Within the course of a week, ABC totally capitulated to threats from the FCC and right-wing station owners, spectacularly screwed up the optics, completely failed to foresee the obvious business consequences, and then unconditionally surrendered six days later. I can't think of a more humiliating week for a CEO of Bob Iger’s stature, but we’ll get to that next time when we talk about the business side of the story.
For now, let's talk politics.
In some ways, we are seeing people make both too little
and too much of this story. In terms of stifling free speech, it is probably less
significant than the firing of Washington Post op-ed columnist Karen Attiah. It might even be less
significant than the Vichy water that Ezra Klein has been doling out at
the New York Times.
With respect to other aspects, however, this
is both huge and unprecedented. Josh Marshall, whose track record is unequaled in these matters, has
argued that the key to understanding Trump is dominance and submission. I
would add catharsis, distraction, and possibly feral disinformation,
but Marshall is certainly right about the main driver. Marshall has
termed this the “bitch slap theory” of politics, and that’s about the
best description I’ve seen.
The approach of looking
overwhelmingly dominant while making your opponent look and feel
helpless and weak often works very well, but it has a couple of major
downsides. First off, if it fails, you can often find the intended roles
reversed, with the bully looking small and ineffectual. On a somewhat
more subtle level, a focus on shock-and-awe politics can undermine more
low-key and often devious tactics, particularly “boiling the frog.” If
you start with boiling water and taunt the frog as you’re throwing it
in, it is likely to notice the temperature change.
With the
Colbert firing, CBS—in its attempt to appease Trump and the
Ellisons—applied a veneer of plausible deniability. It was comically
transparent, suddenly announcing that the number-one late night show was
hemorrhaging cash (showing that enormous hits like Forrest Gump
actually lost money has always been the foundation of Hollywood
accounting). But the rules of the modern establishment press insisted
that the obviously disingenuous claim be given equal coverage and
virtually no scrutiny.
By comparison, Kimmel's suspension was an abuse of government power so flagrant it would make Richard Nixon blush, and it struck a nerve.
Seems pretty clear to me: "the First Amendment forbids the government from using coercion backed by threats of punishment to suppress speech." Gift link. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/u...
— Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News (@froomkin.bsky.social) September 19, 2025 at 10:36 AM
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Keep cancelling! creators.yahoo.com/lifestyle/st...
— DevinCow (@devincow.bsky.social) September 19, 2025 at 6:56 PM
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"Regardless of the truth or falsity of Kimmel’s remark, the government should not serve as the arbiter of truth in public debate." It is all to easy for the government to use a truth-policing power "as a tool to threaten and punish disfavored speakers."
— Thomas Berry (@thomasberry.bsky.social) September 18, 2025 at 3:34 PM
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Rats-leaving-a-sinking-ship conservatives spoke up.
Wanna see a bigger sign? www.bbc.com/news/article...
— docslacker (@docslacker.bsky.social) September 20, 2025 at 4:21 AM
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The one person Bob Iger least wanted to speak up spoke up.
Like we said, dominance-based strategies have penalties for missed shots and they tend to be zero-sum games. The pro–Kimmel/anti-Trump side clearly won this last round, which means that someone else lost. Obviously, everyone slapped ABC around, but neither Nexstar, Sinclair, nor the administration came out of this looking stronger.
Elliott Morris argues that the backlash showed that the CEOs of companies like Disney don’t realize how unpopular Trump actually is. He might be right, but one thing’s for certain: they realize it now more than they did a few days ago.
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