#media-consolidation

#media-consolidation

we have seen a tech titan gut a once-great newspaper in an apparent act of capitulation to the commander in chief, government accounts gleefully spreading hateful memes on X (the far-right platform owned by a billionaire tech oligarch), a defamation lawsuit filed by Trump against The New York Times (and quickly dismissed by the judge as "superfluous"), and, of course, the assault on free speech carried out by Trump's Federal Communications Commission chairman.

We made a decision last week to preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! following what ABC referred to as Mr. Kimmel's ill-timed and insensitive comments at a critical time in our national discourse. We stand by that decision pending assurance that all parties are committed to fostering an environment of respectful, constructive dialogue in the markets we serve. Nexstar has 32 ABC affiliates among its 200 stations nationwide.

Jimmy Kimmel was kicked off the air for making fun of Trump. Not because he joked about Charlie Kirk's assassination, which he didn't do, or because he lied about it, which he didn't do either. Comments about the "MAGA gang" trying to score political points off Kirk's murder were just the setup to a punchline about how Trump can't even muster a crocodile tear over the right-wing podcaster's death before gushing about his White House renovations.

Kimmel, a late-night host who's long criticized and mocked President Donald Trump, had his namesake show on ABC suspended "indefinitely" after his comments about Charlie Kirk, the right-wing influencer who was killed in public last week. Carr, a Trump appointee, suggested on a conservative podcast on Wednesday that owners of local broadcast stations that license ABC programming should pressure the network to cancel Kimmel. He said broadcasters who don't act "in the public interest" could get their licenses reviewed.

Back in the 90s and 2000s, much ink was spilled as the major networks grappled for ratings in the now-quaint real estate of post-11PM programming. Johnny Carson retired. David Letterman jumped to CBS. Conan O'Brien was plucked from obscurity, eventually handed The Tonight Show, and then had it essentially clawed back by Jay Leno for a few more years of appalling hackwork.

whose show ABC suspended after Brendan Carr complained about the things Kimmel said about Charlie Kirk's killer. But sure, Kimmel's suspension removes a familiar voice from the living rooms of a certain aging demographic, but more importantly, points to the system of power behind the suspension: not just the cancel campaign to silence discussion of Charlie Kirk's real statements, but Brendan Carr's egregious politicization of the FCC, and in response, the abject cowardice from multinationals like ABC, Sinclair, and Nexstar.

Driving the news: ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel off air "indefinitely" on Wednesday in response to the late-night host's comments about Charlie Kirk's assassination. The extraordinary move came after Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr warned ABC that it could face fines or license revocations if it did not "operate in the public interest." Trump celebrated Kimmel's removal - just as he did CBS's decision to cancel Stephen Colbert's show -

At the same time a long-running family feud among Rupert Murdoch and his children was settled with a deal that will assure Fox News and other powerful media outlets run by the family will retain their conservative bent. The moves deepened concerns among many US media critics and observers of authoritarianism that press freedoms in the US were undergoing capitulation to the Trump administration's rightwing authoritarian leanings.

Last month, federal regulators approved the long-anticipated merger of Skydance Media and Paramount Global, positioning David Ellison the founder of Skydance and the son of megabillionaire Larry Ellison as one of the most powerful figures in US media. Paramount Skydance Corporation, as it is now officially known, is one of a small handful of American media conglomerates, with Paramount Pictures, cable networks such as Comedy Central and MTV, and CBS all under its umbrella.

Almost immediately I began to get intensely pressured about the contents of my columns, not from anyone within ATL, but from the partnership at the law firm where I was then employed. My God, what if someone realized their lawyer wasn't the intellectual equivalent of a genital-less Ken doll and was instead a real, live person with agency who actually had opinions about things?