Trump, Brendan Carr Threaten To Censor Some More Comedians For The Crime Of Comedy
from the thin-skinned-babies dept
Donald Trump and his earlobe nibbler (FCC boss Brendan Carr) are threatening to try and censor some more comedians after their efforts to cancel Jimmy Kimmel went so well (read: not well at all).
Over at the right wing white propaganda website formerly known as Twitter, Brendan Carr retweeted some whining from Donald Trump calling for the termination of late night comedian, Seth Meyers. In the tweet, Trump calls for NBC (which is hoping to gain Trump regulatory approval for an acquisition of Warner Brothers) to fire Meyers immediately for the criminal offense of… jokes:
That’s Carr posting a screenshot of Donald Trump posting to Truth Social:
NBC’s Seth Meyers is suffering from an incurable case of Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS). He was viewed last night in an uncontrollable rage, likely due to the fact that his “show” is a Ratings DISASTER. Aside from everything else, Meyers has no talent, and NBC should fire him, IMMEDIATELY!
Also, the weird thing is that Trump posted on November 15th that he viewed Meyers “last night,” which is impressive since Meyers’ didn’t even have a new show airing on the 14th.
Trump has made it clear that he’d prefer it if his billionaire friends the Ellisons (new owners of CBS and Paramount) offer the winning bid to buy Warner Brothers (and HBO and CNN) so they can further expand their right wing infotainment and propaganda safe space.
That means that to win DOJ and FCC approval of their own bid, Comcast/NBC Universal will need to kiss Donald Trump’s ass with extra vigor, something that’s apparently already started with a big fat Comcast donation to Donald Trump’s extraction class corruption ballroom.
It’s unlikely that NBC/Comcast executives would heed a call to fire Meyers to gain regulatory approval, but it’s unsettling that in this age of immense corporate cowardice, you really can’t be sure. Carr has certainly made it clear that he’s more than willing to illegally abuse the FCC merger approval process to try and bully companies into kissing Donald Trump’s ass. And Comcast is… Comcast.
So it’s certainly possible that NBC executives could fire Seth Meyers in order to gain regulatory approval of Warner Brothers, but they, of course, won’t admit there would be any connection between the two. But even then, it would be quite a gambit with Trump’s popularity cratering.
You might recall that Trump and Carr worked with weak-kneed ABC executives and some right wing ABC affiliate companies to try and censor Jimmy Kimmel for some innocuous comments about a dead racist influencer. Ultimately, after massive public backlash, the right wingers got absolutely nothing they asked for. If anything, it pushed Kimmel’s comedy to a broader audience, and cost the companies money.
So if they’re keen on making Seth Meyers more popular than ever, they should definitely proceed.
The great irony is it’s not like the comedians that most rile the president are even particularly edgy or boundary pushing in literally any way. Most of the stuff that deeply riles our toddler king is pretty basic observational late night comedy. Which makes you wonder how Trump would respond to modern U.S. comedy if it actually had some George Carlin, Richard Pryor, or Lenny Bruce style teeth.
Outside of a smattering of light criticism of hackish “anti-woke” comedians by the likes of Anthony Jeselnik, Marc Maron, and the Elephant Graveyard guy, U.S. comedy — much like U.S. media more broadly — has been a feckless mess when it comes to challenging authoritarianism. Which is unfortunate given how even the lightest mainstream jokes about their competency clearly gets under their very thin skin.
Filed Under: brendan carr, comcast nbc universal, comedy, donald trump, fcc, free speech, jimmy kimmel, media, mergers, seth meyers, warner brothers
Companies: comcast, nbc, nbc universal
Comments on “Trump, Brendan Carr Threaten To Censor Some More Comedians For The Crime Of Comedy”
The term you are looking for is “exoskeleton”.
Rome is burning while Trump talks ballrooms.
Well, if you aren’t wealthy, the economy sucks. Why? Trump. Tariffs. Oh, and Trump. There is no escaping it for Trump. Tons of people can’t afford food and healthcare while Trump talks about how great the economy is. The Orange Gatsby thinks the MAGA base will be happy with table scraps if he tells them how cheap everything is. Democrats need to hammer this home in the coming elections. This is the most important thing to voters. More important than Epstein, Trump’s dismantling of government oversight and trump’s insanity. If the Democrats take back the house and or Senate and focus on impeaching Trump, rather than bringing down the cost of living and creating jobs, it will backfire, again. People want good jobs, opportunity, reasonably priced food and affordable healthcare. Trump has grown up with a silver spoon and does not know what it is like to struggle to make a living. He doesn’t know what it’s like to choose between paying rent and buying food. He doesn’t know what it’s like to work your ass off for minimum wage, but he will keep telling us how Great everything is in all caps. The comedians are pointing this all out and he hates it. We need more of them to step up.
