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Though the current project started as a series of posts charting my grief journey after the death of my mother, I am no longer actively grieving. Now, the blog charts a conversation in living, mainly whatever I want it to be. This is an activity that goes well with the theme of this blog (updated 2018). The Sense of Doubt blog is dedicated to my motto: EMBRACE UNCERTAINTY. I promote questioning everything because just when I think I know something is concrete, I find out that it’s not.
| https://www.aclu.org/news/free-speech/government-pressure-to-suspend-jimmy-kimmel-was-an-abuse-of-power |
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Disney/Randy Holmes; Paul Morigi/Getty
"It's his latest attack on free speech," the comedian said of the FCC's chair, Brendan Carr, introducing new restrictions on late-night programs.
Jimmy Kimmel is fighting with the FCC once again.
The comedian used his Jimmy Kimmel Live monologue on Thursday night to draw attention to the organization's chair, Brendan Carr, after he demanded that talk shows like Live and The View give an equal amount of time to political candidates on both sides of the aisle.
"[Carr] is doing everything he can to shut us up, the easy way or the hard way," Kimmel said in the monologue.
The FCC released new guidance on Wednesday that argued that talk shows and late-night shows should not be considered "bona fide" news programs, and thus should not continue to receive exemption from the equal time rule. That night, President Trump posted a link to a Los Angeles Times article with the caption, "FCC takes aim at The View, Jimmy Kimmel Live in fight over ‘equal time’ rules for politicians."
The new guidance effectively states that shows like Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert must now give equal time to all political candidates running for the same office.
"They're reinterpreting long-agreed-upon rules to stifle us," Kimmel said. "And this one's a little bit complicated. It's not as easy as what happened the last time. So I want to break it down."
Trump Has a Nasty New Bruise, Launches Board of Peace & Jimmy Kimmel Breaks Down the FCC’s Threats
Kimmel explained that the equal time rule emerged out of necessity in the radio era. "There were huge radio networks, and if a candidate running for office made an appearance on one of those networks, it was a big deal. It could give the candidate a major advantage over his opponents, which gave the broadcasters a lot of power."
The comedian went on to explain that Congress passed the Radio Act of 1927 to address these issues. "If you put one candidate on the air, you had to offer the same amount of air time to all the other candidates," he said. "You know, it's not just Republican and Democrats. Sometimes there are 20 people from 20 different parties running for the same spot. And if you can't interview all of them, then you can't interview any of them."
Congress then added exemptions for bona fide news programs in 1959, and allowed the FCC to dictate which shows fell under the definition of bona fide. "That allowed ABC, CBS, NBC, et cetera to interview one candidate without having to interview all of them, which mostly applied to news programs until years later when talk shows started having candidates on," Kimmel said, noting that John F. Kennedy appeared on The Tonight Show and Bill Clinton guested on The Arsenio Hall Show.
The FCC later ruled on talk shows in 2006 when Arnold Schwarzenegger's opponent for the California governorship, Democrat Phil Angelides, filed a complaint when the Terminator star appeared on The Tonight Show.
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Disney/Randy Holmes
"The FCC denied his request," Kimmel said. "They ruled that Arnold appearing on Leno was a bona fide news interview, even though it was a talk show, and therefore not subject to those equal time rules. And that's how every talk show has operated since then."
Kimmel said that this norm seems to be ending with the FCC's latest guidance. "[Carr] is trying to say we no longer qualify for the bona fide news exemption when it comes to interviewing candidates, which is a sneaky little way of keeping viewpoints that aren't his off the air," he argued. "It's his latest attack on free speech."
The comedian then opined that the FCC's talk show shakeup doesn't make sense in a modern media landscape.
"It's a joke because this isn't the '50s anymore. Back then there were only three major networks," he said. "Now we've got cable, we got streaming, we have satellite, podcast, social media. There are thousands of outlets now."
Kimmel noted that conservative broadcasters aren't subject to any FCC scrutiny because they don't use the same airwaves. "There are so many channels, some of them doing 24/7 Trump programming. Fox News, Newsmax, One America News, Real America's Voice," he said. "None of them are required to give equal time, but we are because we use the public airways. Equal time was designed to limit how much influence broadcasters have over public opinion. But we're not the only thing on television anymore."
