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Even when it comes to his business, it's always been personal for Jimmy Kimmel. He's been taking major career risks by fighting for what he believes in for a long time. In 2017, motivated in part by his son’s medical challenges, he began using his monologue to challenge a terrible health care bill being pushed by the Senate GOP. Back then, some politicians and members of the media referred to a Jimmy Kimmel Test — used to determine whether a kid who was born with certain health difficulties would be covered and get everything they need (regardless of cost) during the first year of life. I suggested we adopt a different Jimmy Kimmel Test: Will a person take personal and professional risks to stand up for what’s right? As I wrote at the time, I can’t say many good things about Donald Trump, but I’ll give him this: Donald Trump is a values clarifier. He’s a living, breathing reminder of which values you cherish and what you’re willing to stand up for. We’ve spent countless hours analyzing the character of Donald Trump. But that’s a settled issue. The real character being tested is ours. We've seen that character wilt in our halls of Congress, our institutions, our universities, and our corporate boardrooms, as a parade of rapid-fire knee-bending has heralded in a new era of American exceptionalism—one in which we prove that no country capitulates to authoritarian tendencies faster than us. We've been let down over and over. But Jimmy Kimmel didn't let us down. He kept calling out the Trump administration, even though he knew he was being targeted. Even though he knew that he had much at stake, given his career and huge public profile. It's that kind of courage that inspires so many of us to wake up each morning, fire up the laptop, and continue to fight the good fight. Jimmy Kimmel is one of the best, most caring, most generous, and most popular people in Hollywood. Let's hope his colleagues pass the 2025 Jimmy Kimmel Test: Will you stand up for someone who has been standing up for you for years? And let's hope the rest of us pass that test too, because if his show's coerced suspension isn't stopped, the cancellations won't stop there. Kimmel has always known that its personal. The rest of us better get that message soon.
+ "What matters is we are are all now subject to the whims of a coercive government that runs roughshod over the Constitution and its protections. It matters that corporate America is not holding the line against Trump, instead capitulating in what it perceives as its own business interests. It matters that the broadcast airwaves — a public commodity that belongs to all of us — have been co-opted like so many other public goods in service of Donald Trump and his personal and political interests. It matters that the rich, the powerful, and the well-connected are vulnerable to Trump because that means we all are." Convinced Yet That No One Is Safe From Trump’s Depredations?
+ Bloomberg (Gift Article): Trump Readies Tax, Criminal Crackdowns on Liberal Groups After Kirk Killing.
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Follow the Merger
Back in the Watergate era, if you wanted to follow the money, you had to hold secret meetings with government sources in underground garages. Today, if you want to follow the merger, you just have to open your eyes as the strategy is deployed in broad daylight. No one but fools (and apparently a few hundred news headline writers) thinks Jimmy Kimmel was fired for anything having to do with Charlie Kirk. Trump has loudly and proudly been threatening his job for a long time (including right after Colbert was cancelled "I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next."), and an impending merger gave the administration the opening it needed. Nexstar, owner of ABC affiliates across the country, was the first organization to announce they'd suspend Kimmel's broadcasts. "In the least surprising news in the world, Nexstar is seeking approval from President Donald Trump’s FCC to acquire Tegna, another media company. The $6.2 billion dollar deal would transform Nexstar-Tegna into an unprecedented mega-company whose reach would grow to 80 percent of U.S. households. There’s a hitch: A long-standing broadcasting rule prevents any one company from reaching more than 39 percent of U.S. households. So Nexstar doesn’t just need the FCC’s approval; it also needs the FCC to change that rule, or the deal can’t go through. Luckily for Nexstar, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has signaled he’s open to ending 'arcane artificial limits' on station ownership. But just a few hours before Nexstar announced it was pulling Kimmel, guess who went on conservative commentator Benny Johnson’s podcast to blast Kimmel and threaten that there were 'avenues here for the FCC' if companies didn’t take action? Carr." Lili Loofbourow has a good and complete overview of what went down and why. WaPo(Gift Article): Kimmel’s suspension confirms what many suspected after Colbert’s cancellation.
