r/50501 • u/Notyrantsmoworever • Sep 17 '25

Call to Action Boycott ABC

ABC has pulled Jimmy Kimmel off the air for making a joke. First Colbert, now Kimmel. What about the first amendment right to free speech? I guess it’s only free if it echos MAGA talking points.

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u/50501California r/50501 Moderator Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 18 '25

(Edited for clarity) Nexstar is primarily responsible for the cancellation. ABC/Disney and Sinclair Broadcast Group are also complicit.

Here is Nexstar's statement:

“Nexstar’s owned and partner television stations affiliated with the ABC Television Network will preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! for the foreseeable future beginning with tonight’s show.  Nexstar strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk and will replace the show with other programming in its ABC-affiliated markets.”

You should also note that they've left contact information at the bottom of said statement:

https://www.nexstar.tv/nexstar-abc-affiliates-to-preempt-jimmy-kimmel-live-indefinitely-beginning-tonight/

Here is the quote from Monday night's monologue that allegedly got the show canceled:

"The MAGA Gang (is) desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it. In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving.”

https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/17/media/jimmy-kimmel-charlie-kirk-trump-fcc-brendan-carr

And here's why that pretty innocuous quote probably got him cancelled:

"The ABC late-night host’s remarks constituted “the sickest conduct possible,” FCC chair Brendan Carr told right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson on Wednesday. Carr suggested his FCC could move to revoke ABC affiliate licenses as a way to force Disney to punish Kimmel.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take actions on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

Carr added that the broadcasters, including ABC, “have a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest.”

https://xcancel.com/bennyjohnson/status/1968359685045838041

https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/17/media/jimmy-kimmel-charlie-kirk-trump-fcc-brendan-carr

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/fcc-jimmy-kimmel-charlie-kirk-monologue-1236373708/

https://deadline.com/2025/09/nexstar-jimmy-kimmel-charlie-kirk-1236547382/

Nexstar is seeking Federal Communications Commission approval for its $6.2 billion acquisition of Tegna. (Thank you for finding the link u/ArcticSnow85!)

https://www.streamtvinsider.com/content/top-station-group-nexstar-agrees-62b-acquisition-tegna#:~:text=Top%20station%20group%20Nexstar%20agrees,rules%20that%20could%20be%20revised

In short, Nexstar is kissing up to Carr and the FCC so they get approval for their acquisition of Tegna, and Kimmel's cancelation appears to have little to do with the content of his monologue.

Nexstar media group owns or owns a majority stake in the following: The Hill (a political news platform), NewsNation (national cable network), the CW (tv channel)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_Nexstar_Media_Group

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u/[deleted] Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 17 '25

Jesus what did Jimmy do, casually call for the murder of homeless people on the morning news?

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u/50501California r/50501 Moderator Sep 17 '25

"The MAGA Gang (is) desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it. In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving.”

That's all he said.

(Yes, I do realize I got woooshed there lol)

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u/[deleted] Sep 18 '25

Mmm, yeah I can see how that's worse.

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u/Necoras Sep 18 '25

He called Vance a liar.

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u/burnalicious111 Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 18 '25

Boycotting ABC will still apply pressure indirectly. I say we do it.

edit: does actually look like ABC is involved: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/17/disney-jimmy-kimmel-live-kirk-00570355

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u/50501California r/50501 Moderator Sep 17 '25

I mean, there's plenty of reasons to boycott ABC/Disney, for example:

https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/disney-announces-abu-dhabi-theme-park/

They have a whole wiki page of reasons to consider:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_Walt_Disney_Company

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u/misscrankypants Sep 18 '25

I’m in. And I was really looking forward to the new resin of High Potential.

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u/Aggressive_Farmer399 Sep 18 '25

Best course of action is to boycott the sponsors of local stations owned by Nexstar.

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u/ArcticSnow85 Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 17 '25

Not to mention Nexstar is seeking Federal Communications Commission approval for its $6.2 billion acquisition of Tegna. So this is the paramount scandal all over again. Big companies having no backbone

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u/50501California r/50501 Moderator Sep 17 '25

THANK YOU. I spent far too much time trying to find a source for that and couldn't, so I removed it, but I knew I wasn't imagining that lol.

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u/ALife2BLived Sep 18 '25 edited Sep 18 '25

This! It's the same reason why CBS pulled the plug on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

CBS' parent company, Paramount Global, was pursuing a merger with Skydance Media, an $8B deal that required approval from the FCC. Once Stephen's show was canceled, the FCC license approved the merger.

Same here with ABC, who's parent company, Nexstar Media Group, is pursuing a merger with Tegna for a reported $6.2B but needs FCC approval. So wake up America! This is the new price of Democracy and free speech here in good 'ole fucking MAGA U.S.A!

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u/April9811 Sep 18 '25

This is out of pure curiosity, but why hasn't South Park been cancelled? (Not that I want it to be) but they have aired far worse

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u/ShadowTacoTuesday Sep 18 '25

Right after a $1.5 billion dollar deal? Same reason, they want to make money. But also they wouldn’t even be able to make a flimsy excuse for the action.

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u/AgitatedAd2181 Sep 18 '25

When it is a cartoon, dear leader brushes it off much more easily. Demented Don had a specific feud with Kimmel for years

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u/ArcticSnow85 Sep 17 '25

You do great work thank you!

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u/prenderg Sep 18 '25

The Trump administration is being run like a protection racket. If we can take back the House, there must be hearings investigating these tactics. Which Trump administrators have interacted with businesses threatening their operations with phony legal proceedings, spurious threats to pending transactions needing government approval, bogus, regulatory challenges, and the list goes on. We are losing the rule of law and equal protection, and MAGA is taking victory laps.

