Week of Sept. 18, 2025

From the publisher’s desk

If you’re not concerned about the state of free speech in the United States, well, you should be—and it doesn’t matter whether you’re a Democrat, a Republican, an independent or something else.

First came Paramount-owned CBS News’ capitulation to President Trump after he sued the network regarding an edited interview of Kamala Harris on 60 Minutes. CBS agreed to pay him $16 million and make various changes, even though most experts felt the lawsuit was baseless. This was followed by the CBS’ suspicious cancellation of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert—despite it being the most-watched late-night talk show. Next, CBS agreed to stop editing taped interviews on Face the Nation, after Homeland Security Kristi Noem complained that an interview with her, in which she lied repeatedly, was selectively edited.

As Variety put it: “CBS News is giving up the power it has to hold Face the Nation interviewees to account.”

But all of this pales in comparison to the mess involving Jimmy Kimmel.

Here’s what happened: On his Monday, Sept. 15, show, Kimmel discussed how President Trump was dealing with the murder of Charlie Kirk. People magazine, of all things, has a very comprehensive account of what Kimmel said and did:

“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 everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel began. “In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving.”

“On Friday, the White House flew the flags at half staff, which got some criticism, but on a human level, you can see how hard the president is taking this,” he continued.

A clip then cut into Kimmel’s broadcast, showing Trump, 79, taking questions from reporters after the shooting, one of which offered their condolences for the death of the president’s “friend” Kirk.

When asked how he was holding up, Trump replied, “I think very good, and by the way, right there where you see all the trucks, they just started construction of the new ballroom for the White House.”

Trump continued discussing the ballroom plans, saying the result would “be a beauty.”

The cameras then cut back to Kimmel. “Yes, he’s at the fourth stage of grief, construction,” the comedian said.

“Demolition, construction,” Kimmel added. “This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend. This is how a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish, okay?”

Kimmel then showed another clip and further discussed Trump’s remarks about the White House construction. People magazine said:

“There’s something wrong with him, there really is. Who thinks like that?” said Kimmel, who previously sent condolences to Kirk’s family while denouncing violence. “Why are we building a $200 million ballroom in the White House? Is it possible he’s doing it intentionally so we can be mad about that instead of the Epstein list? By the time he’s out of office, the White House will have slot machines and a water slide.”

That’s it. To recap: Kimmel said nothing about Kirk or his murder. He did engage in some speculation about the motives of the alleged killer, and he criticized Trump for his … odd remarks. But he said nothing bad at all about Kirk.

Two days later, this happened, according to Reuters:

Kimmel’s comments led to a response from Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, who urged local broadcasters to stop airing “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on ABC. Carr suggested the commission could open an investigation and that broadcasters could potentially be fined or lose their licenses if there was a pattern of distorted comment.

“This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney. We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said in a podcast interview with conservative commentator Benny Johnson that aired Wednesday.

“Disney needs to see some change here, but the individual licensed stations that are taking their content, it’s time for them to step up and say this, you know, garbage to the extent that that’s what comes down the pipe in the future isn’t something that we think serves the needs of our local communities.”

After Carr spoke, Nexstar Media Group said it would stop airing the show on its 32 ABC affiliates, citing Kimmel’s comments. … Shortly after Nexstar announced its decision, ABC, which holds FCC-approved licenses for the local broadcast affiliates that it owns, also said Kimmel would be pulled from the air.

Why are Trump and Carr acting like this? Because they want to shut up critics. Why are these media companies going along with them? Money.

As Reuters reported: “Nexstar, which needs FCC approval for its $6.2 billion deal to acquire smaller rival Tegna, drew praise from Carr, who thanked Nexstar for ‘doing the right thing.’”

Why did Paramount bow down to Trump? As The New York Times reported: “Some … viewed the president’s lawsuit as a potential hurdle to completing a multibillion-dollar sale of the company to the Hollywood studio Skydance, which requires the Trump administration’s approval.”

The president wants power and to silence his critics. Greedy companies want more money—and if the First Amendment and freedom of speech have to be sacrificed to get that money, they don’t care.

Take care,

—Jimmy Boegle, publisher/executive editor

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