Kimmel Is Back — And So Are We
A little over a week ago, I wrote about how Jimmy Kimmel’s show was pulled off the air after a dust-up with the FCC and some of the biggest broadcast chains in the country. Disney suspended him. Then Sinclair and Nexstar — two giant media companies that own dozens of ABC stations — kept his show blacked out even after Disney said he could return.
Well, here’s the update: Kimmel is back on the air everywhere. Disney reinstated him, and after days of pressure and criticism, both Sinclair and Nexstar finally caved and ended their blackout. What started as a dangerous example of censorship has turned into a rare win for free speech. (AP News)
A little over a week ago, I wrote about how Jimmy Kimmel’s show was pulled off the air after a dust-up with the FCC and some of the biggest broadcast chains in the country. Disney suspended him. Then Sinclair and Nexstar — two giant media companies that own dozens of ABC stations — kept his show blacked out even after Disney said he could return.
Well, here’s the update: Kimmel is back on the air everywhere. Disney reinstated him, and after days of pressure and criticism, both Sinclair and Nexstar finally caved and ended their blackout. What started as a dangerous example of censorship has turned into a rare win for free speech. (AP News)
Why this matters
This wasn’t just about one late-night comedian. It was about whether powerful corporations and government officials can silence voices they don’t like. For a few days, it looked like they could. But public backlash, criticism from across the media world, and the simple fact that millions of people tuned in anyway forced Sinclair and Nexstar to back down. (Politico)
That shows us something important: these companies aren’t untouchable. When enough people push back, they move.
Kimmel’s return
When Kimmel finally came back on air, he didn’t just crack jokes and move on. He opened with an emotional monologue, admitting how shaken he was by the attempt to silence him. At one point he said:
“This show is not important. What is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this.”
That line captured exactly why this fight mattered. It wasn’t really about one program or one host — it was about whether people in this country still get to speak freely, criticize leaders, and laugh at power without being shut down.
Kimmel also thanked viewers and fellow performers for standing by him, and he called out Trump directly, saying the former president “tried his best to cancel me.” The episode drew the show’s biggest audience in years — proof that people do care when free expression is under threat.
The Bigger Picture: Nexstar + TEGNA
This fight ties directly into something even bigger — the proposed Nexstar–TEGNA merger. If approved, Nexstar wouldn’t just be the largest owner of local TV stations in the country — it would dominate the market, reaching nearly 80% of U.S. television households.
Think about what we just saw: one company, with its hand on the switch, was able to silence millions of viewers overnight. Now imagine giving that same company the power to reach four out of every five American homes. That’s not just business — that’s control.
And here’s something worth noting: TEGNA didn’t join the blackout. Their stations kept airing Kimmel when Nexstar’s didn’t. That shows there’s still some diversity of judgment in the system — and a reason why TEGNA deserves to exist as an independent company. If Nexstar swallows them, that independent check disappears.
The FCC’s rules were supposed to limit any single company’s reach to about 39%. But changes in recent years have loosened those restrictions, opening the door for massive consolidation. If Nexstar gets TEGNA, the balance tips even further away from independent local voices and toward corporate boardrooms.
A win worth celebrating — and a reminder to stay vigilant
So take a moment to recognize this victory. You helped make it happen. By speaking up, sharing the story, and refusing to accept censorship quietly, ordinary people reminded the biggest broadcasters in the country that free speech still matters.
But let’s also keep our eyes on the larger fight. The Nexstar–TEGNA merger could make this kind of censorship easier to pull off next time. If one company controls nearly 80% of local stations, we all lose.
We have more power than we think we do — but only if we keep using it.
When Late Night Comedy Becomes a Political Bargaining Chip
Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show was suspended this week by ABC affiliates. On the surface, it might look like a programming spat. But look closer, and the real story comes into view: this was about appeasing regulators while a massive media merger hangs in the balance.
Kimmel’s supposed offense? A passing joke about Donald Trump’s indifference to tragedy, pointing out that the former president seemed more focused on polishing his ballroom than grieving with the nation. It wasn’t a rant, it wasn’t incendiary — it was the kind of pointed but mild humor late-night comedy has always traded in. Yet even that was too much, because one of the largest station groups in America has something much bigger at stake.
Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show was suspended this week by ABC affiliates. On the surface, it might look like a programming spat. But look closer, and the real story comes into view: this was about appeasing regulators while a massive media merger hangs in the balance.
