"We're all Jimmy Kimmel": Late show hosts express solidarity with their canceled colleague

BarcelonaThe suspension of Jimmy Kimmel's show, a staple of late-night television in the United States, has shaken the country's media landscape and left no one indifferent. This Thursday night, the first after ABC announced the sudden dismissal of its star host, Kimmel no longer appeared on screen, but his name appeared on every show that night. All the hosts of other late shows Comedy shows like yours have focused their monologues on the threat to freedom of expression that this dismissal represents and have taken humorous advantage of a supposed fear of Trump's censorship.

But criticism has come from all over the political spectrum of the left, from Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to Bernie Sanders, who have criticized the autocratic drift that this type of movement represents, especially after the president of the United States, Donald Trump, himself threatened the networks 97% against me, they are 97% negative, and we have granted them a license; "I think we should revoke their license," he said. For former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Kimmel's suspension is "a clear example" of censorship. "It is a direct act of government intimidation of workers, corporations, and organizations to remove any opponent, even if they are a comic," Clinton said.

"After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire journalists and commentators they don't like," Kimmel said. Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders went further and warned, for the umpteenth time, of the political drift in the United States: "This country is moving rapidly toward an authoritarian society. In authoritarian countries like Saudi Arabia, there are no media outlets that are allowed to be critical of the government." Senator Chris Murphy came out on behalf of the entire Democratic Party to denounce the White House's attempt toexploit the Charlie Kirk tragedy to destroy their political opposition" through "direct censorship and repression of freedom of expression", and to announce the presentation in Congress of an initiative to approve the "no political enemies" law, which attempts to stop the abuse of authority against political opponents.

"Tonight we are all mon. Stephen Colbert, who was the first anti-Trump comic to fall just two months ago when his network, CBS, announced he was canceling the show after that season, citing financial reasons. Colbert called Kimmel's suspension of the show "blatant censorship" and emphasized his "100%" support for the fired host and his entire staff. In his monologue, Colbert said that censorship "starts with small steps," such as changing the name of the golf course in Mexico to the golf course in America, as Trump did in his first week in office. "But you can't give an autocrat an inch, and if ABC thinks this will satisfy the regime, they're completely naive," he warned.

Colbert also recalled that when he himself was fired on a delayed basis in July, President Trump celebrated with a social media post declaring, "Kimmel is next." He also explained the financial reasons behind the decision by ABC, a network owned by Disney, which in turn is awaiting Trump administration approval to move forward with a deal that would allow its ESPN channel to purchase the NFL network.

Just as he uses tariffs as a means of political pressure on governments around the world that do not comply with his demands, Trump is now also using his influence through the FCC to pressure large media corporations to eliminate all critical voices. He also does this through multi-million dollar lawsuits like the one he filed against the Wall Street Journal for having published evidence of his close relationship with the pedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, or against the New York Times for alleged defamation and slander. Although the latter has been dismissed by a judge. However, he still has the power to decide who enters the White House press room and who doesn't, denying accreditation to traditional media outlets that he replaces with influencers Trumpists who, instead of asking questions, praise the president at every question-and-answer session.

Satires of the new censorship on American television

Stephen Colbert, who will finish his tenth and final season at the helm of Late show with Stephen Colbert, has even recovered its alter ego conservative who played in The Colbert Report, the political satire show he ran between 2005 and 2014. The character, a conservative expert, has reappeared to offer "strategies" in the face of the new political and media context: "The word is xxt", that is, silence, "so as not to say something that would hurt President Trump's feelings." "You can have your rights as long as you don't use them," he said.

Also Jimmy Fallon, another of the most popular presenters on American television with his show The Tonight Show NBC's "The President" satirized political censorship and Donald Trump's desire to be flattered at every turn. "A lot of people are worried that we'll stop saying the things we would say to avoid being canceled, but I'll be covering the president's trip to the UK just as I normally would," he said, before launching into a speech with a pre-recorded voice overlaying him at key moments: "The president has ended his three-day trip..." he was incredibly handsome".

In another of the late night political satire programs, the The daily show From Comedy Central (Paramount Global), the historic presenter Jon Stewart has gone further and has done his entire initial twenty-minute monologue as if he were the host of a late show in an autocratic regime like North Korea, referring to Donald Trump as "great father", "our lord" or "our dear leader". All the reporters on the show appeared at the end wearing Donald Trump's usual dress, jacket and red tie, talking at the same time in exaggerated praise of the leader, and one of them, Ronny Chieng, of Chinese origin, even asked his colleagues: "Is this your first dictator?"

Also Seth Meyers, presenter of the Late night NBC's, has dedicated to Jimmy Kimmel his Closer look, the section of his show dedicated to humorously reviewing current political events. Meyers, another fierce critic of Trump who has also been singled out by the US president, joked that he has "always" "admired and respected Donald Trump." "Any clip you see of me saying otherwise is AI," he added. "It's a privilege and an honor to be able to call Jimmy Kimmel my friend, just as it's a privilege and an honor to do this show every night," said Meyers, who, despite the constant humorous additions, stressed that this "is a key moment in democracy" in the United States in which "we must stand up for the freedom of freedom of...