Why am I doing this? Because when entertainment conglomerates like Disney (which operates the ABC television network and the Hulu and Disney+ streaming services) are complicit in governmental attempts to suppress free speech, they should not be supported. As Brent Molnar writes: This is what happens when the state and corporate power merge to enforce one political line and erase dissent. . . . This is fascism."
Money talks. And it’s the only thing these companies listen and respond to. So please consider joining with me and many others in boycotting these companies and services.
Following is Molnar’s most recent commentary, one in which he describes the recent events that have led to a growing number of people “pulling [their] viewership and dollars away from ABC, Disney, Nexstar, and any advertiser that props up this silencing.”
There are moments when the curtain pulls back and you see the machinery of power in all its naked form. This week was one of those moments. Jimmy Kimmel did what late night hosts have always done. He cracked a monologue, skewered hypocrisy, and pointed out the absurdity of how the right has turned the murder of Charlie Kirk into a loyalty test. Within hours, his show was gone. Suspended. Pulled not because of low ratings, not because of scandal, but because powerful people did not like what he said. This is authoritarianism.
ABC announced the indefinite suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live! after pressure from affiliates and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The trigger was his criticism of the MAGA grief machine. He pointed out the grotesque spectacle of forcing a nation to perform mourning on command, while ignoring victims who are inconvenient to the narrative. He compared it to the staged grief of North Korea. And for that, he was yanked off the air.
The right erupted in outrage, demanding punishment, while the FCC’s Brendan Carr dangled the threat of license consequences. Nexstar, one of the largest station groups in the country, refused to air Kimmel’s show. That was the death knell. ABC folded, not because of principle, but because power demanded it. The result is chilling.
Let us be clear about what happened. A comedian pointed out a double standard. The government threatened regulatory retaliation. Corporate affiliates caved. The network silenced him. That sequence is not democracy. That sequence is fascism. It is what happens when the state and corporate power merge to enforce one political line and erase dissent.
The argument will be made that Kimmel was “insensitive.” That his jokes were “too soon.” That broadcasters have to be “responsible.” But responsibility is not what this is about. If it were, Fox hosts who spread lies that fueled insurrections would be gone. If it were, commentators who cheer for book bans and call immigrants “vermin” would not still be on prime time. The difference is not standards. The difference is whose speech serves power, and whose speech challenges it.
Free speech does not only mean the right to whisper in your living room. It means the right to challenge the narratives of those in power. Kimmel did that, and the machinery of politics and media made an example of him. To send a message not just to him, but to every other broadcaster: cross this line and you are next.
This is what fascism looks like in practice. Not always jackboots at your door, but the slow narrowing of the public square until only state-approved voices remain. It is the fusion of government pressure, corporate cowardice, and political intimidation. It is the chilling effect where comedians, journalists, and citizens alike learn to self-censor out of fear that speaking truth to power will cost them their platform, their livelihood, or their safety.
The stakes are bigger than Jimmy Kimmel. They are about whether dissent is allowed to breathe in America. If an FCC chair can publicly threaten a network over content and force them to silence a late-night comedian, what will happen to independent journalists? To dissident podcasters? To critics without the protection of Disney’s lawyers? The answer is simple. They will be crushed.
And this is not just about one night’s jokes. It is about the trajectory of a regime that increasingly treats criticism as treason, satire as crime, and disagreement as disloyalty. When authoritarian governments rise, they do not begin with mass arrests. They begin with silencing the voices that make people laugh, think, and question. They begin by erasing the entertainers who puncture propaganda. Because if you can control what people laugh at, you can control what they fear.
Jimmy Kimmel may come back. Or he may not. But the lesson has already been taught. The line has been drawn. Speak against the regime’s martyrs, and you will pay. That is the playbook. That is fascism, American-style.
The response must be louder than their censorship. Because silence is the point. They want us quiet, intimidated, atomized. We cannot let that stand. Share the stories. Support independent outlets. Back the creators and journalists who will not bend. And never let the absurdity of this moment be normalized. A country where comedians cannot tell jokes is a country already in collapse.
