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Trump's FCC Says, "FUCK THE CONSTITUTION" and Gets Jimmy Kimmel Suspended. Then Trump Launches an All Out Attack on the First Amendment

Submitted by Robin Messing on Thu, 09/18/2025 - 5:44am

[Note: Please read this  through to the end. The September 20 update is VERY important.]

ABC and its affiliates were pressured by Trump's Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to fire Jimmy Kimmel yesterday over what the Trumpists are characterizing as an outrageous and insensitive lie. Here is the clip in question that got him suspended indefinitely.

Pay close attention to Kimmel's exact words that got the MAGAts in a tizzy.

We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing anything they can to score political points from it.

This is a true statement. That is EXACTLY what the MAGA gang was trying to do over the weekend. Note there is a difference between the above statement and a claim that Robinson IS a MAGAt. Kimmel's commentary was about the BEHAVIOR OF TRUMP SUPPORTERS spinning what was known at the time away from the possibility that Robinson was MAGA. It was not a statement that Robinson himself is MAGA. And over the weekend, before the release of new information, there were reasons to suspect he might have been a Groyper. Groypers are a group led by Nick Fuentes that is even more racist and further to the right than MAGA, but it is often confused with MAGA. Fuentes was an enthusiastic Trump supporter for many years. He worked to get Trump elected in 2016. He attended a dinner at Mar-a-Lago with Kanye West in November 2022. But he did not endorse Trump in the 2024 election, and he has become somewhat of a Trump critic more recently. He also introduced Marjorie Taylor Greene when she spoke at the 2022 America First Political Action Conference. (Greene later distanced herself from Fuentes and denied she knew who he was when he introduced her.) Given all this, it is easy to understand why many people confuse the Groypers with MAGA.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr made his threat against Disney, ABC, and their affiliates on the Benny Johnson show. Johnson spends the first eight and a half minutes of this video distorting the record of what Kimmel actually said, His interview with Carr starts at 8:30. Pay close attention between 11:20 and 11:57 when he says, 

What people don't understand is that the broadcasters... are entirely different than people that use other forms of communication. They have a license granted by us at the FCC, and what comes with it is an obligation to operate in the public interest....Frankly, when you see stuff like this, I mean look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way.  These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.

 

 

Note also that between 11:57 and 12:30 Benny Johnson LIED when he accused Kimmel of effectively saying that Charlie Kirk deserved to die. Also note that Kimmel sent his love to the Kirk family in this Instagram on September 10.

Instead of the angry finger-pointing, can we just for one day agree that it is horrible and monstrous to shoot another human?” On behalf of my family, we send love to the Kirks and to all the children, parents, and innocents who fall victim to senseless gun violence.

And finally, pay attention between 12:46 and 13:14 of the above video where Carr suggested that Kimmel be fired or at least suspended, or the FCC might implement some other unspecified remedy. He might as well have said, "Nice broadcasting license you've got there. Shame if anything were to happen to it. And FUCK THE FIRST AMENDMENT."

Rolling Stone reports that at least some executives at ABC know that Kimmel did nothing wrong, but they are folding under pressure from the Trump regime.

The decisions by Nexstar and ABC to silence Kimmel, over relatively innocuous comments, is the latest sign of how terrified major corporations and media companies have grown of the second Trump administration. The president and his lieutenants have made clear that they’re willing to leverage the full weight of the federal government against networks and their parent companies, especially if TV personalities or comedians on the network say things that annoy Trump.

 

In the hours leading up to the decision to pull Kimmel, two sources familiar with the matter say, senior executives at ABC, its owner Disney, and affiliates convened emergency meetings to figure out how to minimize the damage. Multiple execs felt that Kimmel had not actually said anything over the line, the two sources say, but the threat of Trump administration retaliation loomed.

“They were pissing themselves all day,” one ABC insider tells Rolling Stone.

You should not view Jimmy Kimmel's suspension in isolation. Chris Hayes gives us the bigger picture in this next video. PLEASE WATCH IT. The Trump Administration and its supporters are following three-pronged attack on major media that is critical of Donald Trump.

