WASHINGTON: Late-night TV comics skewered US President Donald Trump and denounced “blatant censorship” after Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show was pulled off air over his comments on the murder of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
Network ABC’s decision to suspend Kimmel “indefinitely” came after Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Brendan Carr threatened the licenses of ABC affiliates that broadcast his show.
Trump, on his way back from a trip to Britain, again condemned evening shows on network television, saying “all they do is hit Trump”.
“I mean, they’re getting a licence. I would think maybe their license should be taken away. It will be up to Brendan Carr,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One.
Stephen Colbert – whose own Emmy-winning Late Show on CBS will be taken off the air next year – opened his Thursday program by saying “today, we are all Jimmy Kimmel”.
“After threats from Trump’s FCC Chair, ABC yanked Kimmel off their air indefinitely. That is blatant censorship,” Colbert said.
“With an autocrat, you cannot give an inch, and if ABC thinks this is going to satisfy the regime, they are woefully naive,” he said.
Colbert’s show was axed shortly after he criticised a decision by CBS’s parent company, Paramount Global, to settle a lawsuit brought by Trump over an interview with former vice president Kamala Harris.
CBS said in July that cancelling Colbert’s program was a “purely financial decision.”
Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart delivered his own response to Kimmel’s suspension, introduced on Thursday night as “your patriotically obedient host” of the “all-new government-approved Daily Show.”
“Some naysayers may argue that this administration’s speech concerns are merely a cynical ploy… to obscure an unprecedented consolidation of power and unitary intimidation,” Stewart said.
“Some people would say that – not me though, I think it’s great.”