+ "A prominent late-night comedian, was just taken off the airwaves because the Trump administration didn’t like what he had to say — and threatened his employer until they shut him up." Vox (Gift Article): Let’s be clear about what happened to Jimmy Kimmel.
+ Congressman Jim Himes is one of the truly good ones. And I'm not just saying that because of the shirt he's wearing in this video. "ABC, which is owned by Disney, took Jimmy Kimmel off the air because Brendan Carr, the chairman of the FCC, didn’t like some things Kimmel said on TV. I’m talking to you now because I’m just getting so damn sick of people who claim to be for free speech but turn out to only support free speech for people they agree with."
+ And every now and then, it's worth taking a look back at a headline from the past... Goebbels Ends Careers of Five 'Aryan' Actors Who Made Witticisms About the Nazi Regime.
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License Plate Tectonics
"Lee Schmidt, a retired veteran, wanted to know more about the license plate cameras tracking him in Norfolk, Virginia, where he lives. So he sued with a co-plaintiff and a legal nonprofit and got an answer: 176 cameras across the city logged his location 526 times between Feb. 19 and July 2, according to a Monday court filing. That’s about four times per day." Police cameras tracked one driver 526 times in four months, lawsuit says.
+ I covered the broader topic of surveillance, and why it matters even if don't think it does, earlier this week: Peep Show.
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Tossed in Translation
"This week, I saw an old friend, and he caught me up on what he’d been up to over the summer. He and his girlfriend had visited family in Arizona. His niece dragged him to a screening of 'Lilo and Stitch.' He was working hard at a new start-up. He said all of this in Spanish, a language I have never learned, but I followed every word." Brian X. Chen in the NYT (Gift Article): The New AirPods Can Translate Languages in Your Ears. This Is Profound. (I'm still watching my Netflix international shows with subtitles on.)
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Extra, Extra
Tired of All the Winning: "Before the Covid pandemic hit in 2020, public health experts would often say that vaccines had been victims of their own success. People had simply forgotten how polio and measles could wreak havoc on Americans’ daily lives. If these diseases started surging again, experts said, parents would be scared straight. This year, that prediction proved wrong." In Texas, Parents Fighting Vaccinations Say Their Movement Is Winning. (Which means the viruses are winning.)
+ The Oracle of Knowledge: "Mr. Ellison is up to something very different: transforming himself into a media magnate. Along with his son, David, he could soon end up controlling a powerful social media platform, an iconic Hollywood movie studio and one of the largest content streaming services, as well as two of the country’s largest news organizations. Given Mr. Ellison’s friendship with, and affinity for, Donald Trump, an increasingly emboldened president could be getting an extraordinarily powerful media ally — in other words, the very last thing our country needs right now." The Billionaire Trump Supporter Who Will Soon Own the News.
+ Inside Intel: Nvidia to Invest $5 Billion in Intel, Furthering Trump’s Turnaround Plan.
+ Don't Touch That Dial: Is there anything members of Congress can agree on? Apparently, yes. That AM Radio should be in cars. House Committee Advances AM Radio Bill. (Coming soon: Stereo sound!)
+ Black Gold: "The Trump administration is opening swaths of wilderness land and federal waters to drilling, approving new terminals to export natural gas and proposing to ax environmental regulations, including an Obama-era rule used to curb emissions from power plants, tailpipes and oil-and-gas production. His One Big Beautiful Bill is expected to hobble renewable-energy projects and stunt the adoption of electric vehicles." WSJ (Gift Article): Oil Tycoons Bet Big on Trump. It’s Paying Off.
+ Olive Branch: WaPo (Gift Article): Marilyn Hagerty, who went viral reviewing an Olive Garden, dies at 99.