard, thank you. Dominic, you have some new reporting about what’s going on behind the scenes at Disney over this decision. What are you learning? Well, what we’re learning on is that there are ongoing talks at the highest level with Kimmel and Disney executives like Dana Walden, the chair of Disney Entertainment, about trying to find what has been said to me is a pathway to getting Jimmy back on the air. Now, those those talks are happening at the same time as we’re learning that there is dissent within some of the upper ranks of Disney about the way this was handled by CEO Bob Iger and Walden and that they weren’t there a lot of back and forth about this and that there’s a feeling that it could have been dealt with in a lot more of a more deaf handling for lack of a better expression. So, there there’s two there’s almost like a tale of two corporations happening here as they try to find a way to navigate this. Now, obviously there are more meetings planned. We have no information of whether or not they’ve actually found that pathway. Jimmy Kimmel is still the host of the syndicated version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, but that filming is all done. The finale, I think, is going to be next week um on on stations. So, we’ll see where that goes. I will tell you one thing though that’s very interesting and and Van’s analysis particularly made me think of this. This is really a game of chicken with the FCC and with Trump. You know, it’s interesting what the president said. He talked about bad publicity. He talked about ratings. He sounds like a man who’s living in the early 2000s and not in the the age of streaming and digital. And people should be careful. They can remember is that linear TV is by everyone’s acknowledgement changing and certainly declining in its audience share. The FCC’s reach can only go so far in 2025. And they might find themselves up the creek without the regulatory paddle they think they’re wielding so powerfully. And Zach, it is not just Disney and ABC. Nextar and Sinclair also have big roles in this situation. As Vaughn was discussing, they own dozens and dozens of ABC affiliate stations around the country. What’s their calculation in this moment? Well, Sinclair is a conservative company, right? It’s owned and has been accused of broadcasting what could be, I think, accurately, having watched the broadcast, described as conservative propaganda that was disguised or wrapped up in a news in news programming. So Sinclair has an ideological stake. Next, I think is a little bit different. Next is in the midst of attempting to uh conduct a $6.2 billion merger uh with other local station owners. Now the wrinkle here is that NextStar owns about 39% of the market share, which is the legal cap. Like you can’t own more stations than NextStar currently owns, but not by statute, by FCC regulation, FCC FCC rule. So the FCC and Carr has said that he’s considering lifting that merger. It’s very or lifting that cap. It’s very similar to the CBS uh the CBS merger that was being discussed earlier, right? In the sense that the government has has a lot of leverage at this point in time, they could just choose not to lift that cap, right? And given who Brentton Carr is and given what the Trump administration is, it’s very rational for NextStar’s owners to be like, well, we’re not going to get our merger if we’re not going to do things that comply with their dictates. It’s why all of a sudden, I mean, the timeline is very striking here. It’s not like Nextstar had a huge problem with Jimmy Kimmel immediately when he spoke about the, you know, the killing of Charlie Kirk on Monday. It was only after Brendan Carr appeared on a conservative podcast on Wednesday and threatened Nextar that they decided all of a sudden that they had this like real principled objection to what Jimmy Kimmel had said in his Monday night monologue and that they were preempting him, which is a very unusual step. It’s just the the pathway of influence here is is excruciatingly clear even if you know we haven’t been able to fully prove it with you know internal reporting inside. You mentioned Zach the CBS situation with Coar. We have seen a series of media companies make decisions that appear to be aimed at making the president happy. CBS parent company Paramount announcing they would end that late show with Steven Colbear. They also reached a $16 million settlement with Trump over a 60 Minutes interview. In addition to suspending Jimmy Kimmel, ABC settled a defamation lawsuit related to George Stephanopoulos forking over millions of dollars. The Washington Post, its owner Jeff Bezos revamped the papers opinion section. And now we have Trump filing lawsuits against the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, which haven’t, you know, rolled over certainly, but he’s also blocked the White House access to the Associated Press. Zach, what are the consequences of companies essentially caving to the wants of Trump and his administration? Well, I mean, the way that economic policym in the US is supposed to work is it’s supposed to follow rules, right? there predictable and stable ways in which corporations make their decisions based not on who’s in the White House, but based on what the law is, how it’s supposed to work, how it serves the public interest, and what their own bottom line is. But in this case, the Trump administration has changed the way that economic policy works in the United States. Everything is now conducted via deals with the president, right? And so tariffs are the clearest example of this because the tariffs are very painful for American corporations, but you can get exemptions on tariffs if the president know that Donald wanted this story to go away. He loves the weekend as a one where he goes golfing. He spends his time golfing on the weekends and all of that, most weekends at least. And he also loves it and because I and I’ve said this before, Friday afternoon is where a lot of stories go to die, right? Like this is why you see it. Look, look what happens even when you’re at work and you get bad news at work or or what have you. And notice how it comes on a Friday afternoon, right? Just in general, but especially if it’s going to be like a long weekend because there’s a hope that you drop the story late in the week and then when Friday comes, then the story dies down and then by Monday everyone’s forgotten and you’re on to the new thing. The scandal’s been snuffed out. And that’s what they thought was going to happen with Jimmy Kimmel. I know it didn’t break on Friday, but they thought that at the very least when when Friday comes and goes, the story will be done. Trump can enjoy his golfing on the weekend or whatever. Too bad, Donald, because the Jimmy Kimmel story is just beginning. One, because, you know, there hasn’t been a resolution. You uh you haven’t backed down. Uh the the network cronies acting on your behalf have not backed down, but also because Jimmy Kimmel’s not backing down. And also also because your party’s being torn apart on this. Again, we’ve talked about it. You see Ted Cruz, you’ve seen other network pe, for example, you saw Ben Shapiro, very influential uh right-wing commentator say, “Look, if if ABC truly on their own accord fired Jimmy Kimmel, that would be one thing, right?” But they didn’t. It’s very clearly the case that the FCC involved themselves. Like they basically said, “We could do this the easy way or the hard way.” It’s like you could almost like like you know I’ll make you an offer, you kind of refuse, right? Like you know what I mean? Like kind of thing, right? Uh where uh you know you can either you know remove Kimmel, it’s your choice, but if you make a different choice, my goodness, things are going to be bad for you. And so no one likes this. And Donald, it’s not going to go away. It’s not going to go away until Kimmel’s back on air. And when he’s back on air, I don’t think he’s going to pull any punches.

Jimmy Kimmel STOPS Trump GOLF GAME Today and he’s FURIOUS: “MY GAME IS RUINED!”