Re:
Oh good, another “stop focusing on Trump’s criminality and just talk about groceries” take. I know eight senators who’d love to hear from you.
Re: Re:
I’m saying focus mainly on groceries. A rabid focus on Trump’s criminality got us where we are. Yes, you would hope people would care about that more. They don’t. Trump in jail doesn’t put food on the table. Trump in jail doesn’t pay the rent. The Democrats get focused on what they want and what they think people should want. It got us Trump 2.0 because they are tone deaf. Put Trump in jail later. Put food on the table today. Or, keep doing what hasn’t worked and see how it goes.
Re: Re: Re:
And Chuck Schumer agrees. Isn’t it nice to be on the same page?
Re: Re: Re:2
I’m sure there are many things that you and I both agree with Schumer on. I don’t agree with Schumer caving. Just because there may be some parts that I agree with him about, it doesn’t mean I fully agree with him. There are some things Trump has done that I agree with. I still think he’s an odious human being and deserves a jail cell.
So, Again, what I am saying is, if the Democrats focus mainly on Trump’s criminality and ignore what people want, they are going to fail.
Re: Re: Re:3
Sure seems like standing up to Trump is what the people want, judging by the record-breaking protests and last week’s elections.
Re: backbones on sale in aisle six
It would help if they replaced the people in charge.
Right now the party is led by gutless wonders and the sort of crazy people who expect that, if do the same thing over again you will have different results.
The electorate may be ready for change, but that is not what the Dems are currently selling. Indeed, they fight it. Look at how they came out in NY to oppose a democratic socialist candidate who actually won their primary.
The Kimmel Effect
Closely related to The Streisand Effect.
Better watch out Donnie… put a comedian out of work and he/she may decide to run for public office, and guess what: whatever GOP candidate he/she runs against will quite certainly lose. Now won’t that be funny?!
But those guys didn’t do topical humor. Their material wasn’t about a particular politician, it was about politicians. The reason you can listen to Carlin’s observations about Republicans and the religious right and they still feel fresh is that he’s not targeting Richard Nixon or Ronald Reagan or Billy Graham or Jerry Falwell in particular; he’s not responding to one specific thing in the headlines. He’s looking at the big picture.
Trump doesn’t give a fuck about the big picture. Trump cares about Trump. He can’t stand people laughing at him. Seth Meyers making fun of him played a not-insignificant role in his deciding to run for president in the first place.
He’ll pretend to care about Charlie Kirk insofar as it allows him a pretext for punishing his enemies, but there’s only one person he cares about.
Isn't it interesting...
…that if the ratings actually were a disaster, wouldn’t Carr’s “problem” go away by itself?
But I guess Carr’s usage of the word “disaster” is the same as when Trump says he has the “best” people.
These people aren’t even thin skinned anymore, they have no skin at all because they flayed themselves with their belief that they are always right.
Re:
TBF if the late-night business were still as profitable as it was twenty years ago I’m sure CBS wouldn’t have canceled Colbert.
They absolutely did it to curry favor with Trump; I’m not saying they didn’t. But I’m also saying they wouldn’t have done it if they weren’t already considering it.
Re: Re:
Same goes for the ABC/Disney decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel: If he were making them more money than he was when he got yoinked off the air, he wouldn’t have gotten yoinked off the air. And the only reason they put him back on the air was because pulling off him came with a bigger financial cost that Disney was prepared to accept.
TRUTH HURTS
Only when its Correct.
Who?
Re:
I know search engines don’t work as well as they used to but you could have at least tried.
Re: Re:
Come on, obviously I could have googled them. We’re both here on the same Internet. It was a commentary on their noteriaty, in contrast to Kimmel and Colbert.
Re: Re: Re:
I mean, yes, they’re less popular than the most popular comedians on television, great observation.
Re: Re: Re:2
You’re welcome? No commenting allowed on blogs is weird take.
Re:
Great addition to the conversation, really hard-hitting stuff.
'How dare you speak against the king, off with their head!'
Which is unfortunate given how even the lightest mainstream jokes about their competency clearly gets under their very thin skin.
It’s easy to get under someone’s skin when it’s thin enough that oiled paper is less see-through.