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Yes, Jimmy Kimmel's suspension was government censorship
- jonahbenton 1y ago[flagged]
- saubeidl 1y agoHow is it not, when the government threatens media so they change their stance? That's the textbook definition of censorship. https://www.foxnews.com/media/fcc-chair-levels-threat-against-abc-disney-after-kimmel-suggested-charlie-kirk-assassin-maga https://www.foxnews.com/media/fcc-chair-levels-threat-agains...
- subzero06 1y agoIt is.
- LarsDu88 1y agoTwo nots!
- calmbonsai 1y agoThe FCC directly threatened to cancel broadcasting licenses of ABC affiliates unless they removed the show. This is the most direct version of government mass-media censorship I can immediately recall.
- Synaesthesia 1y agoI can't believe he got cancelled for such a mild statement.
- saubeidl 1y agoThe right wing has exposed their hypocrisy on free speech and cancel culture for the whole world to see. It was never about principles, it was always just self-serving agitprop.
- gjsman-1000 1y agoAll you had to do was look at Reddit or BlueSky after the shooting; and I think they popped a nerve. In the meantime, the CEOs of Discord, Reddit, Twitch, and Steam have been casually "invited" to Congress to have a little chat this October. Personally, I'm expecting Discord's CEO (considering his background at McKinsey, need for blame shifting, spotting the most vulnerable person in the room) to make Huffman look like an idiot and start acting like a Redditor. There's no way Huffman manages to overcome his lack of interview experience, 20 years of Reddit brain, and decade of being the CEO responsible for everything, when needled.
- red-iron-pine 1y agofacebook, apple, palantir, twitter have all bent the knee or are otherwise locked down by leadership -- they will tow the line. these are the next steps in locking down the online discussion realm. they will eventually go after places like tumblr and roblox next.
- suzdude 1y agoSo Hegseth should have been pulled from Fox News after laughing at jokes about Paul Pelosi's attacker, right? He should have been forced to resign in shame?
- JumpCrisscross 1y agoBut the Twitter files!
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- seydor 1y agoIt s more than that. The fact that they did not conceal that they publicly coerced the tv station to fire him serves as a warning to other media.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- draw_down 1y ago[dead]
- duxup 1y agoI remember in Murthy v. Missouri you had lawyers and politicans on the right arguing that even just a phone call to a reporter or social media company qualified as coercion. Even a few right wing SCOTUS judges agreed with them ... Now we have every branch of government deployed by right wing politicians targeting individuals speech. We have them placed as employees in news organizations, required by the government, as "bias monitors". https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-fcc-cbs-news-bias-censorship-60-minutes-rcna224423 https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-fcc-cbs-ne... We have the government forcing media companies to sell to their cronies ... We have the FCC chairman making threats taking issue with speech they don't like. Trump threatening reporters with investigation because they asked a question he didn't like. I guess they're ok with that as long as it's their people.
- eth0up 1y agoUnless the innocuous quote in tfa is what was said (I'm not sure I could believe it if so), can someone please post an exact quote of what all the fuss is about?
- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 1y agoThat's the quote. https://youtu.be/-j3YdxNSzTk?t=123 https://youtu.be/-j3YdxNSzTk?t=123
- canucker2016 1y agoKimmel: 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: In between the fingerpointing there was uh grieving on Friday. The White House flew the flags at half staff which got some criticism but on a human level you can see how hard the president is taking this. Reporter: "My condolences on the loss of your friend Charlie Kirk. May I ask sir personally, how are you holding up over the last day and a half, sir?" POTUS47: "I think very good. And by the way, right there you see all the trucks. They've just started construction of the new ballroom for the White House, which is something they've been trying to get, as you know, for about 150 years, and it's going to be a beauty." Kimmel: Yes. He's at the fourth stage of grief, construction.
- eth0up 1y agoThank you.
