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FEATURING JESSICA GONZÁLEZ - The late night host and comedian Jimmy Kimmel has become a cause celebre after being yanked off the air by his employer Disney. But the ensuing mass protests against Kimmel’s firing were less about who he is as an individual than what his firing indicated. 

President Donald Trump, angry over hosts like Kimmel mocking him, has publicly expressed his desire to take them off the air. When the white supremacist activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated and Kimmel called out Trump’s movement for trying to capitalize on the killing for political gain, a series of events involving Trump’s proxy, FCC chair Brendan Carr, and the billionaire owners of media empires arranged for a swift end to Kimmel’s show. It was overt political extortion, akin to mafia-like tactics. 

Now, ABC has announced Kimmel’s show will return. But, not all ABC affiliates plan to air it. 

Jessica J. González is an attorney and co-CEO of the media reform group, Free Press, a public policy organization working to rebuild the media system so that it can support a just and multiracial democracy. She spoke with Sonali Kolhatkar about how mass public protest had a big impact and how media consolidation is at the heart of the matter.

ROUGH TRANSCRIPT:

Sonali Kolhatkar: I was wading through the facts of this particular issue, the scandal, this debacle, and I'm sure I got a few things wrong because it is complicated. You've got Disney and then you've got Nexstar, and you've got Sinclair and ABC, and then ABC affiliates, and one company owns another and another company wants to buy out another. And all of that to say that we live at a time of unprecedented media consolidation, which is a really central part of the problem, especially in the context of an authoritarian fascist dictatorship, right? 

Jessica González: Correct. Yes. And in fact, Free Press actually did a ton of homework on this. We released recently our Media Capitulation Index, which tracks the 40 largest media and tech companies in the US, who owns them, and the extent to which they've already capitulated to the Trump administration. 

So, you're right, it is complicated because there are a number of different players here. But on the other hand, it's really not that complicated. 

What we saw in the past week was the president and his proxy, Brendan Carr, who chairs the Federal Communications Commission, shake down a bunch of broadcasters. Brendan Carr actually said, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. Like he was a straight up mob boss. 

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