Cancel culture

[Frank Underwood]

It is important to note that Paramount, Skydance and divisions of CBS are private sector companies.
They are in business to make profits.
They can hire or fire for any number of reasons, as long as they are in compliance with the laws.
Employees of such companies can indeed be fired for their speech, if the companies deem such speech
to be detrimental to their entities.

The First Amendment places limits on CONGRESS, not the private sector.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances"

Interpretations of the First Amendment are ongoing, but it remains consistent that people can certainly express their views, but they are also subject to the actions that result from such speech.

IE An Entertainer's speech is not restricted by Congress, but if it is an issue for his employer (who also have the same First Amendment rights),
he or she can be removed from their position, in accordance with the laws.

Employees of all private companies are subject to the same standard.

First Amendment | Contents, Freedoms, Rights, & Facts | Britannica

First Amendment, amendment (1791) to the Constitution of the United States that is part of the Bill of Rights. It protects freedom of worship, of speech, and of the press and the right to assembly and to petition. Learn more about the First Amendment, including a discussion of the various clauses.

www.britannica.com

You're correct, of course, but the implication is that Trump pressured Paramount to fire Colbert as part of his settlement with CBS.

I doubt we'll ever know for sure if that happened or not, but losing your company $40 million and criticizing them on their own network certainly made firing him easy.

 

[Frank Underwood]

Some might have applauded the show of independence, but it is what it is.

I'm sure his audience (what's left of it) applauded him for it, but the people signing his checks felt differently.

Everybody's doing a podcast these days, and I'm sure Colbert could transition into doing one if he wanted to. Conan's doing one too after leaving his late night gig.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

The four years Trump was out of office, THE VIEW bitches began every episode about Trump, logically or not. But Trump is good for ratings -- keeping THE VIEW the highest-rated daytime talk show in America (although the numbers for daytime and nighttime TV have collapsed across the board).

But daytime chat programs, helmed by screeching and dumb-ish women, can get away with it. Because people like to laugh at horrible harridans -- much of THE VIEW's continued rating strength is that people tune in to hate-watch it (unlike the fey studio audience who bring their grandmothers).

As soap fans, we know viewers prefer loud-mouthed, arrogant cows to obnoxious guys. Regardless that they're all pushing establishment narratives while pretending to be "brave" and "independent" for doing so.

I would love somebody to take out THE VIEW, too (perhaps literally) because, word is, it's in trouble. The ratings are okay compared to other talk shows, but there is some effort to get it off behind the scenes. (Trump certainly wants it gone, for nefarious reasons or not -- and he's often successful in his efforts to do these things).

But smuggy men in late-night, doing the same repetitive and vacuous things, just don't have the draw today as haggy, harpy ladies in the morning.

Stay tuned. Or don't.

 

[bmasters9]

I think he went too "wall-to-wall" on his point of view....to a point that it became tiresome even to many who agreed with him overall. All of his guests seemed to be anti-Trump people who were invited on just so they could agree with one another and perpetuate the echo-chamber. it became tedious and too "one-subject" for what was supposed to be a variety show. It's reminiscent of that cranky old uncle who sits in the living room and only complains about the neighbors all day. After a while you avoid him because you've heard it all before.

That's the major problem I've had with Fox "News" Channel-- to be honest, I was more than willing to accept that Fox had a point of view of being against liberals like Obama and Biden and Pelosi, and everything they stood for, and that was fine with me if they had just expressed it from time to time in editorial segments. Over time, however, that content took over so much that it's now practically the whole network schedule every day, even on the so-called news shows like America's Newsroom and America Reports (you'd think with titles like that that Fox would actually report and talk about other things besides politics and their grievances against liberals, like national and world news and entertainment, maybe sports and weather; not so, as grievance is apparently their middle name, same as on the left).

This is why I miss how the channel actually started; they actually did report news at the outset in 1996, but from a conservative angle (nobody wanted that however, and over time, outrage started selling like hotcakes); it's so bad now that my autism has me seeking out actual old-timey local and network newscasts on YouTube (from my youth and before) that did have substantial news content and reporting (some call that boring as all get-out, and my attention span makes it difficult to take in the breadth of all the content that was in these newscasts then, but that doesn't mean I don't try).

