Within the last couple of months, both Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert’s late-night shows have faced intense pressure to be taken off the air by President Donald Trump. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) fulfilled Trump’s wishes in both cases, demonstrating its willingness to weaponize against the press. While Kimmel was only off the air for a week due to public pressure placed on Disney, Colbert is still scheduled to be canceled by May of 2026. 

The parallels between Kimmel and Colbert’s situations are evident: both became targets of Trump’s attacks on freedom of speech, both are owned (Disney and Paramount) that were easily bribed by Trump’s administration and both are examples of how Trump will take vengeance on those who speak out against him. 

However, the difference lies in the public’s response to the two scenarios. Trump may have gotten away with what he did to Colbert, but when citizens threatened Disney with a loss in revenue, their voices were heard, and Kimmel stayed. While Disney is home to one of Ithaca’s most famous alum, Bob Iger ’73, that sadly does not change Disney or Iger’s political amorality and profit-centered mindsets, which answer only to the force that will produce more money.

Although Kimmel’s show has returned to its normal scheduling, it remains off the air on 66 local stations owned by the ABC affiliate broadcasting companies, Sinclair (38) and Nexstar (28). One of these stations is located nearby in our neighboring city of Binghamton. 

This situation arose after Kimmel’s opening monologue, “the MAGA gang [is] desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them,” regarding Kirk’s killer. The FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, called this “truly sick” and threatened to “do this the easy way or the hard way,” if ABC, and its parent company Disney, did not fire Kimmel.

Carr’s “hard way” is through the FCC going after ABC’s affiliated broadcasters. The FCC would attack the broadcasters by choosing not to raise the current limit on the number of television households that any single broadcaster can reach nationwide. This limit is currently set at 39% of the country for a single broadcaster. Sinclair wants this raised so its reach can expand, and Nexstar needs the limit raised so its $6.2 billion acquisition of another broadcaster, Tegna Inc., complies with FCC standards.

Since the broadcasters have something to gain from following the FCC’s orders, they are bound to put pressure on Disney to remove Kimmel; otherwise, they will threaten to air something else. However, Disney could not have predicted the backlash they would receive from not just the Democrats, but also Trump’s own constituents among the Republicans, such as Ted Cruz. Not only were unions fighting this attack on free speech, but consumers did so too by canceling Disney+ subscriptions, causing Disney stock to drop by 2.5% — nearly $4.2 billion by the end of the third week of September.  

While this outrage did get Jimmy Kimmel back on the air (outside of Sinclair and Nexstar’s stations), the same cannot be said for Colbert’s future cancellation.  

Colbert’s show was cancelled by CBS days after its parent company, Paramount, settled a lawsuit with Trump for $16 million for edits on an interview done with Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in October 2024 on CBS’s “60 Minutes.” This was called a “big fat bribe” by Colbert, as Paramount required FCC approval for its $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media at the time, which it achieved. The timing of the cancellation seems oddly coincidental, but CBS claimed the decision was purely financial.  

With both cancellations, Trump celebrated on Truth Social, having this to say about Kimmel’s return: “I think we’re going to test ABC out on this. Let’s see how we do. Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars.” Trump is referring to a defamation lawsuit he won against the company for their anchor, George Stephanopoulos, claiming Trump had been convicted of rape when he has technically only been indicted. 

Since citizens cannot rely on the government to uphold our rights, we must, unfortunately, use our power as consumers to not let companies capitulate to government demands. Until the administration changes, people must remain alert and vote with their dollar to ensure our voices are not quieter than the president’s.