1) It has launched frivolous defamation lawsuits against media outlets carrying stories critical of Trump. Hayes does not cover this prong of the attack in his segment, but Trump has sued Paramount/CBS, ABC, The Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. These lawsuits are frivolous, and I will cover them in a future post.)

2) It has used the FCC to threaten the broadcast license of ABC and its affiliates if they don't fire or suspend Jimmy Kimmel.

3) Pro-Trump billionaire oligarchs are buying up major media companies. This gives them the power to stifle negative reporting about Trump.

 

Trump's attacks on comedians who make fun of him are unlikely to stop with Kimmel. Trump celebrated Kimmel's firing and made a lightly veiled threat against Seth Meyers and Jimmy Falon in his Truth Social post.

 

 

And don't be surprised if he tries to take Saturday Night Live off the air. He broadcast his intention to crush his critics in this tweet from 2018.

Update 9/18/25: You can tell just how much Trump was torn up by Charlie Kirk's death when you see his response to a question a reporter asked him the day after Kirk's murder. He may as well have said, "The time to mourn Charlie is over. Now let's talk about something REALLY important--like my shiny new ballroom." It is clear that Trump is using Kirk's death as a tool to incite hatred against the left and as an excuse to censor one of his more effective critics.

Update 9/20/25: 

This is SOOOOO much bigger than just the censorship of Jimmy Kimmel.

 

*SOOOOO * MUCH * BIGGER.

 

I will discuss how Trump's attack on the First Amendment is so much worse than we thought in a moment, but first I will discuss Nexstar's and Sinclair Media's role in Kimmel's suspension. Nexstar and Sinclair Media, two giant conglomerates that own or control hundreds of local broadcasting stations, share responsibility for that decision as well. Nexstar’s website boasts that they own “America’s largest local television broadcasting group comprised of top network affiliates, with more than 200 owned or partner stations in 116 U.S. markets reaching 220 million people. “ And Sinclair’s website says they own, operate, or provide services to 185 television stations in 85 markets affiliated with all the major broadcast networks.

Jen Psaki explains in this next video how Nexstar and Sinclair are vulnerable to pressure by the Trump’s FCC. Nexstar is especially vulnerable to FCC pressure because they have announced their intention to acquire a rival network for $6.2 billion. This would make them the county’s largest network with 265 stations in 44 states and Washington, DC. But one man can block this deal—Brendan Carr. Nexstar not only needs Carr’s approval to go through with the deal, they would need Carr to rewrite its own rule to allow one corporation to own that many stations.

And the FCC doesn’t have to do much to pressure Sinclair to bury news that is critical of the Trump regime because those who run Sinclair are already right-wing. Don’t miss the montage between 5:20-6:14 of Sinclair bobbleheads around the country reading the same script fed to them by corporate headquarters.

Unsurprisingly, both Nexstar and Sinclair have told ABC that they would not allow their local stations to broadcast Kimmel's show.

 

PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO WHAT FOLLOWS.

OUR FIRST AMENDMENT IS IN DANGER!

 

This next video may be the most important video for you to watch this year. Donald Trump said that Brendan Carr might revoke the broadcast license of any media organization that is too critical of him.

 

Trump's attack on the First Amendment is so blatant that it Ted Cruz has accused Brendan Carr of behaving like a mafia boss.

 

Let's hope that Ted can keep his conviction longer than he did when he called out Trump in 2016 for inciting violence.

 

Ari Melber, who is a lawyer, notes that the Supreme Court would likely side 9-0 against the Trump Administration if Disney/ABC fought the FCC's threat in court.

 

Update 9/21/25: Senator Chris Murphy does a great job summarizing the insidious relationship between the FCC and Nexstar and Sinclair Media. I highly recommend reading his thread.

Update 10/6/25: ABC brought Jimmy Kimmel's show back on September 23 in response to great public outcry and 1.7 million of people cancelling their Disney Plus, Hulu, and ESPN subscriptions.

ABC may have brought back Kimmel on September 23, but Nexstar and Sinclair Media were unimpressed. They continued their Kimmel boycott, depriving viewers from being able to watch his show in in 66 local markets. However, they relented to public pressure and started to air his show again on September 26.

Of course, this defeat has not discouraged Trump from trying to get his FCC to try the same trick against NBC.

 

 

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