DOES JIMMY KIMMEL REALIZE HOW MANY OF US HAVE BEEN CENSORED IN BIG MEDIA?
Disney boss Bob Iger feared Trump but also has feared sports industry powers, which means Kimmel and I have something in common: We were rubbed out by Iger, who is letting American media fade away
My mother, almost 90, is in hospice. We should be having discussions right now about President Trump, a man she likes, and Jimmy Kimmel, a man she hates. Politely, I would interrupt and remind her that Kimmel’s indefinite suspension, over his remarks about the assassination of Charlie Kirk, represent disturbing new territory in the late-night comedy world and make us wonder if funnymen no longer will exist.
But how often have I told her that journalists have been dealing with bosses cutting deals via significant people? I always describe cocktail-party meetings, where a schlub in a bad suit promises a sports owner that he’ll always remain by the team’s side. Know how often that happened to me in Chicago, the nation’s third-largest media market? Try a tabloid newspaper, the Sun-Times. Try a radio station, AM 1000, on two occasions. And a weekday TV program, “Around The Horn,” where I was sandblasted out of ESPN on charges also posed against another journalist — Howard Bryant, a Black man — who was rescued by the same executive.
Censorship, yes?
Kimmel is hated. I am hated.
My mother would tell anyone with working eyeballs how well I write sports. from age 20 into my 60s. Substack is a savior. Yet local owner Jerry Reinsdorf knew Disney chief Bob Iger and went on to rip me in the papers, making sure judges knew what a “bad guy” I apparently was. Turns out I was hired quickly for another job, and then another job. Nothing since — why? The industry has been much harder on me than Los Angeles and the state of California, which might realize I was railroaded. The case went away long ago.
Media bosses?
They’re scared of the business. They’d rather work and/or do favors for Reinsdorf than defend a kickass columnist. The Sun-Times describes itself as “the hardest-working paper in America.” No one worked harder than me, and if I was there now, I’d win what is left of a small battle with the Tribune. The CEO was interested months ago and apparently grew scared herself.
Why did Iger and Dana Walden dump Kimmel? They were scared.
Of Trump.
Kimmel and I have something in common: We were haunted by Iger, who is frightened by the Federal Communications Commission. Rather than punish Kimmel by editing his words, Iger risked FCC chairman Brendan Carr crushing ABC. Kimmel should not have said this in his monologue: “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.”
The country is too wounded to deal with Kimmel’s crackpotism, but he should have remained on the air. Yanking him allowed Trump to make a proclamation for his supporters: “Well, Jimmy Kimmel was fired because he had bad ratings more than anything else, and he said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk. And Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person. He had very bad ratings, and they should have fired him a long time ago. So, you know, you could call that free speech or not. He was fired for lack of talent.”
Then he referred to Kimmel as a “whack job.” Will the FCC follow by revoking broadcast licenses? “It will be up to Brendan Carr,” Trump said.
Funny, but Reinsdorf showed up in Carr’s office in April. He needed help for his failing Chicago Sports Network and made headway with Comcast, a monster in the local cable industry. Reinsdorf, playing both sides, gives contributions to Republicans and Democrats. So Carr saw him, though he should have done homework. What Reinsdorf does to media people he doesn’t like is what Carr should eliminate.
Forget it. He praises Iger for removing “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” The president censors and controls the traditional media. “Frankly, when you see stuff like this — I mean, we can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr told a podcast. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.
“I’m very glad to see that America’s broadcasters are standing up to serve the interests of their community. We don’t just have this progressive foie gras coming out from New York and Hollywood. This is an important turning point.”
Enjoy these columns on Substack.
Are we next? I would love to ask my mother, a reader. Once, when I lived on the 11th floor of a Santa Monica apartment building overlooking the ocean, she saw me creep near the edge of the balcony. I was fine, but I knew the media business would make an example of me and let creeps proceed. I told her how the weirdness might affect me.
“Jay,” she said. “Beat them.”
I have. She helped me live well for 15 years. I say what I want to say, to this day.
No one else is doing that anymore.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.