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Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty
The comedian also said that he doesn't know how the new FCC guidelines will affect late-night shows moving forward. "I have no idea what the outcome of this is going to be," he said. "We'll find out. I guess whatever happens, I want to just point it out because it is another example of this administration trying to squash anyone who doesn't support them by following 'the rules.'"
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Kimmel previously came into conflict with the FCC in September. After Carr encouraged ABC affiliate groups to preempt the talk show during an appearance on The Benny Show, groups like Nexstar and Sinclair announced that they would do just that, which led to ABC suspending the show nationwide for six days.
After the show was reinstated by ABC's parent company, Disney, some affiliate groups still refused to air Jimmy Kimmel Live — a decision that Carr praised on social media.
"This is the first time recently that any local TV stations have pushed back on a national programmer like Disney," Carr wrote on X. "And that is a good thing because we want empowered local TV stations. After all, local TV stations — not the national programmers — have public interest obligations, and they should be making decisions that in their view meets the needs of their local communities."
The mature readers series written by Gretchen Felker-Martin, with art by Jeff Spokes, was an in-continuity adventure taking place after the heavily delayed H2SH storyline running in Batman, by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee, which found Jason Todd, aka the Red Hood, heading to New Orleans stand-in New Angelique, and getting embroiled in a supernatural murder mystery alongside The Huntress.
Per Popverse, retailers were told that, “DC Comics cancels existing orders for Red Hood #2 and Red Hood #3, and any orders for future issues of the series. DC Comics will credit retailers for all invoiced copies of Red Hood #1, inclusive of copies that may have already been sold.”
While one could speculate that the delay of H2SH led to the cancellation — the final two parts of that storyline are now planned for release on November 12, 2025, and January 28, 2026, respectively, after initially planning to finish by this past August — that doesn’t seem to be the case.
In a statement shared with Comic Book Club, DC Comics said, “At DC Comics, we place the highest value on our creators and community and affirm the right to peaceful, individual expression of personal viewpoints. Posts or public comments that can be viewed as promoting hostility or violence are inconsistent with DC’s standards of conduct.”
Felker-Martin has been consistently outspoken online, with her views well known for years. Her social media posts were known entities well before the Red Hood series was announced. But given the timing — the news story dropped at 1 am ET — posters on BlueSky have specifically pointed to her posts about the death of Charlie Kirk yesterday at Utah University. Felker-Martin’s account has been suspended since the posts, but screenshots shared by others show her posting three skeets referring to Kirk, in particular: “Thoughts and prayers you Nazi bitch,” with a follow-up of “Hope the bullet’s okay after touching Charlie Kirk.”
However, a third post may be the one that drew the attention of the right-wing posters who began to circulate and criticize Felker-Martin’s posts, mostly on X (formerly known as Twitter). In it, the writer states, “The job market is grim, but there’s a silver lining: Gavin Newsom needs a new co-host for his podcast.” This is in reference to the first episode of Newsom’s podcast, which found him sitting down with the Talking Points creator.
For what it’s worth, Felker-Martin is transgender. And Kirk frequently espoused anti-trans ideology, up until the moment he died. As reported in multiple outlets, at the time of his death, he was debating whether trans mass shooters are one of the biggest dangers to the United States. When asked by an attendee how many transgender mass shooters there have been in the past 10 years, Kirk answered “too many,” with the attendee clarifying there have been five. As for Newsom, the governor and Presidential candidate hopeful has also been public about his own negative trans views, and Felker-Martin (again, in posts from the banned BlueSky account) has been critical of him, as well.
However, it seems the issue stems from Felker-Martin’s long history of posting, which was a violation of DC’s social policy, not just this week’s posts about Kirk. Is it possible that the ones mentioned above were the breaking point? Perhaps, given the timing. As is, given Felker-Martin is banned from BlueSky, and DC isn’t sharing any further statements, for the moment, this is all we’ve got to go on.
Earlier today, news broke that DC Comics has canceled Red Hood, their mature-readers Black Label series, which just debuted yesterday (September 10) in stores. But while the announcement noted that they were cancelling the previously solicited second and third issues as well as “any orders for future issues of the series,” they didn’t specify how many issues that was. And the answer is: a lot.
