Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

After getting Jimmy Kimmel suspended, FCC chair threatens ABC's The View

arstechnica.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 266 posts

Re: After getting Jimmy Kimmel suspended, FCC chair threatens ABC's The View

#151

Post by throw0101a »

erulabs wrote: post #109

A lot of things can be true at the same time: - The FCC shouldn't be involved in content moderation, and the FCC Chair is obviously on an authoritarian power trip. - What Kimmel said was wrong (assuming you believe Utah state investigators) and deeply irresponsible and inflammatory. - Clearly the market was already deciding that Kimmel's show is irrelevant (Nielsen ratings quite clear on that). - The FCC is only invo…

> - What Kimmel said was wrong (assuming you believe Utah state investigators) and deeply irresponsible and irresponsible.

Exactly which words were wrong/irresponsible/irresponsible? Do you have a video clip and timestamp of the specific statements?

> - Clearly the market was already deciding that Kimmel's show is irrelevant (Nielsen ratings quite clear on that).

Quite the coïncidence that this is the second comedian that has been canceled, the first being Colbert. As Timothy Snyder, a historian on Central/Eastern Europe, the Holocaust, and totalitarians regimes, commented: General pattern in regime change: the comedy gets better and then it gets banned.

* https://twitter.com/TimothyDSnyder/status/196846639438465036...

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Snyder

> - ABC's distributors threatened to stop airing the network, which is what actually caused Disney/ABC to act, it's hard to say what impact the FCC Chairs comments actually had.

The owner of many ABC stations is looking to fulfill a $6.2B merger/acquisition:

* https://www.nexstar.tv/nexstar-media-group-inc-enters-into-d...

* https://deadline.com/2025/08/nexstar-acquires-tegna-local-tv...

They need to get FCC approval.

Instead of deciding the deal on its merits, the Trump administration has made it known if you rub its tummy you will get what you want (export policy isn't decided on (say) national security evaluations, but if you give money: Nvidia 15% export tariff, UAE buying $2B of Trump-family crypto).

Instead of procedural government decisions (i.e., rule of law), you get government decisions based on the temperament of the boss.

Re: After getting Jimmy Kimmel suspended, FCC chair threatens ABC's The View

#152

Post by soperj »

kelnos wrote: post #133
erulabs wrote: post #109

A lot of things can be true at the same time: - The FCC shouldn't be involved in content moderation, and the FCC Chair is obviously on an authoritarian power trip. - What Kimmel said was wrong (assuming you believe Utah state investigators) and deeply irresponsible and inflammatory. - Clearly the market was already deciding that Kimmel's show is irrelevant (Nielsen ratings quite clear on that). - The FCC is only invo…

> What Kimmel said was wrong (assuming you believe Utah state investigators) and deeply irresponsible and inflammatory. What Kimmel said[0] was fairly innocuous and not all that big a deal. What he said was actually true, in general, about conservative discourse, regardless of what the shooter's politics are. Carr directly threatened ABC's broadcast license over protected speech, even in the context of the FCC's mand…

> I'm not sure it's possible to have a productive discussion with you about this.

My immediate reaction was similar, I'm not sure he's saying that it is wrong though, he said "can be".

Re: After getting Jimmy Kimmel suspended, FCC chair threatens ABC's The View

#153

Post by soperj »

ajross wrote: post #146
camel_Snake wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Paraphrased, Kimmel said that the killer was a republican. He literally didn't though? Why does this mistake keep being made. Kimmel made 0 assertions about the shooter. He did make assertions about the President and his conduct, however.

He... sorta 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 [...]" The sentence is convoluted but clearly implies that "this kid" was "one of the MAGA gang". Is that what Kimmel meant ? No, his point was that they (the MAGA gang) were exploiting the tragedy to "score political points". But it's not…

Regardless of whether he was one of the MAGA gang, they are trying to characterize him as anything but one of them. No one really knows at this point, but that hasn't stopped the characterization.

Re: After getting Jimmy Kimmel suspended, FCC chair threatens ABC's The View

#154

Post by oenton »

christophilus wrote: post #92
sylens wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're conflating cancel culture, done voluntarily by private companies, with censorship, with the federal government through the FCC is dictating the outcomes of mergers and acquisitions based on compliance with speech restrictions.

The Biden administration had (and used) the ability to demote conservative news outlets on Facebook and Twitter. This cancel culture— both from the right and left— sucks and should be fought.

> The Biden administration had (and used) the ability to demote conservative news outlets on Facebook and Twitter.

This is categorically false. Are you referring to this story, where the Biden administration asked Facebook to take down Covid misinformation and "expressed a lot of frustration" when Zuckerberg told them no?

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/zuckerberg-says-the-wh...

If not, then where did you learn that the Biden administration "had (and used) the ability to demote conservative news outlets on Facebook and Twitter"?