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I'm sure Colbert could transition into doing one if he wanted to.

And he already is. He's too useful a shill.

 

[Frank Underwood]

And he already is. He's too useful a shill.

Yes, people like that always land on their feet.

He recently did a segment with a former CIA agent-turned Democratic senator. Colbert claimed "conspiratorial-minded right wingers" came up with the deep state, while his guest said that members of the CIA are normal people just like us (minus the "neutralizing" of dissidents, of course.) CBS may have fired Colbert, but he's still a whore for hire.

 

[Frank Underwood]

A clip from 1979 has been making the rounds of Johnny Carson being interviewed by Mike Wallace. Carson said there's a danger in an entertainer becoming so self-important that they use their platform to sway people. Jay Leno has said that he got hate from Democrats and Republicans because his political humor was straight down the middle.

It's funny how anti-establishment rhetoric was on the rise in 2015, since that's about the time that late-night TV took on an increasingly pro-establishment point of view.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

A clip from 1979 has been making the rounds of Johnny Carson being interviewed by Mike Wallace. Carson said there's a danger in an entertainer becoming so self-important that they use their platform to sway people. Jay Leno has said that he got hate from Democrats and Republicans because his political humor was straight down the middle.

It's funny how anti-establishment rhetoric was on the rise in 2015, since that's about the time that late-night TV took on an increasingly establishment point of view.

Although Leno is hedging a bit there. It seemed obvious that his humor leaned to the right. Unlike Carson, a Democrat, skewered both sides, his jokes never really getting into the weeds regarding politics.

But yes, over the last decade in particular, all that's changed. And the more partisan the comics become, the more they serve that deep state that supposedly doesn't exist.

 

[Frank Underwood]

He is no doubt the reason why The Late Show with Stephen Colbert got cancelled by CBS. He pretty much bragged about it and said that Jimmy Kimmel is next.

And he was right. I've never been a supporter of cancel culture, but some of its biggest supporters are now its latest victims.

ABC suspends Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show indefinitely over his remarks about Charlie Kirk’s death

ABC has suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show indefinitely following comments he made about Charlie Kirk’s killing.

apnews.com

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

And he was right. I've never been a supporter of cancel culture, but some of its biggest supporters are now its latest victims.

ABC suspends Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show indefinitely over his remarks about Charlie Kirk’s death

ABC has suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show indefinitely following comments he made about Charlie Kirk’s killing.

apnews.com

Everybody's right. Everybody's wrong.

But mostly, everybody's wrong.

 

[CeeCee72]

"Cancel culture" is a part of modern life. When public figures say or do something that enrages the public they are paid to entertain, they probably will lose their job.

I'm not going to bother to boycott ABC or CBS or any business's for making a business decision. Having said that, when the head of the FCC is bragging in public that he threatened ABC's broadcasting license over Kimmel's comments and the President is now promising to revoke the broadcast licenses of ANY station that hat covers him "unfairly," then THAT is a major problem and a direct violation of the Constitution of the United States of America.

 

[Frank Underwood]

Yes, the FCC and the Trump Administration are completely overstepping their bounds by threatening the networks. MAGA was outraged over the censorship that took place on social media at the request of the Biden Administration (and rightfully so,) but Trump's taking it to even greater extremes. This is something everybody should be against.

On the other hand, two things can be true at the same time. While we should all oppose the government trampling on the first amendment rights of US citizens, I find Kimmel to be a partisan hack. When I mentioned supporters of cancel culture being its latest victims, I was thinking about what Kimmel said after ABC fired Roseanne in 2018: "And ABC, to their credit, didn't waste any time; they cancelled her show today. I'm not a fan of censorship, but this wasn't about free speech. It was about consequences for saying something vile. You can say what you want, but networks don't have to pay you to say it. You can't just blame Ambien for that. Actions have consequences, and ABC made the right call." One could argue that referring to Trump supporters as "the MAGA gang" and claiming the shooter was "one of them" is vile, but people often have selective outrage.

