ABC's abrupt suspension of talk show host Jimmy Kimmel under pressure from the Federal Communications Commission is the latest demonstration of the power President Donald Trump wields to bend media, entertainment and digital platforms to his will, as he uses political pressure to mute criticism and punish institutions he sees as biased against him.
The move, which came after Kimmel's remarks about the accused killer of slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, has jolted the US media and entertainment industries and intensified free-speech fears as the Trump-appointed FCC chair Brendan Carr threatened to revoke broadcast licenses from stations that carry what he called "garbage."
Major media and tech companies are now controlled by Trump supporters or billionaire business leaders who lined up behind Trump during his inauguration, donated to his inaugural fund, or visited the White House bearing gifts. Billionaire GOP donor Larry Ellison’s Oracle is part of a consortium of investors with the inside track to take control of the US operations of the video-sharing platform TikTok.
Early this month, the Trump administration announced it had agreed to a framework for a deal with China that would allow the sale of TikTok's US assets to continue to operate in the US.
Companies such as CBS, Meta Platforms, and the editorial pages of the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times have made editorial or operational changes following Trump’s re-election in ways that lay the groundwork for less adversarial coverage of the president.
“There is a continued lurch to the right throughout much of our major media in the United States right now,” said Victor Pickard, professor of media policy and political economy at the Annenberg School of Communication at University of Pennsylvania. “I expect to see more of this to come. There's no countervailing force against it.”
The decision Wednesday night is the second time since Trump’s re-election that ABC parent company Walt Disney has taken action in response to on-air comments. In December, ABC News agreed to give $15 million to Trump’s presidential library to settle a lawsuit Trump had filed over remarks that anchor George Stephanopoulos made involving sex abuse claims brought against Trump by writer E. Jean Carroll.
"They're all terrified," said Steve Kroft, who was a longtime “60 Minutes” correspondent, specifically citing the nightly broadcast news. "The thing that scares me the most about this administration is this retaliatory mindset, to go after its enemies. And I think they're clearly going after the news people. That's the top of their list.”
“Jimmy Kimmel is free to make whatever bad jokes he wants, but a private company is under no obligation to lose money producing an unpopular show," said White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson. "Jimmy Kimmel’s terrible product isn’t a free speech problem; it’s a talent problem."
Pressure on traditional media comes after conservatives successfully pushed digital platforms to pare back content moderation which they portrayed as biased.
Elon Musk acquired Twitter in 2022, which had banned Trump for “incitement of violence” after the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol, pand promised to restore "free speech" to the platform. Renamed X, Musk eliminated its Trust and Safety team in favor of a system that allows its users to fact-check posts, and restored accounts of conservatives who previously had violated Twitter's policies.
Content on the platform has become more right-leaning since the acquisition, according to research from Queensland University.
Meta Platforms disbanded its third-party fact-checking program in the United States, changes that affected Facebook, Instagram and Threads.
The company elected Dana White, a Trump ally and the chief executive of Ultimate Fighting Championship, to its board, and elevated prominent Republican policy executive Joel Kaplan as global affairs head.
"We've reached a point where it's just too many mistakes and too much censorship. It's time to get back to our roots around free expression," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in January.
Beyond broadcast licenses, media mergers involving local broadcasters require the FCC's blessing. The son of longtime Trump supporter Larry Ellison, David Ellison, helped secure regulatory approval for his company Skydance Media to buy Paramount, with the promise that the CBS network would reflect the “varied ideological perspectives” of American viewers.
Prior to the deal, Paramount paid $16 million to settle a 2024 lawsuit Trump filed over a “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris, which he claimed gave a distorted view of his rival for the White House.
The FCC has said the settlement and regulatory review were unrelated.
Early this month, the company announced the appointment of its new ombudsman, Kenneth R. Weinstein, a former president and CEO of the conservative Hudson Institute.
Paramount is reported to be in talks to acquire The Free Press and bring founder Bari Weiss into a leadership role at CBS News. The former New York Times opinion writer built a national following by challenging what she views as the illiberal left and “wokism.”
Now Paramount is preparing a bid to acquire Warner Bros Discovery, home to CNN, while Larry Ellison's cloud giant Oracle is in play to buy TikTok, which would put a key communication tool that reaches 170 million Americans in the hands of a conservative billionaire. (Reuters)
![[Exclusive] Ateez to return in November](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/09/02/news-p.v1.20260902.76162fb0ba55493aad1c076f240d0750_R.jpg?type=h&h=120)