It never surprises me that the people who denounced “cancel culture” and screamed “Fuck your feelings!” have always been the most insensitive. Decades ago, it was “America: Love it or Leave it!” during the Vietnam War era. Following 9/11 as the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan raged on, people screamed, “If you don’t like it, you can get out!”
This country has always had a huge problem with who can say what and when. The minute in public education when we stopped kids from going to the bathroom because it could disrupt class is the minute it all became about control. It’s also been my experience that people who say stupid stuff like “If you can’t say anything nice, then don’t say anything at all” will talk about you behind your back. I never did watch Jimmy Kimmel Live but the childish way we have a former TV show host raging war against all those who don’t agree with him just shows how far down the rabbit hole we’ve gone. I’m almost certain when the former TV show host is gone, it’ll be a different ball game.
And people will remember what happened. Nothing Kimmel said was that bad. It’s not like he said nonchalantly said homeless people need to be killed by lethal injection. Brian Kilmeade of Fox News said that. And he issued an apology that had as much humanity as a block of wood. Kilmeade meant it. And other people agree with him. There have been a few incidents in which unhoused people have been found dead in Mississippi and killed in Minneapolis.
That’s why he’s still on the air while ABC decided to pull Jimmy Kimmel Live indefinitely. But it’s not been officially canceled. The Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, who I am surprised is actually four months younger than I but looks about the same age as my dad who is 74, is using the recent murder of Charlie Kirk to get the show off the air. And he’s doing it because his Orange Turd daddy wanted it.
But let’s face it! They don’t give a fuck about Kirk! He wouldn’t have lasted much longer anyway. You can’t be a middle-aged 40-something picking and choosing certain college students to chastise so you can feel superior. I wouldn’t be surprise if this was all a set-up to get what they want out of people the same way they used 9/11 and the Iraqi War to crack down on people they didn’t agree with. It’s a crazy world we’re living in, but it makes me wonder what type of legal recourse Kimmel and his people have. This is just McCarthyism in the 21st Century. History doesn’t repeat itself but it does rhyme.
ABC did the right thing in 2002 after Bill Maher said some things that upset advertisers following 9/11 to cancel Politically Incorrect. They said it was due to declining ratings. But they waited several months, almost nine months, to do it. CBS, under the parent company of Paramount Global, said the same thing about The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and how it was becoming too expensive. But I don’t think ABC will be cancel the show just yet. They probably still have to pay out Kimmel’s contract.
But they could still face a lawsuit regardless. They’d have to have a better reason to pull a show than the FCC threatening to pull their broadcast license. I think it’s all for show by ABC to appease this horrible Presidential administration and maybe drum up some publicity. I seriously doubt ABC and Disney brass would risk it all including the fact that many of their network affiliates are owned by the conservative leaning Sinclair Broadcasting and Nexstar Media Group, the latter of which is wanting a $6.2 billion merger with TV giant Tegna.
As President Calvin Coolidge once said, “After all, the chief business of the American people is business.” The approval of the FCC is needed for this merger to go through. If it looks like extortion, then it probably is. This type of Mafioso strong-arm tactics was all too common back in the days when the public didn’t have much information. Now, it’s all out there and Rolling Stone itself has reported that the President might have had something to do with it.
But already, the American people are canceling their Hulu/Disney accounts. Even though Sinclair has reported it’s going to air a Charlie Kirk Memorial show on Friday, it may not get the numbers they want. “Hate-watching” is still watching. Are they willing too lose ad revenues and streaming accounts especially to appease an FCC that will be different in three years?
There’s also the question of how much longer network TV will even last. Streaming services and premium pay channels are attracting the big names now while network TV still tries to make shows with character actors. In five years will it even matter as network TV shows scramble to fill their slots with public domain movies and infomercials. Even the last of the daytime dramas (aka soap operas) are jumping ship to streaming platforms and Sesame Street will be on Netflix in November. And people are paying a few bucks more each month just so they can skip ads so what’s the point of kowtowing to local car dealerships for commercial airspace?
ABC has been so friendly to the Republican Party over the last few decades, it makes you wonder what they’re getting out of the deal. In 2006 for the five-year anniversary of 9/11, the broadcast the controversial The Path to 9/11 which was criticized by both sides for its historical inaccuracies and portrayals. It cost $40 million in 2006 dollars and was broadcast without any advertising. It has never been rebroadcast nor released on video or DVD.
I suspect it was made in a way to change the 2006 General Elections following backlash against President George W. Bush following Hurricane Katrina. Harvey Keitel, who played John P. O’Neill, who was the head of security at the World Trade Center as well as a former FBI agent, publicly admitted the tone was changed from when he filmed his scenes.
Whatever reason a network does something about a TV show, they can argue declining ratings or declining ad revenues, but It leads to infamy in some cases. Even if Fox had aired the Firefly episodes in the correct order, I actually think it still would’ve been canceled. But its legacy remains more than 20 years later. And The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour is more popular now because of differing stories about its cancelation.
Kimmel could come back if anything to finish out his contract and with the Late Show with Stephen Colbert winning an Emmy, it may help the network next year. But then again, would Kimmel even want to come back?
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 