If you want to hit back in a way they will actually feel, the most direct step is to boycott the companies tied to this censorship. That means pulling your viewership and dollars away from ABC, Disney, Nexstar, and any advertiser that props up this silencing. Do not give them your time, your clicks, or your money. Cancel subscriptions, change your streaming habits, and tell their sponsors exactly why. These corporations believe they can silence dissent without cost. Let’s prove them wrong. Economic pressure is one of the last levers ordinary people still hold, and it works best when we use it together.
– Brent Molnar
via Brent Molnar: Voice of Reason
September 18, 2025
via Brent Molnar: Voice of Reason
September 18, 2025
Related Off-site Links:
“Red Alert Moment” for Free Speech as ABC Cowers to Trump FCC and Cancels Kimmel – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, September 18, 2025).
Stephen Colbert Defends Jimmy Kimmel: “This Is Blatant Censorship” By An “Autocrat” – Scoop Harrison (Consequence, September 18, 2025).
Democracy Needs a Fearless Press and Vice Versa – Trump Is Killing Both – Robert Reich (Common Dreams, September 18, 2025).
Rep. Ro Khanna Moves to Subpoena FCC Chair Carr Over Effort to “Shred the First Amendment” – Brad Reed (Common Dreams, July 30, 2025).
Trump Threatens to Strip Broadcast Licenses for Networks Giving Him “Bad Press,” Ramping Up His “Campaign of Censorship and Control” – Stephen Prager (Common Dreams, September 18, 2025).
UPDATES: Calls to Boycott Disney Explode After ABC Submits to FCC Threats by Ousting Jimmy Kimmel – Philip Allen Lacovara (Common Dreams, September 19, 2025).
Censoring Jimmy Kimmel Is Not The Biggest Threat To The First Amendment – But This Is – Jason Pramas (Common Dreams, September 19, 2025).
Will U.S. Democracy Survive? This Is a Threshold Moment – Thom Hartmann (Common Dreams, September 19, 2025).
See also the following chronologically-ordered Wild Reed posts:
• Marisa Kabas: “We’re Witnessing a Coup By an Unelected Billionaire Propped Up By a Felonious President”
• Timothy Snyder on Resisting the Oligarchs’ “Logic of Destruction”
• “This Is Essentially Viktor Orbán’s Playbook”
• “An Extremely Clever Ruse” by and for the Rich: Owen Jones on Elon Musk’s Coup
• “To Be a Rib in This Body of Our Country”
• Quote of the Day – February 21, 2025
• Ralph Nader: “We’re Heading Into the Most Serious Crisis in American History. There’s No Comparison”
• Why the Democratic Party Is Not Going to Save Us From Fascism
• “This Is How Democracy Unravels”
• Jason Stanley on How Fascism Works
• James Greenberg on Trumpism: “The Tactics Are Unmistakable”
• Tony Pentimalli on Trump’s “Death Warrant for Democracy”
• “This Is What Fascism Looks Like”
• Peter Bloom: Quote of the Day – June 10, 2025
• “Protesting Is What Patriotism Looks Like in Public”: The “No Kings” Protests of June 14, 2025
• “No Kings”? Absolutely. But Also “No Oligarchy”
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – June 20, 2025
• Rep. Ro Khanna: Quote of the Day – June 24, 2025
• “This Is Fascism”
• The Declaration of Resistance
• The Choice Before Us
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – July 26, 2025
• How Democrats Can Start Winning Again
• Brent Molnar on the MAGA Cult and Its Intentions
• James Greenberg: “The Choices We Make Matter”
• Brent Molnar on the “Cold War in Our Own House”
• Khalil Gibran Muhammad on Donald Trump’s Militarization of Law Enforcement
• Jason Duchin: “It’s Here, and We Are Sleepwalking Through It”
• Marianne Williamson: “We’re Moving Into Totalitarianism”
• Garrett Graff: “America Tips Into Fascism”
• Bowing to an Idol
• Marianne Williamson on the Need for “Radical Love” in Responding to Trump’s Dismantling of Democracy
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