- hellcow 1y agoFor a historical reference of another famous censorship, here’s the front page of the NY Times in Feb 1939, reporting that Goebbels ended the career of 5 actors for “witticisms” made about the Nazis: https://www.nytimes.com/1939/02/04/archives/goebbels-ends-careers-of-five-aryan-actors-who-made-witticisms.html https://www.nytimes.com/1939/02/04/archives/goebbels-ends-ca...
- tim333 1y ago>Goebbels today ended the professional careers of five "Aryan" actors ... on the grounds that “in their public appearances they displayed a lack of any positive attitude toward National Socialism and therewith caused grave annoyance... seems quite similar to Brendan Carr having Kimmel removed for a lack of positive attitude towards Trump and MAGA.
- sonofhans 1y agoThis is one of the reasons that large-scale corporate ownership of media is very bad for citizens, and very good for oppressive governments. The FCC can make one phone call to one powerful person running one large corporate entity. If the same couple corporations own all the media (almost where we are today), it’s trivial for the government to shut down one voice. ABC doesn’t give a shit about truth, fairness, journalism, or any such fuzzy concepts. They want short-term profits and long-term media monopolies, so cancelling one comedian or another makes no difference to them. This is what fascism actually is — a blending of corporate and government power for the benefit of both, and against the interests of citizens.
- navane 1y agoIt's almost like the dictators don't choose the economic form of monopolies or oligopolies, but that these mono and oligopolies almost have to lead to government overreach. Like you said it is too easy not to govern with these knobs of they are there.
- int0x29 1y agoAnd its flagged. The country may be collapsing but don't worry. Hackernews' anti controversy systems will ensure nothing gets to the front page to force you to confront anything uncomfortable
- saubeidl 1y agoIt's not just anti-controversy systems. It's deliberate censorship efforts by digital brownshirts.
- sidibe 1y agoThe YC leadership is the people doing the collapsing. Theyve been living for Elon retweets and replies for a while
- JumpCrisscross 1y agoSource?
- walls 1y agoThe front page of this site. Just look at what dang goes out of his way to make sure stays up.
- sidibe 1y agoFollow Garry Tan on X
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago> Follow Garry Tan on X ...do you have an example? I have no interest in following him. Also, Gary Tan resembles Elon Musk perhaps only in their shared political ineptitude. (Unlike Musk, Tan seems to be aware of this limitation.)
- Talanes 1y agoNot everyone can do that, some of use were blocked by him before we'd ever heard his name.
- Cheer2171 1y agoExecutive Order 14149 of January 20, 2025 by Donald J. Trump: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/01/28/2025-01902/restoring-freedom-of-speech-and-ending-federal-censorship https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/01/28/2025-01... Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, it is hereby ordered as follows: Section 1. Purpose. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution, an amendment essential to the success of our Republic, enshrines the right of the American people to speak freely in the public square without Government interference. Over the last 4 years, the previous administration trampled free speech rights by censoring Americans’ speech on online platforms, often by exerting substantial coercive pressure on third parties, such as social media companies, to moderate, deplatform, or otherwise suppress speech that the Federal Government did not approve. Under the guise of combatting ‘‘misinformation,’’ ‘‘disinformation,’’ and ‘‘malinformation,’’ the Federal Government infringed on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens across the United States in a manner that advanced the Government’s preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate. Government censorship of speech is intolerable in a free society. Sec. 2. Policy. It is the policy of the United States to: (a) secure the right of the American people to engage in constitutionally protected speech; (b) ensure that no Federal Government officer, employee, or agent engages in or facilitates any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen; (c) ensure that no taxpayer resources are used to engage in or facilitate any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen; and (d) identify and take appropriate action to correct past misconduct by the Federal Government related to censorship of protected speech. Sec. 3. Ending Censorship of Protected Speech. (a) No Federal department, agency, entity, officer, employee, or agent may act or use any Federal resources in a manner contrary to section 2 of this order.
- bb88 1y agoHave you read the North Korean constitution? ARTICLE 13. Citizens of the D.P.R.K. have freedom of speech, the press, association, assembly, mass meetings and demonstration. Citizens are guaranteed the right to organize and unite in democratic political parties, trade unions, cooperative organizations, sports, cultural, technical, scientific and other societies.
