A big win for the First Amendment

The people speak, and Disney caves

Well, that wasn’t as hard as we thought it would be.

Yesterday, ABC/Disney sent ketchup bottles at the White House fleeing for their lives when it was announced that Jimmy Kimmel will be returning to their late-night lineup tonight. I was expecting the network would eventually give in to public pressure, but it happened much faster than I anticipated.

This is a tremendous victory for the First Amendment and an encouraging sign that our democracy is still alive and kicking. Last week, I sounded the alarm that the Kimmel suspension was a major escalation in efforts to kill freedom of speech, as the Trump administration used the regulatory power of the Federal Communications Commission — which is supposed to be an independent body — to coerce the cancellation of one of Trump’s major critics.

I suggested this is the time to exercise our First Amendment rights before they vanish by writing to Congress, publishing letters to the editor and speaking with your dollars — cancelling streaming services, Disney cruises, trips to Disney parks and boycotting ABC sponsors. Many people had the same idea, and the tsunami of public pressure, especially the economic shock of losing billions, forced the network to do an about face, despite threats from the FCC’s Brendan Carr to pull affiliate licenses.

This has been a depressing year for democracy lovers. Institutions that should have been a check on the authoritarian tendencies of this administration — Congress, corporations, universities, law firms — have bowed to Trump and paid tribute in exchange for the questionable assurance that they will not become targets of his wrath. Their strategy proved to be a foolish gambit.

But then something wonderful happened. The people spoke, and authoritarianism blinked.

As I mentioned before, I had intended to post once a week about how we can solve our biggest problems. But our right to speak freely is an essential tool in that endeavor, and so I weighed in on the Kimmel affair.

Our voices are the most powerful weapon in this struggle. Do not wait for the cavalry to come charging to the rescue. We are cavalry.