{"id":13462,"date":"2025-09-19T10:17:23","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T10:17:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/autocrat-trump-blasted-for-censorship-as-tv-hosts-back-kimmel\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T10:17:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T10:17:23","slug":"autocrat-trump-blasted-for-censorship-as-tv-hosts-back-kimmel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/autocrat-trump-blasted-for-censorship-as-tv-hosts-back-kimmel\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Autocrat\u2019 Trump blasted for censorship as TV hosts back Kimmel"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

America\u2019s late-night talk show hosts rallied Thursday to support Jimmy Kimmel after his suspension \u2014 and accused President Donald Trump of sliding into authoritarianism.<\/p>\n

TV network ABC yanked Kimmel off air after comments<\/a> about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk that appeared to associate his alleged assassin with the MAGA movement triggered a backlash from Trump allies.<\/p>\n

Stephen Colbert \u2014 whose own program on CBS was canceled after he criticized the network\u2019s decision<\/a> to pay Trump millions to settle a lawsuit \u2014 used his opening monologue to slam the Trump administration and ABC for \u201cblatant censorship.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWith an autocrat, you cannot give an inch,\u201d Colbert said. \u201cIf ABC thinks that this is going to satisfy the regime, they are woefully naive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colbert was joined by Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” who mockingly played the role of a grovelling propagandist in a dictatorship.<\/p>\n

In front of a fake gold backdrop, a jab at Trump’s redesign of the White House, Stewart informed viewers the episode would be “another fun, hilarious, administration-compliant show.\u201d<\/p>\n

His guest was Maria Ressa, author of the book “How To Stand Up To A Dictator: The Fight for Our Future.”<\/p>\n

Over at “The Tonight Show” on NBC, Jimmy Fallon called Kimmel “a decent, funny and loving guy\u201d and called for his reinstatement.<\/p>\n

Fallon reassured viewers he would not be \u201ccensored\u201d and launched into a commentary about Trump\u2019s visit this week to the U.K. \u2014 before he was quickly drowned out by a satirical voiceover saying the president was \u201cincredibly handsome\u201d and \u201crestoring our national reputation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Disney-owned ABC announced Wednesday it was indefinitely pausing Kimmel\u2019s late-night talk show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” caving to pressure from Brendan Carr, the Trump-appointed chair of the Federal Communications Commission.<\/p>\n

Carr had urged ABC and local broadcasters earlier that day \u201cto take action\u201d against Kimmel, calling the comedian\u2019s comments \u201ctruly sick\u201d and warning, \u201cWe can do this the easy way or the hard way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Top Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer<\/a> and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, have called for the FCC chair\u2019s resignation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Asked about the Kimmel decision, Trump told reporters Thursday the talk show host had \u201csaid a horrible thing\u201d about Kirk and \u201chad very bad ratings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey should have fired him a long time ago,\u201d he added. \u201cSo, you know, you could call that free speech or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kimmel\u2019s indefinite suspension earned a rebuke from another titan of late-night television: David Letterman.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s ridiculous. You can\u2019t go around firing somebody because you\u2019re fearful or trying to suck up to an authoritarian, a criminal administration in the Oval Office,\u201d Letterman said at The Atlantic Festival<\/a> on Thursday. \u201cThat\u2019s just not how this works.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 78-year-old comedian added he had been in touch with Kimmel, who was \u201cgoing to be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former President Barack Obama also weighed in<\/a>, writing on X that the Trump administration had taken cancel culture \u201cto a new and dangerous level\u201d and was using the threat of regulatory crackdowns to \u201cmuzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn\u2019t like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bill Simmons, the godfather of American sports podcasting and a longtime friend of Kimmel, used his show to decry Disney and ABC executives for caving in to government pressure and \u201ccensorship.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt some point you\u2019ve got to stand for something,\u201d Simmons said.<\/p>\n

Seth Meyers on NBC opened his talk show Thursday with a warning of his own: Trump\u2019s administration was \u201cpursuing a crackdown on free speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd completely unrelated, I just wanted to say that I have always admired and respected Mr. Trump,\u201d he snarked.<\/p>\n

Ali Walker contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

America\u2019s late-night talk show hosts rallied Thursday to support Jimmy Kimmel after his suspension \u2014 and accused President Donald Trump of sliding into authoritarianism. TV network ABC yanked Kimmel off air after comments about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk that appeared to associate his alleged assassin with the MAGA movement triggered a backlash […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13462\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}