Is Free Speech Under Attack in this Country?

Eh.

Late night isn't dying because of politics.

It's dying because like the rest of linear TV, people have more options than ever.

You used to watch late night to see movie star interviews and previews to new movies. All that is widely available online now.

Live Sports is the only thing that commands must see big viewership.

And the guys who are doing late night now have just done it way too long now. Letterman and Leno had lasting power because they weren't as overexposed before taking the chair.

Kimmel has been mainstream since man show and been doing Live since mid 2000s. Colbert Report started like 2005 when I was in high school and has been doing late show 10 years now. Fallon was doing movies and such before tonight show.

Nobody beats Craig Ferguson though. He was the best.
I do think politics have helped to accelerate the downfall, though. Specifically, at some point The Daily Show exploded and took away a lot of late night viewers with Stewart’s intelligence and humor and the friendlier time slot for people who have work in the morning, and the networks decided to Daily Show-ify late night when that’s not what these shows are. Like Jimmy Fallon should not be talking about politics unless it’s little silly Jay Leno-type bits. By all means, they can have a political slant, and touch on the news of the day, but the masses do not yearn for even more politics every night around the movie star interviews and live band numbers.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jaw
Eh.

Late night isn't dying because of politics.

It's dying because like the rest of linear TV, people have more options than ever.

You used to watch late night to see movie star interviews and previews to new movies. All that is widely available online now.

Live Sports is the only thing that commands must see big viewership.

And the guys who are doing late night now have just done it way too long now. Letterman and Leno had lasting power because they weren't as overexposed before taking the chair.

Kimmel has been mainstream since man show and been doing Live since mid 2000s. Colbert Report started like 2005 when I was in high school and has been doing late show 10 years now. Fallon was doing movies and such before tonight show.

Nobody beats Craig Ferguson though. He was the best.

I don't think it's the deciding factor. But I think alienating half the country does have an effect. Or maybe I'm wrong and zeroing in on one side props you up enough to counter balance that.

But regardless its dying and this seems like an easy way to get out of a contract you weren't likely to renew.
 
What a tremendous time in history right now. Before people were emboldened to be racist pricks against white peope or celebrate conservatives death.

We are taking this country back and the only way it was going to happen is via uncomfortable measures.

This is going to end very well for everyone but the Marxist’s.
 
Ah man was hoping for the bombshell evidence on this one but I guess its buried with the German files
Portlands safe zone and Trumps private foot soldiers !

And obesity not affecting Covid outcomes

There was something about the couple defending their property from looters but I can’t recall
 
Also, these late night comedy shows are terrible and ratings are declining like crazy. I think its probably that they are using this as an excuse to can someone to get them out of a financial hole

But ABC should have disciplined Kimmel for those comments. There needs to be SOME sort of accountability for blatantly lying in a healthy society
He just does this bc you don’t vote like him

He’s never fact checked a tweet 57 or any other of his own published here

It’s fairly obvious
 
To the extent Kimmel was punished because he was an idiot and pissed off his employer, good riddance.

To the extent he was punished because of pressure from the federal government (or a concern that there would be pressure from the federal government), it is obviously a problem.
 
As a matter of constitutional law, the Chair of the FCC threatening companies in order to coerce them to fire someone whose political speech he doesn’t like is about as straightforward a violation of the First Amendment as you can get. “Government officials cannot attempt to coerce private parties in order to punish or suppress views that the government disfavors.” Nat'l Rifle Ass'n of Am. v. Vullo, 602 U.S. 175, 180 (2024). Like, that’s a 9-0 supreme court ruling from the current fractured court there. That Kimmel ended up being immediately punished and the FCC director basically said “Thank you,” is, uh, bad optics, at best.

Deeper problem being showcased here is how “free speech” is often actually kind of an antitrust problem. Kimmel was screwed when Nexstar/Sinclair flexed their muscle against him because they wield outsized power in the tv space after gobbling up all the local stations. Similar to when whatever lunatics you guys loved couldn’t get their books on amazon. The problem is not, strictly speaking, that a private company didn’t want to do business with him (companies also have first amendment association rights)—the problem is Amazon has (had?) monopoly in the book market, so that single point of denial has outsized impact.

Corporate consolidation is bad for free speech (and is antidemocratic in other ways), just generally speaking.
 
All the people crying about it now either said nothing while it was happening to conservatives/MAGA or cheered it on in real time.

Fake outrage. They are just really mad that Trump and team are finally pushing back HARD.
Did Biden’s FCC chair tell FOX “we can do this the easy way or the hard way” in regards to getting Tucker off the air?
 
Did Biden’s FCC chair tell FOX “we can do this the easy way or the hard way” in regards to getting Tucker off the air?
Biden also got half the world kicked off Youtube and other media, not to mention them fired and smeared publicly to lose employment
 
Back
Top