Late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmelhas saidan upcoming interview with the Democratic Senate candidate from Texas James Talarico will not air on ABC, the US network that broadcasts his show, after the federal media regulator āthreatenedā his show, ABC and its local affiliates.
āTomorrow night Iāll be interviewing James Talarico under unusual circumstances,ā Kimmel said during his opening monologue on āJimmy Kimmel Live!ā on Wednesday.
Kimmel said that since the show began over 20 years ago, he has interviewed āAmericans who are running for office with no problem at allā, noting that this ranged āfrom Hillary Clinton to Ted Cruz to Donald Trump himselfāā¦
ā¦āNow that he is president, his FCC [Federal Communications Commission] has threatened me, threatened our show, threatened our network, ABC, our affiliates, our local stations based on simple traditional editorial decisions, guest bookings it would seem they donāt like.
āAnd so out of consideration for our local stations, especially our ABC affiliates in Texas, who would have to deal with this nonsense, my interview tomorrow with James Talarico will not air on television,ā he said. āIt will be posted on YouTube instead.ā
Yes. At least thereās a good secondary outcome though; the censorship here will almost guarantee the Streisand effect, especially given late night viewership numbers compared to people who will look it up on YouTube because itās in the news.