Re: After getting Jimmy Kimmel suspended, FCC chair threatens ABC's The View

#155

Post by erulabs »

taurath wrote: post #148
erulabs wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Extortion doesn't count for much if the FCC had no leg to stand on. I would have loved to have seen the fine and the resulting court-case, but unfortunately for everyone ABC pulled the program because of complaints from its broadcasters. We do not (as far as I know), have the ability to know to what extent the FCC Chair's comments mattered at all. I absolutely agree the FCC is overstepping and that the FCC Chair is d…

> We do not (as far as I know), have the ability to know to what extent the FCC Chair's comments mattered at all. Two things - firstly, it wasn't a comment, it was a threat to kill ABC's ability to broadcast by the person with power to revoke their license. There's a difference. Secondly, if you don't want to have the appearance of responsibility for your thumb on the scale, don't put your thumb on the scale. Don't j…

That’s totally fair and I agree. I definitely do not think what the FCC Chair said was appropriate.

Re: After getting Jimmy Kimmel suspended, FCC chair threatens ABC's The View

#156

Post by takeda »

Sparkle-san wrote: post #19

ABC is owned by Disney, which owns many subsidiaries. The one thing they and their shareholders care about is cold, hard cash. If you don't agree with what they're doing, then consider speaking the loudest way you can, with your wallet. Disney owns: - Hulu - Disney+ - ESPN+ - National Geographic - Pixar - Marvel - A whole lot more https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_the_Wa...

And the parks.

Re: After getting Jimmy Kimmel suspended, FCC chair threatens ABC's The View

#157

Post by mensetmanusman »

sylens wrote: post #65
mensetmanusman wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An issue was that the right was being canceled for views not even 5 years ago and the same people complaining about Kimmel are having their exact quotes replayed justifying those types of cancellations. From a game theoretic standpoint, tit for tat is exactly what’s supposed to happen to stabilize the situation. This has actually been proven by mathematicians that apply decision making theories to social structures.

You're conflating cancel culture, done voluntarily by private companies, with censorship, with the federal government through the FCC is dictating the outcomes of mergers and acquisitions based on compliance with speech restrictions.

Private companies were being pressured by government officials. That was already proven a few years ago.

Also, Kimmel is a case of a private company canceling him the FCC didn’t force anything.

Re: After getting Jimmy Kimmel suspended, FCC chair threatens ABC's The View

#158

Post by spicyusername »

vmg12 wrote: post #58
spicyusername wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's something that's been eroding for a long time, starting mostly with the Reagan administration in the 1980s and the political desire at the time to put an end to the New deal era style of big government from the 1930s and 40s. There have been periods of pause, and even reverse, but two terms of the Trump administration trailing on the heels of the tea party movement in the 2010s have really done a lot of damage a…

This is twisting history and reality, big government is exactly what's happening right now. The FCC abusing its power to silence speech is big government. The government using its power over universities to control them is big government. This is the fruit of that tree.

    big government is exactly what is happening now
I never said it wasn't.

Such is the paradox of the modern Republican party. For the last so many decades they have claimed to want a smaller government. Then went handed the keys to the kingdom they immediately increase its size and get right to abusing its power.

Re: After getting Jimmy Kimmel suspended, FCC chair threatens ABC's The View

#159

Post by mensetmanusman »

kanbara wrote: post #68
mensetmanusman wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

the man’s speech was against human rights for black people, women, lgbtq+. people are allowed to have free speech against those beliefs too. they are not “average”.

This mischaracterization was a view that many on the left have already disproven in the past few days (major black, gay, and women influencers who have changed their views on Kirk) when they looked into it, which is why a mass outflow from the left is being witnessed.

It’s not a surprise with the bubble people are living in though.

Re: After getting Jimmy Kimmel suspended, FCC chair threatens ABC's The View

#160

Post by throw0101a »

IncreasePosts wrote: post #57
gtirloni wrote: post #14

I'm not a US citizen so take what I write below with a grain of salt. I always thought the US to be a stronghold of democracy and free speech. I know, it's a naive view and we know how huge companies and corrupt politicians can subvert the system. But still, I thought it had a decent law system that, although imperfect like any other system, kept things from going back to the dark ages. I don't believe that anymore a…

What you have here has nothing to do with the law, and has to do with power. Disney willingly pulled Kimmel off their own networks, because a major distributor of their content(Sinclair) threatened to not air it, which accounts for about 20% of the viewership of the show.

> Disney willingly pulled Kimmel off their own networks, because a major distributor of their content(Sinclair) threatened to not air it, which accounts for about 20% of the viewership of the show.

"This is a nice merger deal, shame anything should happen to it…" does not look like a recipe for a free will / willing action to be made.

For the record, the merger is with Nexstar, not Sinclair, but the point is the same:

* https://www.nexstar.tv/nexstar-media-group-inc-enters-into-d...

Post reply on HN