SEP 22, 2025 (robertreich.substack.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Friends,<\/p>\n\n\n\n ABC says \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d will return to the airwaves Tuesday \u2014 less than a week after Trump henchman Brendan Carr, chair of the Federal Communications Commission, said on a podcast that Kimmel\u2019s remarks were part of a \u201cconcerted effort to lie to the American people\u201d and that the FCC would have \u201cdo this the easy way or the hard way\u201d \u2014 suggesting that either ABC and its parent company, Walt Disney, remove Kimmel, or the FCC would revoke ABC\u2019s broadcast license.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why Walt Disney Company\u2019s turnaround? It limply explained today:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLast Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country. It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n But now, apparently, all is well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n How lovely. How reasonable. How, well, kumbaya. All it took were some \u201cthoughtful conversations with Jimmy\u201d and everything returned to normalcy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t believe it. In the days since ABC\u2019s decision, the blowback against Disney has been hurricane level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At least five Hollywood unions, collectively representing more than 400,000 workers, have publicly condemned the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The screenwriters\u2019 union decried what they called \u201ccorporate cowardice\u201d and organized a protest last week outside the main gate at Disney headquarters in Burbank, California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Celebrities Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep called out<\/a> \u201cgovernment threats to our freedom of speech.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kimmel was supported by his late-night peers, including Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver, as well as former late-night hosts David Letterman, Conan O\u2019Brien, and Jay Leno \u2014 all of whom blasted the decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Damon Lindelof, a creator of ABC\u2019s \u201cLost,\u201d said that if Kimmel\u2019s program did not return from suspension, he couldn\u2019t \u201cin good conscience work for the company that imposed it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Michael Eisner, a former Disney CEO, issued a rare rebuke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even right-wing Republican Senator Ted Cruz expressed concern, likening Carr\u2019s comments to a mob boss and calling his threats to potentially retaliate against media companies \u201cdangerous as hell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe should not be in this business,\u201d Cruz said. \u201cWe should denounce it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n By this morning, Carr himself was busy minimizing his role \u2014 denying that he had threatened to pull the licenses of ABC stations (it \u201cdid not happen in any way, shape or form\u201d) \u2014 and claiming Disney had made a \u201cbusiness decision\u201d in response to feedback from viewers and affiliates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cJimmy Kimmel is in the situation that he\u2019s in because of his ratings, not because of anything that\u2019s happened at the federal government level,\u201d Carr said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the most intense pressure came from <\/strong>us<\/strong><\/em> \u2014 from Disney viewers and customers \u2014 who immediately began to cancel subscriptions to Disney+ and Hulu and threaten a broader consumer boycott.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Some stars such as Tatiana Maslany (star of Marvel\u2019s Disney+ series \u201cShe-Hulk: Attorney at Law\u201d) <\/em>and Rosie O\u2019Donnell urged people to cancel their subscriptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the consumer boycott seems to have begun almost immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Strength in Numbers<\/a>, searches for \u201ccancel Disney+\u201d were higher than boycott movements from when Disney went \u201cwoke\u201d in 2020-2022. According to search interest, the Disney boycott quickly became four times as large as any boycott over the last five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shortly after Kimmel\u2019s suspension was announced, Disney stock dipped about 3.5 percent and continued to trade lower in subsequent days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That loss in market value has amounted to about $4 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Investors knew consumers were upset. There\u2019s never one single reason for the ups and downs in the value of a particular firm\u2019s shares of stock, but the correlation here has been almost exact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The bottom line: <\/strong>We<\/strong><\/em> have extraordinary power. <\/strong>We\u2019re<\/strong><\/em> the vast majority. Like every other big corporation, Disney relies on <\/strong>us.<\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Even if we can\u2019t count on our elected politicians to protect our First Amendment rights, we can rely on ourselves. When our outrage translates into withholding our consumer dollars, a big corporation like Disney is forced to listen \u2014 and respond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remember this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The real reason Disney restored Kimmel\u2019s late-night show ROBERT REICH SEP 22, 2025 (robertreich.substack.com) Friends, ABC says \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d will return to the airwaves Tuesday \u2014 less than a week after Trump henchman Brendan Carr, chair of the Federal Communications Commission, said on a podcast that Kimmel\u2019s remarks were… Continue reading ![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/$s_!Kk5p!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe1b9c0c7-92b0-472e-89d1-68313993b2b1_3373x2901.jpeg\")
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