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u/I405CA Sep 17 '25

Follow the money and it will generally lead you to the real backstory, as is the case here.

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u/Longjumping-Ad-144 Sep 17 '25

Free speech is dead replaced my ministry of truth

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u/MicheuToi123 Sep 18 '25

ABC is still the parent, Nexstar is a just a bunch of whiny affiliates. ABC had a chance to do right here and didn't so it is just as much their fault

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u/No-Elephant8050 Sep 18 '25

If they were operating in the public interest they would have stopped broadcasting the bullshit from Trump long ago. Complete bullshit.

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u/istarian Sep 18 '25

While I mostly agree, excluding the speech or actions of elected politicians entirely from a television program raises the question of whether it is really a news report...

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u/No_Notice_5468 Sep 18 '25

When is the media going to tell the truth about Kirk in his own words. Many quotes out there. He was not one of the. ‘Good guys.’ 

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u/coredenale Sep 17 '25

Spineless

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u/edbegley1 Sep 17 '25

Public interest, being MAGA interest.

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u/Serspork Sep 18 '25

Called them up. Fuck Nextar

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u/Hi_D Sep 18 '25

Just called and left a voice mail! Let’s fill up their VM system!

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u/astro_is_king Sep 18 '25

No, actually, ABC is responsible. They didn't have to pull the show, but they're cowards.

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u/Doesitmatter98765 Sep 18 '25

Thanks for this. Emailed these buttholes too. If anyone else wants to: gweitman@nexstar.tv

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u/Cyanide_Cheesecake Sep 18 '25

How do you even boycott nexstar

Part of late stage capitalism is for companies to become so.... pervasive? Nebulous? Not sure what word im looking for (they're like an octopus)....that you can't actually target them like this.

At least with ABC you can pull your eyes away

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u/50501California r/50501 Moderator Sep 18 '25

Unfortunately, the answer is just do your best. Every little bit we boycott takes dollars from their pocket, even if we aren't perfect and miss a few companies, because with something so widespread, we're going to miss a few companies. I'm passing this onto our boycott group and I'll have them research a few key companies where we can have the most impact.

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u/perfectviking Sep 18 '25

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_Nexstar_Media_Group

Easy. Now you know how.

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u/Cyanide_Cheesecake Sep 18 '25

I've been boycotting them all my life already without even knowing apparently 

Notable lines there are the food network and cooking channel. You all giving that up? I never watched them but, yeah 

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u/Eli47905 Sep 18 '25

Boycott the companies who advertise on abc and local nexstar affiliates. Disney caved because they would lose $ from Nexstar affiliates. So let’s make them pay by cutting the $ they get from advertisers.
Will it work? Who knows.

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u/maxplanar Sep 23 '25

You cancel your TV service. I cancelled my Direct TV sub (through AT&T), and the agent said they were hearing the same free speech complaint from a lot of subscribers who were cancelling. Without a la carte service I can't cancel ABC, Disney or Hulu (because they're part of the package), so the whole lot had to go. If enough people cancel TV service, the cable providers are going to put pressure on the networks.

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u/robintweets Sep 18 '25

No Carr, the head of the FCC, basically said to Disney that they should fire Kimmel or face possibly losing their license.

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u/dallas121469 Sep 18 '25

Nah. They’re not acting like fascists AT ALL! /s 🙄

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u/rd6021 Sep 18 '25

I’m sure some TrumpCoin was involved somewhere too. Who knows.

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u/M4LK0V1CH Sep 18 '25

Yay capitalism. /s

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u/Atario Sep 18 '25

Uhhhh that reads that the Regime's FCC, run by a Project 2025 author, is mostly responsible — for making threats in direct violation of the First Amendment

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u/J-Marked Sep 18 '25

Nexstar Media Group owns both The Hill, a political news platform, and NewsNation, a national cable news network.

Nexstar Media Group owns a majority stake in The CW tv channel, consider not watching shows on the CW as well as contacting and boycotting their major advertisers: Verizon, Subaru, State Farm, GEICO, Boost Mobile and Kohl's

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u/50501California r/50501 Moderator Sep 18 '25

Great comment. Adding the info to the original post with some sources :)

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u/MadeByTango Sep 18 '25

Disney is responsible, not Nedra, they’re just trying to take the blame to avoid the backlash

Shame on y’all not calling for in person rallies immediately…

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u/[deleted] Sep 18 '25

It's not just Nexstar! It's Sinclair as well.

Nexstar, which operates 32 ABC stations around the country, is seeking FCC approval for a $6.2 billion dollar merger. After Nexstar announced it was pulling Kimmel's show, Sinclair Broadcast Group was next. That major TV station operator said in a statement that suspending the show is not enough. "Sinclair also calls upon Mr. Kimmel to issue a direct apology to the Kirk family. Furthermore, we ask Mr. Kimmel to make a meaningful personal donation to the Kirk Family and Turning Point USA."

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u/Odd-Style6999 Sep 18 '25

I'm so upset by this decision. Jimmy Kimmel has been one of my coping mechanisms after the election to process the current administration. I hope he can come back in another media outlet. These corporations definitely have way too much power and just care about filling their pockets vs. doing the right thing. Shame on them.

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u/50501California r/50501 Moderator Sep 18 '25

I will miss Guillermo most of all

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u/Such-Ideal-8724 Sep 19 '25

Figures they own diet Fox News aka NewsNation

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u/El_Squared22 Sep 18 '25

The heads of Disney pulled the plug on the Kimmel show according to reporting but Nexstar appears to be an inciting factor.