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ABC yanks Jimmy Kimmel’s show ‘indefinitely’ after threat from FCC chair

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Re: ABC yanks Jimmy Kimmel’s show ‘indefinitely’ after threat from FCC chair

#251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We start by rejecting the cartoon labels of "left" and "right" as if all conservatives or all liberals believe the same things and think the same way. The left/right division is a longstanding technique intended to keep us divided. The reality is that outside of the actual extremists, liberals and conservatives agree on 80% of everything. We can, and need to, start there. We are all Americans and have to realize that…

It's astonishing how bad the US political apparatus is at making progress even on matters that easily fall within that 80%, though— healthcare reform, childcare, higher education, common sense gun laws, infrastructure investments. All of this stuff should be a slam dunk to implement with broad coalitions no matter who holds which branches, and yet it's all been basically gridlocked for decades, and instead it's never…

A small number of extremely wealthy individuals have a vested interest in fomenting that division, because the solutions to those 80% issues happens to conflict with their business interests.

Re: ABC yanks Jimmy Kimmel’s show ‘indefinitely’ after threat from FCC chair

#252

The right, has for the past decade or so taken a moral high ground with regards to cancelation. Seems that now they've adopted a "turnaround is fair play" mentality.

I'm not denying what you've observed there, but how does this square up with cancel culture is bad, as we've heard at length from any number of moralizers, including many HN posters and the NYT editorial board. Was I to understand those moralizers as having said that cancelling conservatives was bad, but cancelling the more liberal is at least ok?

Re: ABC yanks Jimmy Kimmel’s show ‘indefinitely’ after threat from FCC chair

#253
post #17

Keep in mind that Kimmel has been hinting about retiring for a couple years now, his contract was up in the air, the "late night television show" category is evaporating (if there's still even a Tonight Show in 10 years, it'll be purely for nostalgia), and this sends Kimmel out in a blaze of glory. I think it's too easy to sort of anthropomorphize these kinds of conflicts --- Kimmel's show has a large staff, and he's…

I wonder if, from a staffing perspective, it's actually easier to cancel a show under these circumstances than through a more traditional cancellation process.

Re: ABC yanks Jimmy Kimmel’s show ‘indefinitely’ after threat from FCC chair

#254
post #20

That free speech crowd has been very very quiet the last week

[flagged]

Except that Kimmel's job was speech. He had a microphone -- and depended upon that (supposedly God-given) freedom of speech to perform that job. If he lost that job due to something that right didn't guarantee, then I'd understand. His dismissal's cause had nothing to do with a failure on his part. Instead we now have the government, specifically concerned with his criticisms of it, effectuating this block of Kimmel's speech and thereby ending his job. The government is supposed to guarantee your right to criticize it. What happened here?

Re: ABC yanks Jimmy Kimmel’s show ‘indefinitely’ after threat from FCC chair

#255

What causes very active discussions like this to drop off the front page so quickly? I saw another newer post that was probably made because the poster didn't see this post, and a comment made in there linked to this discussion.

They get flagged. Eventually flagging removes a post entirely but even a couple of flags cause it to slide down the rankings pretty quickly.

Re: ABC yanks Jimmy Kimmel’s show ‘indefinitely’ after threat from FCC chair

#256

I'm unsure where we as a society go from here. The left's cancel culture resulted in the firing of private citizens from their jobs, or at least some reprimand. The right's cancel culture is the full weight of the federal government brought down against opposition, in stark violation of the First Amendment; that is, until the Supreme Court can find some new carve-out for why this isn't protected speech. Realistically…

Meet the new boss; same as the old boss.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqsBx58GxYY

Re: ABC yanks Jimmy Kimmel’s show ‘indefinitely’ after threat from FCC chair

#257

What causes very active discussions like this to drop off the front page so quickly? I saw another newer post that was probably made because the poster didn't see this post, and a comment made in there linked to this discussion.

> What causes very active discussions like this to drop off the front page so quickly?

Supposedly posts with very high comments/upvote ratio are automatically classified as toxic and downranked.

That combined with random users flagging it, presumably.

In any case, seems more algorithmic than editorial (which is not to say that the latter never occurs around here in general)

Re: ABC yanks Jimmy Kimmel’s show ‘indefinitely’ after threat from FCC chair

#258
post #197
post #17

Keep in mind that Kimmel has been hinting about retiring for a couple years now, his contract was up in the air, the "late night television show" category is evaporating (if there's still even a Tonight Show in 10 years, it'll be purely for nostalgia), and this sends Kimmel out in a blaze of glory. I think it's too easy to sort of anthropomorphize these kinds of conflicts --- Kimmel's show has a large staff, and he's…

> There's nothing new about this, though Threats from the head of the FCC bandied about on a far-right podcast? Hello?

I don't know that the FCC is what is scaring anyone so much as the FTC/DOJ; Nexstar, the largest local affiliate operator in the country, is working on a huge merger, and pulled Kimmel independently. I'm sure they're all getting galactic-scale complaints about this.

I get why this is all activating and like I guess I agree, it's obviously bad, but it's also really stupid. These are programs written for middle-aged suburban professionals that air primarily to elderly customers who still watch linear television. Kimmel would have drastically more reach on an indie show online (who would you rather be, just in terms of reach, Kimmel or Hinchcliffe?).

The fact is it's not Kimmel's air, it's corporate air. Late-night hosts getting fucked over for crossing the interests of their corporate owners is a very old story; one of the great sitcoms of all time is based entirely off the premise (in fact, two of the great sitcoms of all time are).

Kimmel's got a good writing team. He's talented. He should have gotten off this dead time slot a long time ago.

Re: ABC yanks Jimmy Kimmel’s show ‘indefinitely’ after threat from FCC chair

#259
My comment was slightly too late to get migrated, so apologies for reposting it:

And yet, my mother, who voted for this admin, would stand by the statement that we live in the free'est country in the world.

The truly horrific thing is that it's death by a thousand cuts, rather than the huge tyrannical violation that would cause people to stream out into the streets for change.

Re: ABC yanks Jimmy Kimmel’s show ‘indefinitely’ after threat from FCC chair

#260

The left wing cancel culture era was stupid, annoying, and wrong, and this upcoming right wing era is bound to be much more stupid, annoying, and wrong.

Remind us what canceled right wing celebrity figure that is in line with Jimmy Kimmel’s firing. Maybe Scott Baio? No wait, maybe that guy from Hercules?
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