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Comment by cbradford | Hacker News Reader

So now we know the reality. An employer, Disney, felt an employee, Kimmel, was damaging their business, let's not forget the point of an employee is to make money for their employer, and as a result took corrective action with the employee. Who was not fired. If a waiter at a restaurant was offending the customers, he would have been fired. Kimmel was treated very kindly and will continue to receive his paycheck. Looks like the wailing about free speech missed the mark

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You left out the part where a government official all but demanded they do what they did.

Must have been a VERY strong demand for Disney to completely ignore it.

Irrelevant. You were arguing this was an ordinary part of business, and the point is that it clearly isn’t.

Now you’re moving on to how much it matters that the government made such a demand. It matters very much, because it is unprecedented and outrageous. But I was only replying to your partial account, which left out the most crucial aspect of the entire affair.

> It matters very much, because it is unprecedented and outrageous

It isn't unprecedented, Biden administration did that as well. This is normal for the US government, they never were strict with free speech they always pressured corporations to censor.

https://judiciary.house.gov/media/press-releases/weaponizati...

Anything equivalent to “We can do this the easy way or the hard way” said to a TV network by the official who can withdraw their licence to broadcast?

Companies are driven by profits, but their decisions are usually based on legalities. I think their knee-jerk reaction to pull Kimmel was due to what might happen, or what the government was threatening to do. That doesn't amount to damages, legally. However, if they bring Kimmel back, and the government follows through on its initial threats, then that does amount to damages for which they can sue the government.

I'm sure Disney is aware that there will be consequences to reinstating Kimmel. Maybe their proposed merger won't go through. Maybe something else—but they will be punished by the administration for it.

They didn't ignore it. The show was suspended for several days. Over some really tame remarks. The warning is pretty obvious to anyone paying attention.

More accurately,

now we have another take on the story, this time the crafted PR spin from Disney retconned for damage control.

Disney was probably inundated with demands from other on air talent to reinstate the employee. They then made the calculated judgment that maintaining good employee relations was on balance better served by putting the employee back on the assembly line. This is all usual and standard business. Anyone on here that has ever worked a job has contract that says what they can and cannot do while in the employ of the company.

People absolutely have the right to self identify in public as a person who accepts corporate PR statements as objective reality.

It's not for everyone, but each to their own.

Even if a man is dying of cancer that does not justify the government murdering him.

The Trump appointed FCC head, who is currently evaluating multiple multi-billion dollar requests, said about Kimmel 'we can do this the hard way or we can do this the easy way'.

Land of the free, home of the brave? Ring a bell?

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