Last week, Jimmy Kimmel, in a monologue on his late-night talk show, denounced the politically expedient responses from the MAGA crowd following the shooting death of Charlie Kirk. In response, the Federal Communications Commission chair, Brendan Carr, appeared on a right-wing podcast to publicly warn the ABC Network to “do this the easy way or the hard way.” Kimmel’s show has since been “indefinitely suspended.” Ali Velshi points out that Carr is the head of the agency that regulates U.S.-licensed communications on broadcast television and radio, and the network’s media partner’s multi-billion-dollar merger is pending FCC approval. This is our democracy hanging on by a thread. 

The very right that makes America America is Freedom of Speech. It is the right to criticize, to mock, to dissent. President Trump has now declared that any critical coverage of him should be “illegal.” Free speech is the dividing line between a free society and an authoritarian one. 

Similar to Stephen Colbert being canceled by CBS, whose parent company, Paramount, settled with Trump in a lawsuit shortly beforehand, Kimmel was canceled as ABC’s local affiliate, Nextstar Media Group, was trying to get a six-billion-dollar merger approved, requiring exceptions to established rules set by the FCC for local station ownership.

Donald Trump is aligning with media conglomerates to produce a propaganda machine, using the FCC as a weapon. These government threats, corporate capitulation, and subsequent muzzling of free speech leave our democracy at great risk unless we act. 

LISTEN: “HUMOR HAS ALWAYS BEEN A VEHICLE FOR TRUTH”

WATCH: VELSHI ON TRUMP USING THE FCC AS A WEAPON 

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