Kimmel’s supposed offense? A passing joke about Donald Trump’s indifference to tragedy, pointing out that the former president seemed more focused on polishing his ballroom than grieving with the nation. It wasn’t a rant, it wasn’t incendiary — it was the kind of pointed but mild humor late-night comedy has always traded in. Yet even that was too much, because one of the largest station groups in America has something much bigger at stake.
The Merger at Stake
Nexstar Media Group, already the largest local TV owner in the U.S., is trying to acquire TEGNA Inc. If approved, this merger would give a single company effective control over stations that reach nearly 80% of American television households. That’s more than double the FCC’s legal cap of 39%. (https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/6-bln-broadcast-tie-up-adjusts-ma-picture-2025-08-20/)
On paper, the deal violates existing rules. But in practice, approval comes down to the FCC — and right now, the agency is sending signals that media companies must play ball politically if they want their mergers rubber-stamped. The FCC chair has already hinted, on record, that critical coverage could draw extra scrutiny. That’s not regulation — that’s intimidation.
So when Nexstar affiliates threatened to pull Kimmel, ABC buckled. Not because of ratings. Not because of content. But because the company needs goodwill with regulators while the merger is under review.
Why the Merger Is Bad for Americans
Even if the politics weren’t involved, this merger would be a disaster for the public.
Fewer voices. One company controlling such a huge share of the market narrows the range of perspectives available to viewers.
Higher prices. With fewer station owners, advertisers and content producers face less competition and more leverage. Those costs don’t vanish — they’re passed on to consumers.
Weaker journalism. Local stations have already been hollowed out by corporate consolidation. Investigative reporting is expensive, and big chains have little incentive to fund it. Viewers end up with syndicated fluff instead of accountability.
Unfair leverage over competitors. Disney, which owns ABC, loses bargaining power when a single company can dictate so much of the broadcast landscape.
In short: consolidation doesn’t benefit the public — it benefits the owners.
The Bigger Picture
This isn’t really about Jimmy Kimmel. It’s about the future of the American media landscape, and whether corporate deals can proceed only if companies silence critics of those in power.
If consolidation continues unchecked, and if regulators reward companies for political obedience, then Americans won’t just face higher prices and fewer programming choices. They’ll face a news environment where dissent is quietly scrubbed out — not by law, but by corporate calculation.
That’s not healthy competition. That’s not a free press. That’s censorship through consolidation.
Editor’s Note (Update): In my original version of this post, I focused on Nexstar’s role in pulling Jimmy Kimmel Live! while its TEGNA merger is under FCC review. But Sinclair Broadcast Group, another giant local station owner, made the same decision — and went further. Sinclair demanded a personal apology from Kimmel, donations to Charlie Kirk’s family and Turning Point USA, and even promised to run a Kirk tribute in Kimmel’s time slot.
This isn’t just parallel outrage. Sinclair has its own regulatory interests in play. Like Nexstar, it constantly needs FCC approval for license transfers and transactions. That means Sinclair benefits from echoing the FCC chair’s rhetoric about “public interest” and showing it is willing to clamp down on content that regulators criticize.
The bigger picture here is even starker: two of the nation’s largest station groups — together reaching tens of millions of households — acted not out of concern for viewers, but out of concern for their business with the FCC. What looks like a culture war fight is really corporate consolidation bending the press to political power.
What We Can Still Do
The good news is this deal is not done yet. Nexstar and TEGNA only announced their agreement in August 2025, and closing isn’t expected until well into 2026. That means there is still time — time to shine a light on what’s happening, time to push back, and time to stop it.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
Watch your local news. If your station is owned by Nexstar, TEGNA, or Sinclair, pay attention to the ads running during the broadcasts.
Call the advertisers. Let them know you won’t support their business if they continue funding companies that silence critics to curry political favor. Money talks.
Make it public. Post about it. Share which advertisers you called. Build pressure in the open.
Don’t stop at local TV. Nexstar directly owns or controls The CW, The Hill, NewsNation, and WGN Radio. And Sinclair owns Comet, CHARGE!, TBD, and The Nest. Advertisers there are fair game, too — they’re funding the same machine.
Send a message to Disney. If you want to go further, cancel your Disney+ subscription, or cancel that Disneyland or Disney World trip — and post about it. Disney owns ABC, and they also need to know that playing along with this is unacceptable. There’s also some hope here as this deal isn’t great for them long-term, either.
Push Congress. Demand stronger antitrust protections, not weaker ones. Media consolidation should be rolled back, not rewarded.
This timeline gives us an opening. If the public looks away, the merger will slide through, and we’ll wake up with 80% of American TV households controlled by a single company. But if we act now — if we make noise, pull dollars, and demand accountability — we still have a chance to stop it.
