BULLETIN: BOB IGER, ABC AND DISNEY FOLD TO FASCISTS, SUSPEND KIMMEL - 9.17.25
Sep 18, 2025
The podcast dives into the controversial suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live! after his comments on Charlie Kirk's assassination. It examines how political pressures from the FCC and Nexstar influenced ABC's decision. Olbermann highlights the dangers of censorship and discusses Bob Iger's capitulation to these forces. The conversation also touches on the troubling precedent this sets for free speech and the implications for late-night commentary. Expect sharp insights and a critical view on the state of media and democracy.
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Kimmel Called Out MAGA Narratives
Keith Olbermann argues Jimmy Kimmel's critical comments about MAGA exploiting Charlie Kirk's death exposed a broader disinformation pattern.
Olbermann frames Kimmel's remarks as truthful pushback against political opportunism and selective narratives.
insights INSIGHT
License Threats Mirror Historical Censorship
Olbermann compares FCC chair Brendan Carr's threats to Nazi-era media control tactics.
He warns that using license threats coerces compliance and chills free expression in broadcasting.
insights INSIGHT
Licenses Are Leverage, Not Mere Formality
Olbermann explains that broadcast station licenses can be challenged and used as leverage despite rarity of revocations.
He asserts this vulnerability pressures networks into self-censorship to protect corporate assets.
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BULLETIN, SEASON 4 EPISODE 14, COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
BULLETIN (2:55): ABC announced late this afternoon that it had taken "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" off the network's air effective immediately, because Kimmel had the nerve to tell the truth about how Trump and the MAGA terrorists have exploited the indefensible assassination of Charlie Kirk, how they have tried to blame the left without evidence and with increasing evidence that this was an instance of a man who feared Kirk was a direct threat to a person he loved, and how they have ruthlessly tried to suppress all public comment that contradicts their narrative, or the nonsensical whitewashing of Kirk's violent, ultra-right platform that once included him publicly calling for the execution of President Biden.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said Monday.
By this afternoon FCC chairman Brendan Carr dipped into the Goebbels playbook and threatened ABC's station licenses if it did not take Kimmel off the air, and the Nexstar stations that own many ABC affiliates, said they would not broadcast any more of Kimmel's shows. At that point ABC simply said the show was off the air "for the foreseeable future."
Fascism can truly overtake this country's democracy only with the collaboration of Disney and ABC and people they run them - desperate people like Bob Iger, who reclaimed the chairmanship of the company and will do anything he can to maintain it - including selling this country out to the fascists.
I'll also discuss why Kimmel has no recourse against the action and will most likely not appear again, and why ABC's only contractual obligation to him is to pay him the remaining year of his salary. This part of it I've personally been through - though under far less dire circumstances.
Countdown with Keith Olbermann