To be clear, the FCC and Trump are wrong for threatening ABC. However, Kimmel believes that ABC is right to fire people for "vile" comments. Kimmel once said that the unvaccinated should be denied ICU beds, but like all of his schtick, it was a vile statement made on behalf of the establishment. That's why he's had a show for over 20 years.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Yes, the FCC and the Trump Administration are completely overstepping their bounds by threatening the networks. MAGA was outraged over the censorship that took place on social media at the request of the Biden Administration (and rightfully so,) but Trump's taking it to even greater extremes. This is something everybody should be against.

On the other hand, two things can be true at the same time. While we should all oppose the government trampling on the first amendment rights of US citizens, I find Kimmel to be a partisan hack. When I mentioned supporters of cancel culture being its latest victims, I was thinking about what Kimmel said after ABC fired Roseanne in 2018: "And ABC, to their credit, didn't waste any time; they cancelled her show today. I'm not a fan of censorship, but this wasn't about free speech. It was about consequences for saying something vile. You can say what you want, but networks don't have to pay you to say it. You can't just blame Ambien for that. Actions have consequences, and ABC made the right call." One could argue that referring to Trump supporters as "the MAGA gang" and claiming the shooter was "one of them" is vile, but people often have selective outrage.

To be clear, the FCC and Trump are objectively wrong for threatening ABC. On the other hand, Kimmel believed ABC is right to fire people for comments they find "vile."

The Roseanne Barr thing from spring 2018 has always bothered me. She claims she genuinely thought Valerie Plame "was white" and maybe she did. I dunno.

But part of late-2010s cancel culture was that "you should have known" this-or-thar. So they could cancel potentially everybody and, hence, keep everybody on egg shells (which was always the main objective anyway).

Jimmy Kimmel is such a disappointment. He presents himself as a wry, no-bullshit kind of humorists. But he's just a smug -- really smug -- and hollow poseur for the establishment (in his case, I don't think he knows it) with his shit-eating grin 24/7. But if he wasn't the hack he is, he wouldn't have had that job for 22 years -- today, he just isn't generating the profits for ABC, especially not enough to have them weather the controversy under the current administration.

Word is, ABC is trying to "fix" the situation due to the bad publicity.

As I've always, always said: Wokeness was a rightwing psy-op to turn the left woke, turn it stupid, and to bring it down. Forcing the pendulum to swing back too far in the other direction. And, voila!, here we are. (And the USAID files, released on TwitterX this year, admit that that is exactly what they've been doing overseas: sowing Wokeness and chaos around the world in order to facilitate regime change).

But the left -- or what passes for it today -- enthusiastically took the bait and ran with it. And their handlers knew they would.

And, as per usual and by design, there's no discussion of class issues -- why the working class is continuingly broker.

 

[CeeCee72]

ABC has announced Kimmel will be back on the air on Tuesday. Wonder if the Disney/Hulu/ESPN cancellations helped move the needle.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

For all the reasons the late night hosts are passe (at best) I thought Kimmel's joke was shockingly mild by the time I heard it. It was almost funny. And not very offensive at all.

 

[CeeCee72]

For all the reasons the late night hosts are passe (at best) I thought Kimmel's joke was shockingly mild by the time I heard it. It was almost funny. And not very offensive at all.

I didn't think it rose to the level to deserve a suspension either.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Relevant to this topic, I've just stumbled upon this article distinguishing between "free speech" and "me speech" which I thought interesting.

 

[CeeCee72]

Sinclair, one of the biggest media groups in the country, announced that their stations would continue to preempt Kimmel regardless of ABC's decision to reinstate his show.

 

[Jock Ewing Fan]

It may all be a moot point

Late Night Tv may need to reinvent itself if ratings and revenues have declined too much

Salaries and staffing may face Signiant reductions

 

[Crimson]

Late Night Tv may need to reinvent

I'm hardly one to cry for "diversity" for its own sake, but American late night is so ... samey. Both Jimmys, Seth, Colbert -- they're basically the same person, tepidly amusing, left-leaning middle-aged white guys in suits.

Late night hasn't been interesting since the days of Arsenio and Joan Rivers.