If Big Media Caves

A great journalist, Ben Bagdikian, warned us about the dangers of media monopolies back in 1983, when I was still early in my career.

The corporate overlords at ABC’s parent company who yanked Jimmy Kimmel off the air for his comments about the Charlie Kirk assassination don’t give a damn about the freedom of the press.

Their concern is maximizing the profits they can make off people like Kimmel, and protecting their market share into the future.

So of course they bent under the pressure from Trump’s lackey at the FCC, a wannabe named Carr.

When the Founders wrote the U.S. Constitution, they did not envision a world where a handful of global corporations could exert control over what the rest of us see or hear.

But they were familiar with oppression and censorship, so they enshrined the First Amendment as the law of the land.

What is happening in 2025 is the coming together of a monopolized media landscape with a rogue President seeking authoritarian power. This is an exceedingly dangerous mixture.

As we watch the media titans cave under Trump’s pressure, our hopes to preserve our democracy dwindle. It may all happen quickly now — the collapse of our constitutional freedoms.

The question is how will the vast majority of Americans who believe in free speech react? If they generate enough pressure, through protests, boycotts and the like, the monopoly media titans will reverse course and resist Trump.

Otherwise, the slide toward authoritarianism will accelerate.

HEADLINES:

• America is at a dangerous crossroads following the Charlie Kirk shooting (BBC)

• Americans have 400 days to save their democracy (Guardian)

• The Constitution Protects Jimmy Kimmel’s Mistake (Atlantic)

• Trump cheers comedian Jimmy Kimmel's suspension for on-air Charlie Kirk remarks (Reuters)

• Trump’s moves against media outlets mirror authoritarian approaches to silencing dissent (AP)

• Jeffries condemns Kimmel shutdown, demands FCC chair ‘resign immediately’ (Politico)

• Trump suggests pulling TV licenses from critics (Axios)

• Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension reverberates beyond late-night TV (WP)

• Reactions to ABC’s Pulling of ‘Kimmel’ Reflect America’s Broad Divisions (NYT)

• A Beautiful Day for Saying Nothing (Atlantic)

• 2 hosts down, 2 to go? (Politico)

• Trump and his allies use Kirk’s killing to punish speech (WP)

• Judge blocks deportation of Guatemalan children (NBC)

• 11 N.Y. Officials Arrested Trying to Access ICE Detention Cells (NYT)

• ICE seeks hundreds of new offices across U.S. as agency expands (WP)

• Trump suggests U.S. troops could return to Afghan base over China concerns (NPR)

• Unprecedented: Trump has pulled the US out of its UN human rights review (The Hill)

• Democrats voice fears of violence over Charlie Kirk vote (Axios)

• Medical experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are declining to talk publicly about vaccine safety because they’re afraid of becoming the targets of violent threats stemming from baseless conspiracy theories about vaccines, former top agency officials said. [HuffPost]

• Western States Issue Their Own Vaccine Recommendations to Counter Kennedy (NYT)

• UC Berkeley professor warns of 'unprecedented crackdown' on academic freedom (NPR)

• University of California students, professors and staff sue the Trump administration (Berkeleyside)

• ‘I love you too!’ My family’s creepy, unsettling week with an AI toy (Guardian)

• I built a business plan with ChatGPT and it turned into a cautionary tale (ZDNet)

• Nation Grateful To GOP For Protecting It From TV (The Onion)