Specifically, the series written by Gretchen Felker-Martin, with art by Jeff Spokes, and letters by Becca Carey, was planned for at least 12 issues and two collections. DC shared as much back on June 16 when they announced the news of the Red Hood series, stating, “Red Hood Vol. 1, collecting issues 1-6 of this new ongoing DC All In comic book series, will publish on June 16, 2026, and Red Hood Vol. 2, collecting issues 7-12, will publish on December 1, 2026. Future volumes will be announced soon!”
While — as we can plainly see from this example — nothing is certain in the world of comic books, it sure looks like DC Comics was in the Red Hood business for the long haul. Red Hood #2 was originally solicited for October 2, 2025, while Red Hood #3 would have come out in stores on November 12, 2025. Red Hood #6 then would likely have come out in February, followed by a four-month gap until the collection was released, and Red Hood #12 in August, followed by another four-month gap until the second collection in December.
A 12-issue run isn’t out of the ordinary for a Black Label series, but it isn’t par for the course, either. Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Riccardo Federici’s The Last God ran longer than that, and several series by Tom King have run for 12 issues (Rorschach, Danger Street, Strange Adventures, and Batman/Catwoman). James Tynion IV and Álvaro Martínez Bueno’s Nice House by the Lake and Nice House by the Sea are also 12 issues each, though the latter is only partially through its run, and is moving to the Vertigo label.
But that sort of commitment to anything in the main continuity other than, say, Batman or Superman is surprising, and points to how seismic the decision to cancel the title was. It also means that Felker-Martin, Spokes, Carey, and Taurin Clarke, who was planning on joining the title as the regular cover artist with issue #2, are now out about a year of work.
So why was the title canceled? A statement provided to Comic Book Club by DC Comics explained, “At DC Comics, we place the highest value on our creators and community and affirm the right to peaceful, individual expression of personal viewpoints. Posts or public comments that can be viewed as promoting hostility or violence are inconsistent with DC’s standards of conduct.”
We detailed the circumstances at greater length elsewhere, but the short version is that Felker-Martin has been consistently posting about hot-button issues on social media for most of her career. While the timing, and fans and detractors on social media, pointed specifically to her BlueSky posts about the death of right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk yesterday, it seems this cancellation was actually caused by ongoing violations of DC’s social policy.
Given the long run mentioned above, and Felker-Martin’s history of posting, one could wonder where the disconnect happened between DC Comics and the writer… Whatever you think about Felker-Martin’s posts yesterday or before that (her BlueSky account has currently been banned, reportedly for the aforementioned Kirk-related skeets), if DC knew they were in for the long run with her and Red Hood, the fact that she was posting potential violations of the social media policy shouldn’t have been a surprise.
As is, that’s tilting at windmills because Felker-Martin did violate the social media policy, and DC did cancel Red Hood. All 12+ issues and two collections of it.
Jon Stewart has given the Trump administration a hosing-down, doing so in the driest possible manner.
Stewart and his late-night pals and rivals, including Jimmy Fallon and the outgoing Stephen Colbert, are surely feeling pressure following ABC’s controversial decision this week to “indefinitely” suspend Jimmy Kimmel Live, following comments made during his monologue about Charlie Kirk, the assassinated conservative pundit.
President Donald Trump celebrated that news with a post on Truth Social, and Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr issued his own warning that the authority would revoke the licenses of any network affiliates choosing to air Kimmel’s remarks, which he referred to as “news distortion” and “the sickest conduct possible.”
Once there was an imaginary line that mustn’t be crossed. Now talk-show hosts can see it.
If he was sweating, Stewart wasn’t showing it, as he took hosting duties, a change from his typical schedule, and dissected the situation on The Daily Show — in his own inimitable style.
“We have another fun hilarious, administration-compliant show,” he said at the top of his opening gambit, whilst donning a Republican-approving red tie and wearing a face that was dripping in satire.
Stewart spent a chunk of his opener playing a line-toeing sycophant, referring to Trump as the “great leader,” “sun god” and even “your lordship.”
The Daily Show‘s veteran host is, of course, a master of the double entendre and he can snark with the very best of them.