- robertheadley 1y agoHe didn't even criticize Kirk. The criticism was levied against Trump / The Republican party.
- red-iron-pine 1y agoone and the same
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- benmmurphy 1y agoFire has a good statement on the FCC threat: https://www.thefire.org/news/fire-statement-fcc-threat-revoke-abc-broadcast-license-over-jimmy-kimmel-remarks-about-charlie https://www.thefire.org/news/fire-statement-fcc-threat-revok... It is good to see there are principled organisations defending free speech.
- bubbajones 1y ago[dead]
- josefritzishere 1y agoThe most enduring quality of fascism so far is how pervasively stupid it is. I fear for the future.
- Synaesthesia 1y agoWe have to fight against this.
- eth0up 1y agoMan, I lean right. Always will even if I fall off a cliff. But the main reason I do is the Republic and Constitution. Free speech is sacred, and I think Jimmy is a wanker. But I'll be damned if I silence the guy, or don't defend his right to be a wanker. So yeah, this is going to dark places.
- raxxorraxor 1y agoThen there is a lot of work to do. In Europe you would be brushed of with "hate is no opinion". A culture that was nurtured by the loudest opposition to Trump.
- k310 1y agoThe tech industry largely thrives on basic freedoms, especially freedom of speech, and on university innovation, both of which are under direct attack. Those who cry that these are "no concern" of tech and Hacker News won't be happy when their projects and companies are shut down in order to do eugenics "research" or to turn their work into ways of sequestering and managing inmates of what are already concentration camps[0] Hacker News and the industry are reduced to rubber stamps and prison administrators when basic freedoms are lost. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust
- raxxorraxor 1y agoNobody believes Trumps opposition to be concerned about freedom of speech or that they value it.
- kawfey 1y agoABC/Disney made the choice to pull Kimmel, bent at the knee in fear of losing their broadcast license. That decision itself is one worth questioning...what if they didn't? Would the FCC actually do it? If they did, how many lawsuits would come their way since that's the greatest infringement of the First Amendment the US has ever witnessed? Wouldn't ABC, the public, and the First Amendment win out massively at the end? What if that bit of libertarian anarchy played out? ABC ignores the backlash and threats, and keeps Kimmel on the air, maybe even encouraging speech against those bullies and hatred. Then FCC pulls their license, but ABC keeps broadcasting. Their pirate broadcasts would escalate both sides even further: stoking a great groundswell of support for the freedom of speech from liberals/the left, a storm of legal battles representing We The People v. the Government would form, and a massive (possibly violent) outcry from far-right conservatives and nationalists. What happens then would redefine our nation. Would corporations back ABC and capitalism retake the reins, and grassroots efforts steer the misguided Right back to normalcy? Or would an explosive sabotage and a bloody battle over the fate of our nation take place before any progress, or regression, would happen? As much of a work of fiction as that sounds, it's almost more believable given the timeline we're already on.
- reop2whiskey 1y ago[flagged]
- delichon 1y agoSCOTUS ruled 6-3 last year in Murthy v. Missouri that the states lacked standing to sue the government for first amendment violations from pressuring speech platforms to moderate. I'm afraid that decision will effectively immunize the FCC from pressuring ABC in this case. The states were found not to have the necessary injury, causation, or redressability. Alito, Thomas and Gorsuch dissented.
- jeffbee 1y agoIn that case, the plaintiffs lacked standing because they hadn't shown that there was an actual nexus between government action and platform action. In this case, there is no question: the government is openly demanding that the media do this.
- jaybrendansmith 1y ago[flagged]
- JohnTHaller 1y agoLink in case the flaggers take it down: https://www.theverge.com/policy/781148/jimmy-kimmel-charlie-kirk-monologue-brendan-carr-censorship-first-amendment https://www.theverge.com/policy/781148/jimmy-kimmel-charlie-...