By Betsey Piette
September 23, 2025

First the Donald Trump administration came after academia, demanding the elimination of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs (DEI), expulsions and even deportations of pro-Palestinian students and the silencing of faculty who dared to speak out. Despite their multibillion dollar endowments, one after the other, led by the Ivy Leagues, the universities caved.

Next were the bogus lawsuits charging defamation and bias against major media outlets, including ABC, CBS and the Wall Street Journal. And just like the university trustees, corporate media buckled to get Trump off their backs. CBS and ABC, along with Disney, paid Trump off instead of challenging him in court.

Now, in moves reminiscent of McCarthyism, Trump and his lackeys are going full gun after late-night talk show hosts. First Stephen Colbert, whose cancelled late-night show on CBS just won an Emmy, and now Jimmy Kimmel, who for years has targeted Trump in his monologues. It appears that Trump and his henchman Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr feel they can silence their critics and do away with the constitutionally protected right to freedom of speech in one fell swoop.

Disney, as the parent company of ABC, suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live! indefinitely on Sept. 17 after intense criticism and pressure from Trump and other conservatives over remarks Kimmel made about the political leanings of the man charged with the murder of Charlie Kirk and about the Trump’s ultraright MAGA supporters trying to capitalize on the murder.  Nexstar, the largest television station owner in the U.S., agreed to preempt Kimmel’s show even before ABC announced the move.

Nexstar was already in negotiations with Carr for approval of its $6.2 billion merger with Tegna. Getting the FCC’s approval would need a change in a long-standing rule that limited any one company’s access to 39% of U.S. households. The merger with Tegna would give Nexstar over 80% — a nearly complete monopoly.

Carr took things even further with censorship threats made during an appearance on right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson’s program. He said that the FCC would pull local broadcast licenses of any station that doesn’t “change conduct” even though there is no precedent for the FCC to take such steps, and it is probably illegal under the First Amendment.

Billionaires benefit

Amidst the uproar around Kimmel’s suspension, Trump-supporting billionaires are being given even greater control over broadcast media as well as social media. Larry Ellison and his son David Ellison already have controlling interests in CBS and Paramount. Ellison senior is the second-richest individual in the world and the largest private funder of the Israel Occupation Forces.

According to the Wall Street Journal of Sept.21, the Ellisons are preparing a bid, estimated at $80 billion, for control over Warner Brothers Discovery which controls HBO Max, the Warner Bros. movie studio and CNN. Larry Ellison’s company Oracle is set to be part of a consortium of U.S. investors hoping to control the U.S. version of TikTok.

Threat of more to come

Following the success with Kimmel, the Trump cabal has continued to use Kirk’s killing to crack down on what they call “the left.” Trump is encouraging NBC to cancel the late-night shows of Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers. In a further step to limit news reporting, on Sept. 19, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a new mandate prohibiting reporters from obtaining military or defense information without Pentagon approval — or risk losing their press credentials.

At the memorial service for Kirk in Arizona on Sept. 21, Trump hailed him as a “martyr” and used the occasion to go after political opponents saying: “I hate my opponents, and I don’t want the best for them.” (BBC, Sept. 21) Within hours of the service, Trump sent a public social media post to Attorney General Pam Bondi instructing her to prosecute his political enemies. The post on Truth Social mentioned New York Attorney General Letitia James, former FBI director James Comey and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) by name. (NewsNation, Sept. 21)

Billionaires are accelerating their efforts to consolidate control over media platforms, and as long as they can increase their profits and carry out mergers, they will bend over backwards to appease Trump and the capitalist state. Similar to academics, television broadcasters will begin to self-censor.

There is a growing boycott against Disney and ABC and connected platforms ESPN+ and Hulu. Over 100 protesters demonstrated outside the El Capitan Entertainment Centre in Los Angeles on Sept. 18, blocking traffic in the tourist area and holding signs that read “Don’t bend the knee to trump” and “Douse the Mouse.” Protesters also gathered outside Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California.

The Writers Guild of America East organized a protest against ABC’s decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel on Sept. 19, in New York City. The New York Times on Sept. 22, reported that at least five Hollywood unions, collectively representing more than 400,000 workers, publicly condemned the company. A letter signed by over 400 celebrities objected to Kimmel’s firing and government censorship.

Public pressure works.  In the late afternoon on Sept. 22, ABC announced that “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” would return to the air on Sept. 23.

A truly anti-capitalist program is needed to mobilize a working-class-based resistance to censorship and to far more vicious attacks on those who are truly part of “the left.”