The Business of Outrage: From Cracker Barrel to Sydney Sweeney
Have you ever scrolled your feed and felt your blood pressure rise over something that, if you step back, isn’t really life or death? A logo change. A celebrity ad. A coffee cup.
These flare-ups aren’t random. They’re part of a pattern. Outrage is one of the easiest ways to hijack our attention, and in the online economy, attention is gold. The more riled up we get, the more we click, share, and comment. What feels like genuine grassroots anger is often carefully exaggerated—or even invented outright—to keep us engaged in battles that don’t matter nearly as much as we’re told they do.
Have you ever scrolled your feed and felt your blood pressure rise over something that, if you step back, isn’t really life or death? A logo change. A celebrity ad. A coffee cup.
These flare-ups aren’t random. They’re part of a pattern. Outrage is one of the easiest ways to hijack our attention, and in the online economy, attention is gold. The more riled up we get, the more we click, share, and comment. What feels like genuine grassroots anger is often carefully exaggerated—or even invented outright—to keep us engaged in battles that don’t matter nearly as much as we’re told they do.
When a Logo Becomes a Battlefield
Take Cracker Barrel’s recent logo change. The company swapped its old-fashioned illustration—a bearded man leaning on a barrel—for a cleaner, modern design. That’s the kind of refresh brands do all the time, usually without anyone noticing. But this time, outrage exploded.
Commentators on the right framed it as an assault on tradition, a betrayal of Cracker Barrel’s “real America” identity. Fox Business even tied the change to the background of a board member with experience in diversity and equity initiatives, feeding the idea that the logo wasn’t just different—it was political. On social media, that narrative was repeated, memed, and shared until the story became less about design and more about identity.
A simple marketing update turned into a cultural flashpoint, not because of the logo itself, but because outrage drives attention. The logo became a symbol in a larger story about “heritage under attack,” and suddenly a routine branding decision was cast as part of a war over who gets to define America.
The Outrage That Wasn’t
The Sydney Sweeney ad campaign shows a different version of the same game. American Eagle released a cheeky “Great Jeans/Genes” ad starring Sweeney. Almost immediately, some conservative outlets claimed “the left” was furious—linking the wordplay to eugenics and mocking progressives as humorless scolds.
But here’s the twist: there wasn’t much actual outrage from the left to begin with. Outside of a few stray posts, there was no real movement of critics demanding the ad be pulled. The supposed backlash was largely invented. The story wasn’t really about Sweeney, or even the ad. It was about keeping the culture war churning—framing progressives as perpetually angry, even when they weren’t.
This is a subtler trick. Instead of blowing up a minor change into a major betrayal, you create a phantom outrage and then dunk on it. The tactic works because it doesn’t matter if anyone was truly upset; what matters is the perception that “the other side” is always irrational, always overreacting.
Two Tricks, Same Purpose
One logo and one ad. Two very different tactics:
In one case, a minor change is blown up into a betrayal.
In the other, outrage is fabricated out of thin air.
Both serve the same purpose: to keep us distracted, angry, and engaged in battles that don’t change much of anything. And both are rewarded by the systems we use every day. Media outlets get clicks. Social platforms get engagement. Politicians get talking points. We—the audience—get the fleeting rush of outrage, followed by exhaustion.
Meanwhile, the problems that actually shape our lives—wages, healthcare, housing, corruption—rarely generate the same sustained attention. They’re too complex, too messy, and too hard to fix to compete with a quick hit of anger about a logo or an ad.
The Real Punchline
As George Carlin warned, the outrage machine has a purpose: “They keep the lower and middle classes fighting with each other so they can run off with all the f*ing money.”
That’s the punchline of these culture-war flare-ups. We think we’re defending tradition or calling out hypocrisy, but the real joke is on us—our attention gets hijacked while real problems go unaddressed. The same trick shows up in conspiracy narratives like the so-called “deep state.” Both outrage and conspiracy thrive on exaggerating threats, keeping us angry and distracted while very little changes in our daily lives. I’ve broken that down more here: Is the Deep State Real—or Just a Symptom of a Bigger Problem?.
Awareness Is the Antidote
Manufactured rage is a shell game: keep the public angry about distractions while power and wealth shift quietly in the background. The antidote isn’t more outrage—it’s awareness. Before sharing the next viral “can you believe this” moment, pause.
Ask who benefits from this story being amplified.
Ask whether the outrage reflects real harm, or just symbolic theater.
Ask what’s being ignored while we argue over logos and ads.
The business of outrage only works if we keep buying in. Awareness gives us the chance to break the cycle.