Though measured, Thursday night’s edition was classic Daily Show. The team let video do the talking, as clips played of conservative talking heads throwing their voices behind the Constitutional right to free speech, but contradicting themselves when they don’t like that speech. Add to that Fox News’ interpretation of the Jan. 6 Capital attack as a “sightseeing” excursion, and future Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth making light on-air about the 2023 hammer attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“Our great administration has laid out very clear rules on free speech,” remarked Stewart. “Now, some naysayers may argue that this administration’s speech concerns are merely a cynical ploy, a thin gruel of a ruse, a smokescreen to obscure an unprecedented consolidation of power and unitary intimidation, principle-less and coldly antithetical to any experiment in a constitutional republic governance. Some people would say that.” And then, the punchline: “Not me though, I think that it’s great.”
Earlier this month, The Daily Show collected three wins at the Emmy Awards, tying the Comedy Central show’s record for victories in a single year.
Meanwhile, Colbert and Fallon used their own platforms to throw support behind their axed rival.
“Tonight, we are all Jimmy Kimmel,” Colbert said as he opened The Late Show, which too will be scrubbed by CBS next May. “I stand with you and your staff 100 percent,” he added.
Fallon also had a political tone in his opening messages. “Well guys, the big story is that Jimmy Kimmel was suspended by ABC, after pressure from the FCC leaving everyone thinking, ‘WTF,’” Fallon quipped, before his tone changed. “But to be honest with you all, I don’t know what’s going on — no one does. But I do know Jimmy Kimmel, and he is a decent, funny, and loving guy. And I hope he comes back.”
Fallon said he would perform his Tonight Show monologue as he “normally would,” but whenever his jokes involved President Trump, he would be censored by an unseen announcer.
Speaking once again on concerns about free speech following ABC’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel, Donald Trump turned to network news coverage of him, calling it “illegal” because of his claim that so much of the reporting is negative on his administration.
Trump cited a report that news coverage of him is “97% bad.”
“They’ll take a great story, and they will make it bad,” Trump said. “See, I think that’s really illegal. Personally. … You are getting free airwaves from the United States government, and you can’t have that.”
He added, “That’s no longer free speech. That’s just cheating, and they cheat. They become really members of the Democrat National Committee. That’s what they are, The networks, in my opinion. They are just offshoots of the Democrat National Committee.”
Trump’s remarks follow one on Thursday, in which he said that, given the negative coverage, “Maybe their license should be taken away.”
Trump has called for networks to lose their broadcast licenses before, but his remarks have drawn a new level of attention in the wake of comments made earlier this week by his FCC chairman, Brendan Carr.
On Benny Johnson’s podcast on Wednesday, Carr commented on the furor over Jimmy Kimmel’s remark about the suspect in Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
In his monologue on Monday, Kimmel said, “We had 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 with everything they can to score political points from it.”
On the podcast, Carr threatened ABC and its affiliates. Carr said that “we can do this the easy way, or these companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
House later, Nexstar announced that it was pulling Kimmel’s show “for the frseeable future.” Soon after that, ABC said that the show would be taken off the air “indefinitely.”
In the two days since then, there has been a backlash to ABC’s decision, with protests outside Disney’s studio in Burbank, while figures including Barack Obama and Michael Eisner have said that corporate executives have to stand up to the Trump administration.
The FCC actually has narrow authority over news content. “The agency is prohibited by law from engaging in censorship or infringing on First Amendment rights of the press,” the agency notes on its website. The rare instances are when broadcasters are found to have engaged in “news distortion.,” and those are only cases where “it can be proven that they have deliberately distorted a factual news report.”
As FCC chair, Carr has targeted the networks and media companies, on issues ranging from their news coverage to diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
Trump suggested that more of news coverage should reflect the size of his election win, while claiming that reporting on networks has been “97% bad.” He apparently was citing a report from the Media Research Center, a watchdog group on the right, which claimed in April that 92% of the coverage on the major networks in the first 100 days of Trump’s presidency was negative. MRC said that it looked at “1,841 evaluative statements about the Trump administration.” A Harvard Kennedy School study of Trump’s first 100 days in 2017 found that the tone of his coverage was 80% negative, although it focused not just on networks but some print outlets.