The women of “The View” on Monday addressed ABC’s indefinite suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late night[1] show following threats from the Federal Communications Commission, blasting the Trump administration for trying to “force someone to be silenced.”
Whoopi Goldberg began the segment by saying the reason the issue wasn’t addressed last week was that the Friday show was taped and they wanted to wait to see whether Kimmel addressed the matter himself. But she said that the hosts, whose show airs on ABC, were live Monday and that “no one silences us.”
ABC announced Wednesday that it was placing “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on an indefinite hold after FCC Chair Brendan Carr went after him in an interview. Carr took issue with Kimmel’s monologue about Charlie Kirk’s assassination[2] two nights previously.
Carr said the FCC could move to revoke licenses of ABC affiliate stations as a punishment for the remarks, and at least two broadcast companies that own ABC affiliates said they would place a hold on Kimmel’s show.
Goldberg said Monday that the government “cannot apply pressure to force someone to be silenced.”
“It’s not up to Brendan Carr. It is not up to him,” she said. “I don’t understand how you are the man in charge of the nation, and you still don’t understand how the First Amendment works.”
Co-host Sunny Hostin, a former federal prosecutor, reiterated the purpose of the First Amendment and quoted Thomas Jefferson about the right for citizens to criticize the government. Hostin also quoted the late Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, who said “we must protect the freedom to express the thought we hate.”
Ana Navarro accused the government of using its weight to “bully and scare people into silence.” She referred to her time living under dictatorship in Nicaragua.
“At first, they come with the people with big platforms; at first they silence the press,” she said. “But then they come for all of us, because their intent is to scare us into silence and self-censorship.”
Kimmel’s remarks last week referred to how some Republicans responded after Kirk’s murder, saying they were “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.” He also accused them of trying to score “political points” off Kirk’s assassination.
Investigators had not released details about the suspect’s potential motives to the public. Tyler Robinson was formally charged with Kirk’s murder the next day.
In charging documents, prosecutors released text messages[3] from Robinson saying he targeted Kirk because he “had enough of his hatred.”
Kimmel’s indefinite suspension sparked a wave of outrage[4], even prompting Hollywood stars to call for a boycott of Disney and ABC in protest[5]. Tatiana Maslany, who starred in Marvel’s “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law,” urged people on Instagram to cancel their Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN subscriptions.
Other celebrities, including NSYNC band member Lance Bass and “Transparent” star Amy Landecker[6], shared screenshots to social media of their Disney-affiliated subscriptions’ being canceled.
Howard Stern told listeners Monday that he was canceling his own Disney subscription during his SiriusXM radio show. Stern added that it might sound “stupid” but that he was expressing himself with his pocketbook.
“I just know when the government begins to interfere — when the government says, ‘I’m not pleased with you, so we’re gonna orchestrate a way to silence you’ — it’s the wrong direction for our country,” he said.
Kimmel’s friend and fellow late-night host John Oliver addressed Disney CEO Bob Iger on Sunday’s episode of “Last Week Tonight” on HBO.
Oliver told Iger that the Trump administration will come off terribly in the history books but that “history is also going to remember the cowards who definitely knew better but still let things happen.”
“If we’ve learned nothing else from this administration’s second term so far, and I don’t think we have, is that giving the bully your lunch money doesn’t make him go away,” Oliver said. “It just makes him come back hungrier each time. They are never going to stop.”
He urged Iger to draw a line and suggested that, instead of rolling over to the bully, he say, “F— you, make me.”
References
- ^ addressed ABC’s indefinite suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late night (www.nbcnews.com)
- ^ about Charlie Kirk’s assassination (www.nbcnews.com)
- ^ prosecutors released text messages (www.nbcnews.com)
- ^ suspension sparked a wave of outrage (www.nbcnews.com)
- ^ boycott of Disney and ABC in protest (www.nbcnews.com)
- ^ Amy Landecker (www.instagram.com)
- ^ Doha Madani (www.nbcnews.com)