Jimmy Kimmel's suspension is latest victory in Donald Trump media war

US President Donald Trump said, “Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person… He had very bad ratings, and they should have fired him a long time ago."

It was an extraordinary scene on Thursday as two world leaders, in the midst of a high-profile state visit, discussed the latest controversy roiling the American media industry — the suspension of a late-night TV host under pressure from the US government.

US President Donald Trump speaks to the press as he flies back to the United States from the United Kingdom onboard Air Force One on September 18, 2025.(AFP)

The previous night, Walt Disney Co.’s ABC network had put Jimmy Kimmel’s show on indefinite hiatus following a Sept. 15 monologue in which the comedian weighed in on how Trump and his supporters were reacting to the assassination of Republican activist Charlie Kirk. The riff had drawn a public rebuke earlier in the day from Brendan Carr, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.

Asked about ABC’s decision, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer reminded attendees that free speech is “part of who we are” in Britain. It’s one of the reasons, he added, why the country fought alongside the US in World War II.

Trump’s strategy is largely working, making media companies in the home of Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine look like state-run outlets, according to interviews with media executives and academics.

For ABC, it wasn’t the network’s first run-in with the administration. In December, the network paid Trump $15 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that ABC News host George Stephanopoulos had defamed him.

Paramount Global, while trying to get its merger with Skydance Media approved by the FCC, paid $16 million in July to settle a lawsuit by Trump that claimed CBS News had edited an interview to favor his opponent Kamala Harris. The network then announced plans to end the late-night program of comedian Stephen Colbert, a frequent Trump critic. Six days later, the FCC approved the Skydance deal.

Barry Diller, a longtime media and entertainment executive, told Bloomberg News he felt sorry for former Paramount Chair Shari Redstone, who had “a guillotine” at her throat while trying to get her merger approved under pressure from the president.

The government holds sway over media outlets in many ways. The FCC could pull a TV station’s license to operate, although historically such instances have been rare and not often tied to content decisions.

In July, the Republican-controlled Congress stopped funding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, squeezing public TV and radio stations that distribute programming from NPR and PBS.

During an appearance on a conservative podcast on Wednesday, FCC Chairman Carr criticized Kimmel and threatened to take action against ABC’s parent company.

“This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney,” Carr said. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”

Shortly after, Nexstar Media Group Inc., a large owner of ABC stations, said it was pulling Kimmel’s program.

What made the decision noteworthy is that Nexstar has business before the FCC and needs the agency’s approval to complete a $6.2 billion takeover of a competing broadcaster called Tegna Inc.

“The decision to preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! was made unilaterally by the senior executive team at Nexstar, and they had no communication with the FCC or any government agency prior to making that decision,” a Nexstar spokesman said.

To seal the deal, Nexstar will have to get the Trump administration to revise longstanding rules that limit the ownership of local stations. Carr recently said he’s in favor of those changes.

“I see this as a part of this administration’s campaign of censorship and control,” Anna Gomez, the FCC’s sole Democrat, said at an Axios media conference in New York on Thursday. “It’s weaponizing its licensing authority in order to bring broadcasters to heel.”

While cable-TV stations and newspapers don’t have or need government licenses, the administration can make life difficult for their parent companies.

“The FCC is not functioning normally that it normally has in the past,” PBS Chief Executive Officer Paula Kerger said at the conference. “You can’t look at any of the history to try to anticipate how it will act moving forward.”

Some outlets are fighting back. Earlier this week, the president sued the New York Times Co. for $15 billion, claiming it has long been biased against him.

“This lawsuit has no merit,” the Times said in response. “It lacks any legitimate legal claims and instead is an attempt to stifle and discourage independent reporting. The New York Times will not be deterred by intimidation tactics.”

Many politicians and members of the creative community have denounced ABC’s suspension of Kimmel’s show. Democratic members of Congress have called for Carr to step down, citing overreach.

“Jimmy Kimmel being pulled off the air is a dire turning point for the state of free speech in America,” said Saul Austerlitz, a professor of comedy writing at New York University. “If Kimmel can be removed over a mild joke, the window of acceptable speech on television appears to have narrowed drastically and sharply in favor of conservative speech at the expense of all alternatives.”

“I was shocked, saddened and infuriated by yesterday’s suspension and look forward to it being lifted soon,” Damon Lindelof, the creator of the hit ABC drama Lost, wrote on Instagram. “If it isn’t, I can’t in good conscience work for the company that imposed it.”

Even Bari Weiss’s news organization, the Free Press, a frequent ally of Republicans during censorship debates, took issue with the circumstances leading up to Kimmel’s benching.

“When a network dumps a star host just hours after a regulator’s barely veiled threat, it starts to look less like a business decision — and more like government coercion,” the publication wrote.

Despite the backlash, Trump has given no indication that he plans to change course. Immediately after the Kimmel news broke, he celebrated ABC’s decision and called on NBC to fire its late-night hosts, Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers.

Later, on Air Force One, Trump said the FCC has every right to pull the broadcast licenses of stations that run content he doesn’t like.

“When you have a network and you have evening shows, and all they do is hit Trump,” the president said. “They’re licensed. They’re not allowed to do that. They’re an arm of the Democrat party."