U.S. President Donald Trump is escalating his attacks on the press by threatening to revoke the broadcast licenses of networks that give him negative coverage.
Trump’s comment came after ABC indefinitely suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night program following threats from Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr over remarks Kimmel made after the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
The Trump administration’s actions have been widely denounced. Fellow late-night host Stephen Colbert called the suspension of Kimmel’s show “blatant censorship.”
On “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart mockingly described himself as the “patriotically obedient host” of what he called “the all-new, government-approved ‘Daily Show.’”
Stewart went on to say: “The point is, our great administration has laid out very clear rules on free speech. Now, some naysayers may argue that this administration’s speech concerns are merely a cynical ploy, a thin gruel of a ruse, a smoke screen to obscure an unprecedented consolidation of power and unitary intimidation and coldly antithetical to any experiment in a constitutional republic governance. Some people would say that. Not me, though. I think it’s great.”
Meanwhile, congressional Democrats denounced the Trump administration’s threats and introduced a bill to strengthen protections for people targeted over political speech. Democratic Congressmember Greg Casar of Texas said: “We are in the biggest free speech crisis this country has faced since the McCarthy era. The murder of Charlie Kirk was a horrific crime, and it’s clear that Trump wants to hijack that horrific crime to silence anyone who disagrees with the president about any issue.”
[ SOURCE: DEMOCRACY NOW ]
