Sanders to Nexstar: Stop Caving to Gov’t Pressure and Air Kimmel — Or Else?

At this point, does anyone really care about whether Jimmy Kimmel stays on the air? Or is this mainly a popcorn-passing exercise? Disney suspended Kimmel for a week following his gross and maliciously false comments == hardly an earthshaking consequence in broadcasting — and his return demonstrated that government intervention didn’t have anything to do with the CYA move from Disney and ABC.

Frankly, the whole Kamala Kimmela Kimmel controversy has provided far more entertainment and laughs over the last week than Kimmel himself has in years. 

But just when the joke started to get tiresome, Bernie Sanders offered up a little progressive hypocrisy to give it a new twist. Nexstar owns the Vermont affiliate for ABC, and Nexstar — along with Sinclair — refuses to air Jimmy Kimmel Live! since the suspension. Senator Sanders sent a demand letter demanding that their stations return Kimmel to the air, which seems a lot like … government pressure, no?

“Decisions about what Americans watch shouldn’t be dictated by political pressure,” Sanders wrote on X. “Nexstar must immediately restore Jimmy Kimmel to viewers in Vermont and across the U.S. Broadcasters should not cave in to an authoritarian-type president who can’t accept criticism.” …

“Decisions about what Vermonters and the American people can and cannot watch on television should not be dictated by political pressure from President Donald Trump, his hand-picked Federal Communications Commission Chair (Brendan Carr), or any other government official, regardless of their ideology,” Sanders told Sook.

“The role of a broadcaster is to serve the public interest — not politicians who seek to silence and censor critics and comedians who they do not like.”

Sanders went on to call the move “un-American” and a “dangerous precedent for censorship of the media and political speech.” He also suggested that Nexstar’s battle with Kimmel is tied to the company’s forthcoming $6 billion merger with Tegna.

Why would a US Senator care about whether Kimmel gets broadcast live on Nexstar stations, as a matter of official business? That certainly seems pretty close to the kind of intervention that Sanders and other Democrats accuse Trump of staging. Vermont viewers can tune into Kimmel’s stream on Hulu if they really want to see mediocre-midwit political polemics, or they can just show up to one of Sanders’ socialist rallies, for that matter. It’s a free market, after all.

Say … did Bernie Sanders say a single word about Google’s testimony and admission this week that they participated in the Biden administration’s years-long suppression of speech from dissenters and political opponents? Not even a tongue cluck? That seems much more a case of “un-American” action than Nexstar’s decision as to what to broadcast through their own stations. 

The refusal by Nexstar and Sinclair primarily stems from the drastically declining fortunes of late-night television, generally, and Kimmel in particular. The genre is dying, poisoned by years of one-sided demagoguery and self-congratulation, eliciting clapter rather than genuine laughs or entertainment. However, even the free market gets governed by contractual obligations, and Charles Gasparino warns that Disney is about to bring the hammer down:

Indeed, it’s likely only a matter of days before both the two companies that own dozens of ABC affiliate stations nationwide cave – and end their suspension of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” over its host’s incendiary and misleading remarks about the assassination of Charlie Kirk, sources said.

That’s because Disney is expected to use its clout to pressure both companies to abide by their so-called affiliate agreements with ABC. These megabuck contracts prescribe the fee schedule that local broadcasters like Nexstar and Sinclair pay to run national programming – along with the conditions that must be met to cancel shows.

They are among the largest sources of revenue for networks including ABC, a unit of the Disney entertainment empire headed by CEO Bob Iger. With Kimmel’s show yanked from dozens of media markets across the US, national advertisers will begin demanding lower rates or rebates, forcing Iger to take legal action or other coercive measures.

“This is coming to an end – sooner rather than later,” said one veteran media executive with knowledge of the matter. “Iger knows the advertising pressure he’s going to face if Nexstar and Sinclair don’t bring back Kimmel, which means he will pull out all the stops to get Kimmel back on air.”

Well, that might be fun in the popcorn-passing sense, too. Disney might be able to bully individual affiliates, but Sinclair and Nexstar have attorneys, too, and may not just roll over for Scrooge McDuck. The advertiser pressure is excruciatingly acute, and the legal process for parsing out affiliate contracts and broadcast obligations will be excruciatingly slow. If Iger wants to go the legal route, then this will end later, not sooner, unless Iger can come up with concessions that satisfy both of these large affiliate partners.  

What concessions? Sinclair has been clear on that point. They want a full retraction of Kimmel’s maliciously false comments, not the “sorry you misunderstood my genius” gaslighting Kimmel did on his return to air. They also want Kimmel to make a “meaningful contribution” to Turning Point USA and to the Kirk family. So far, they’re not budging, and I doubt that Iger has the leverage Gasparino suggests with advertisers breathing down his neck now. 

And none of this has to do with government interventions. It all results from Disney’s refusal to deal with a progressive demagogic manchild who insists on making himself the victim and martyr, when it was his own malice that created the mess in the first place. John Ondrasik and I talked at length about that in our podcast interview this week, and John tweeted out an excerpt yesterday:

The simple truth on @jimmykimmel and the MSM’s Free Kimmelstine @EdMorrissey @hotairblog pic.twitter.com/I8dhHXAJgS

— John Ondrasik (@johnondrasik) September 26, 2025

There’s much more in the full podcast!

Editor’s Note: Here at Hot Air, we’ve been dealing with real government suppression of free speech for YEARS. Despite the threats and consequences, we refuse to go silent and remain committed to delivering the truth.

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