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Comment by nerdponx | Hacker News Reader

It wasn't controversial, but this is literally the textbook Manufacturing Consent model. The small number of people in positions of power at the network are either overtly aligned with the president that he just talked bad about, or want to stay or get on the president's good side. He doesn't even need to pick up the phone or post anything on social media, they know what they need to do.

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To be fair to the executives. The main regulator that could essentially issue the corporate death penalty, the FCC chairman that can revoke their license to operate, literally said “we can do this the easy way or the hard way”. That’s a Dirty Harry or goodfellas quote. So much for “government shouldn’t pick winners and losers in the economy”.

You really don't have to be fair to the executives. The FCC absolutely can't do shit about Jimmy Kimmel, and would lose the procedure if it ever came to it. Instead, they immediately bent the knee and decided that loyalty to the nascent fascist regime was more important that standing up against the most clear cut and unjustifiable attack to free speech in a long time.

FCC can decide to not let the $6.2 billion Nexstar acquisition go through. Kimmel is just part of the bribe

'We find it's fine to waive the rule that limits large media company mergers in order to protect speech because this Nexstar merger will in no way impact speech in the US'. -The FCC in the coming months

Also because some people don't seem to know this, the government can't murder a man even if he was already dying of cancer.

The people in charge of approval at the FCC are on this public comments submission page:

https://www.fcc.gov/transaction/nexstar-tribune

Remember when the FCC botted their own comment page in order to make it look like the public was split and ultimately against a policy change that the public is clearly in favor of?

Funny how they only did that under President Trump, but Biden's FCC never did that.

I totally agreed with you. But mafia tactics work because they are terrifying. My point was this is unprecedented in American history and people are scared.

Alternatively, perhaps it is the duty of the executives to defend their company, its viewers and employees, when confronted with unlawful and unreasonable government demands.

If only they had a little money to fight back with.

Unfortunately, Disney is just a small bean startup, there's basically no way they would be able to hire good enough lawyers and weather the storm.

I totally agree with this but look at that statement. A company needs to fight the full force of the federal government, with an executive that has demonstrated no respect for the rule of law. That is insane. Every one needs to fight back but the federal government can stay wrong longer than you can stay solvent.

It's more that ABC/Disney is beholden to two right-leaning broadcasters who are colluding with threats to assist in their prohibited merger that will be approved now because they just gave the felon a successful hand job. There is no indication that the ABC execs are anything more than spineless, unprincipled cowards who cave in a light breeze.

I think most commenters are missing that a local broadcaster monopoly used their own freedom of association to drop the show

The FCC and Trump merely dogpiled on this

For Disney, they need to court the broadcaster monopoly as a key stakeholder to their revenue, this is all private sector and not a constitutional issue

But when Disney is getting kicked and then an expensive fight with the government looms while their revenue is already threatened and would be expensive to resolve with the government , they buckled

Thats the calculus here

but because they buckled, now their customers are using their own freedom of association to disassociate, hampering Disney’s revenue more from that angle

Press F to Pay Respects

The FCC and Trump "merely" dogpiling on is a clear violation of the 1st Amendment of the United States Constitution and should be condemned by all.

Ok. “Yes, its scary and authoritarian because it worked.” I said the line guys, happy? Moving on

There is also a protest of Nexstar’s advertisers to get them to avoid Nexstar for cancelling Jimmy Kimmel on their local broadcasters to begin with

Unless everyone at the top has been fired, ABC and Disney are not remotely aligned with the president. A short while ago, they were boycotted by the right for their slanted debate hosting and woke children’s programming.

Those two could be entirely compatible if it turns out they never gave a hoot about the actual politics, and only did all that stuff because they thought it would get them more favor with viewers, and thereby more money.

I would personally not raise an eyebrow to learn this was the case.

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