‘It’s intimidation.’ That’s Gov. Pritzker on MSNBC last night, condemning Disney-owned ABC’s decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel’s show “indefinitely” …
■ … after Kimmel’s jokes about Trump and the Republican Party’s reactions to the murder of reactionary influencer Charlie Kirk prompted a threat to drop the show by the owner of the network’s largest cluster of affiliated stations, Nexstar …
■ … which is seeking Federal Communications Commission approval for a $6.2 billion merger.
■ That followed Trump-appointed FCC chair Brendan Carr’s condemnation of Kimmel, with a threat to revoke the licenses of ABC affiliates carrying the show.
■ Poynter: “It’s hard not to draw a line from Carr’s comments to Kimmel’s cancellation.”
■ Pulitzer winner Gene Weingarten: “Carr labeled … run-of-the-mill political commentary ‘the sickest conduct possible.’ This is incorrect. The sickest conduct possible is what Carr did to Jimmy Kimmel, one of Trump’s fiercest and funniest critics, at the behest of an amoral man hellbent on destroying free speech to consolidate his own power by seizing control of America’s entertainment industry.”
■ Another TV chain that was set to dump Kimmel’s show in protest, Sinclair, is demanding an apology from Kimmel …
■ … and will air a Kirk tribute in Kimmel’s timeslot Friday.
■ The president’s gleeful: “That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC.”
■ See what may have been Kimmel’s last ABC monologue here …
■ … or read it here.
‘This is beyond McCarthyism.’ The American Civil Liberties Union is among those blasting ABC for Kimmel’s suspension. (Cartoon: Mark Fiore, who writes, “Welcome to our burgeoning autocracy! (I’m done calling it ‘nascent’ or ‘early-stage.’”)
■ Jonathan V. Last at The Bulwark: “Anyone who makes a statement that turns out to be less than fully accurate, or who makes a joke, or who—God forbid—is just asking questions is now liable to have … the full force of the federal government brought against them.”
■ MSNBC’s Chris Hayes calls it “the most straightforward attack on free speech from state actors I’ve ever seen in my life.”
■ Columnist Eric Zorn says Kimmel’s suspension is “proof that the political right actually embraces ‘cancel culture.’”
■ Repentful ex-Tea Party Republican Joe Walsh: “The free speech wussies, the way too easily triggered/offended snowflakes, are all on the MAGA right.”
■ The nation’s leading news and entertainment union, SAG-AFTRA*: “The decision to suspend airing Jimmy Kimmel Live! is the type of suppression and retaliation that endangers everyone’s freedoms.”
■ Lawyer/columnists weigh in: Robert Hubbell says “Disney/ABC demonstrated … it has nothing but contempt for … free speech,” and Mitch Jackson writes: “This isn’t about Jimmy Kimmel, it’s about who owns and controls the information.”
■ Chicago-born journalist Jonathan Alter: “Will we move in the direction of restricting civil liberties and censoring criticism of the president, or will we stand up for free expression?”
■ Pritzker again: “A free and democratic society cannot silence comedians because the president doesn’t like what they say.”
‘Pro-Trump billionaires control American media.’ Pod Save America cohost Dan Pfeiffer says Kimmel’s suspension is just the tip of the iceberg.
■ CNN’s Brian Stelter has a bunch of questions about what comes next.
‘The Kimmel Cancel Response Blueprint.’ Columnist Christopher Armitage recommends four things you can do to protest Disney/ABC’s knee-bending.
■ Common Cause has launched an online petition to ABC and other media companies: “Stop Caving To Trump.”
■ As is his way, columnist Jeff Tiedrich doesn’t mince words: “ABC can pretty much fuck all the way off.”
■ Columnist Elaine Soloway: “I’m saying goodbye to my Fox News advertisers.”
■ … and Disney owns Chicago’s WLS-TV.
Everything everywhere all at once. Variety reports that Kirk’s assassination has amped up security concerns across the media—including CNN, Fox News and political podcasts.
■ The Hollywood Reporter recounts the ways in which legacy media fumbled coverage of Kirk’s death.
■ Trump-critical South Park took another week off, blaming deadline issues.
2026 election ‘under attack.’ Popular Information flags cases to watch in Oregon and Maine …
■ … whose secretary of state yesterday told Trump’s Justice Department: “Go jump in the Gulf of Maine.”
ICE wants you. A Trump administration ad running on Chicago TV aims to persuade cops to quit their jobs and join in the feds’ mass deportation effort.
■ A Tribune editorial (gift link): “ICE must leave U.S citizens alone.”
‘It’s possible President Donald Trump should’ve picked a better podcaster to head up the FBI.’ USA Today’s Rex Huppke reviews two days of “embarrassing” congressional testimony from Kash Patel.
■ The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chief Trump ousted warned Congress yesterday: “Preventable diseases will return.”
■ Illinois has now seen its first human West Nile-related death of the year.
■ Axios: Trump’s health chief, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is taking aim at an Illinois law to screen students for mental health.
■ ProPublica: “Amid rise of RFK Jr., officials waver on drinking water fluoridation—even in the state where it started.”
Illinois, charged up. A successful suit against the Trump administration has freed $18 million in federal funding to build electric vehicle charging stations around the state.
■ Gov. Pritzker says it keeps the state “at the forefront of building a clean energy economy.”
* Of which your Square columnist is a former shop steward on honorable withdrawal.
** Which your columnist served as news director for a couple of years.