Yesterday, September 19, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed ABC Television’s decision to cancel the program “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” hosted by the comedian of the same name, after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requested that ABC launch an investigation into Jimmy Kimmel’s heavily criticized remarks about the assassination of far-right activist Charlie Kirk.
According to Reuters, speaking to the press last night aboard Air Force One on his way back to the United States after a state visit to the United Kingdom, President Trump threatened to “revoke licenses” from all television programs in the U.S. that criticize the government.
ABC’s decision on September 17 to end the talk show, under pressure from the FCC, has been strongly condemned across the American media, artistic, and academic communities.
Correspondent Vincent Souriau reports from Washington:
“Dangerous, extreme, alarming… The ruthless decision by ABC has been the center of almost all criticism. This is truly an act of censorship,” said Stella, a final-year social sciences student. She added: “Either the network’s executives are aligned with the far-right, or they are cowards who chose to kneel. And in both cases, I don’t think it’s a good thing.”
From a procedural standpoint, the way ABC reached this decision was completely inappropriate, said Olivia, a master’s student in public policy. According to her, ABC should have taken the time to engage with Jimmy Kimmel before deciding to fire him: “We may not agree with what he said. But suspending him without taking the time to debate, without learning more about his views, simply responding instantly by removing him from the network — that was clearly extreme and incomprehensible.”
The most sensitive issue, according to Kevin, a first-year economics graduate student at Georgetown, is what happens next. He believes this kind of approach will spread throughout the media industry: “This shows that the U.S. president is gaining increasing influence over how media companies operate, and that also means more lawsuits against outlets that do not support the administration. I find that very troubling. A dark cloud of conservative ideology is hanging over the media, and that makes me worried…”
According to these students, this episode only reflects the deeply polarized atmosphere and the spread of inflammatory rhetoric in American society today.
Democrats push for “free speech protection” law in the U.S.
According to AFP on September 18, 2025, Democratic lawmakers announced they would introduce a bill to “protect freedom of speech” in the United States, which they say is being stifled by President Donald Trump and his administration — especially in the aftermath of the assassination of far-right activist Charlie Kirk.
Senator Chris Murphy, speaking at a press conference in Congress in Washington, called the dismissal “censorship. State control over speech. This is not America.” He accused President Trump of “exploiting” this “national tragedy” to “destroy political opposition” instead of “uniting the country.”
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