Free speech administration tries to use FCC to force Jimmy Kimmel off the air

And since this is the Trump administration, the pretext being used for this particular gross violation of the First Amendment is that ABC’s workforce isn’t white enough:

The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday said it is reviewing ABC’s broadcast licenses, upping the pressure on the network’s owner, Disney, which is again under White House fire over a late-night monologue.

Those ABC licenses were not slated for license review until 2028 at the earliest. The FCC said in a filing that Disney’s corporate diversity politics may have violated anti-discrimination rules.

But the move, which Semafor first reported earlier Tuesday, comes a day after President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump demanded that the broadcaster fire Jimmy Kimmel, the host of ABC’s eponymous late-night show, over a monologue he made two days before a gunman allegedly attempted to assassinate the president and top administration officials at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner, in which he said the first lady looked like “an expectant widow.”

“ABC and its stations have a long record of operating in full compliance with FCC rules and serving their local communities with trusted news, emergency information, and public‑interest programming,” Disney said in a statement. “We are confident that record demonstrates our continued qualifications as licensees under the Communications Act and the First Amendment and are prepared to show that through the appropriate legal channels.”

And this is only the second most egregious free speech violation related to a completely made-up “threat” the Trump administration has committed today. Imagine how furious Trump would be at Comey if the latter hadn’t hand-delivered him the presidency in 2016! I do agree with JMM that while there’s nothing funny about sub-frivolous political indictments, it’s more a sign of weakness than strength in the end:

You can see this new indictment of James Comey as an outrage, which it is, or rather a patently illegitimate abuse of power. I see it as more evidence of his crashing out & collapse, more direct & absurd lashing out while he's unable or lacks the mental wherewithal to right his own political ship.— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm.bsky.social) Apr 28, 2026 at 11:32 AM