Crastinator - The Monday Morning Memo

“On Wednesday, ABC announced it was suspending Jimmy Kimmel Live! indefinitely in response to comments Kimmel made in response to Charlie Kirk’s death during his monologue on Monday. “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,” he said.

The thing is, ABC was not responding to an outpouring of rage from viewers. The pressure came directly from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr. Carr appeared on conservative Benny Johnson’s podcast on Wednesday and called Kimmel’s comments “some of the sickest conduct possible” before saying, “This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

Hours later, ABC pulled the show. As it happens, Nexstar Media Group owns a number of local ABC affiliates, and it is pursuing a merger with another local TV operator, Tegna. Not only does the FCC issue the broadcast licenses the stations need to stay on the air, it also reviews mergers between companies that hold those licenses.

Carr’s heavy-handed threat drew criticism even from prominent conservatives. Sen. Ted Cruz, on his own podcast, said, “What he said there is dangerous as hell. … He says we can do this the easy way, or we could do this the hard way, yeah. And I got to say that’s right out of Goodfellas. That’s right out of a mafioso coming into a bar going, nice bar you have here, it’d be a shame if something happened to it.””

- Rachael Larimore, Sept 20, 2025

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