‘Jimmy Kimmel’s Suspension Is a Wake-Up Call’

Taegan Goddard, a few days ago at Political Wire:

The sudden suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s show after threats from FCC chair Brendan Carr was a jolt. It looked like the next step in Donald Trump’s campaign to silence dissent.

But there’s another way to see it: an opportunity.

It’s been clear since the last election that conservatives dominate the independent media space. Trump rode the reach of right-wing podcasts to victory while Kamala Harris stuck to traditional television.

But those old outlets are collapsing — and they’re never coming back.

That means the stars of late-night TV — Kimmel, Colbert and others — could thrive outside corporate networks. They can build their own platforms, reach bigger audiences, and escape the grip of billionaires and timid executives.

While Goddard didn’t say it in this piece, the subtext should be that building the alternative on Substack or social media is not the answer, either. The Internet is decentralized and built exactly to counter these forces our country is facing under Trump 2.0.

The big problem is YouTube. With YouTube, Google has a centralized chokehold on video. We need a way that’s as easy and scalable to host video content, independently, as it is for written content. I don’t know what the answer to that is, technically, but we ought to start working on it with urgency.

★ Tuesday, 23 September 2025