Not everything is good news for Jimmy Kimmel and his program. After almost a week of suspension after, the ABC chain – Disney conglomerate supply – announced Monday that it would resume the recordings and broadcast of the program. That supposes that Jimmy Kimmel Live! You can see again in much of the country … but not in all. Because two powerful networks of local stations, Nexstar and Sinclair, have decided to keep the boycott against the program.
On Monday, when ABC’s decision to go beyond the wishes of the Trump and Sinclair and Nexstar administration did not seem too happy. Nexstar maintained his silence, but sources close to Sinclair began to drop that they were not favorable to their broadcast. This Tuesday morning, this has been confirmed.
“Last week we made the decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel Live! After what ABC described as ‘inappropriate and insensitive’ comments of Kimmel at a critical moment of our national speech, “Nexstar explained in a statement.” We maintain that decision waiting for all parties to commit to encourage an environment of respectful and constructive dialogue in the markets in which we operate. “His words are similar to those of Sinclair: Jimmy Kimmel Live! In their chains affiliated with ABC and will replace it with news programming, “they explained late Monday.” Conversations with ABC continue while we evaluate the possible return of the program. “
The decision affects the spectators, because Sinclair owns 66 chains, of which 38 broadcast the program at the local level; In fact, it is the one that has the most ABC stations, among them, the one that serves to the Washington DC area, the capital. For its part, Nexstar has 200, with 28 of them affiliated with ABC. According to the newspaper, that represents about 25% of the program spectators, which would imply a decrease in visualizations and, also, of advertising income.
Nexstar’s refusal has a major background, because the network (which reaches 70% of the population of the United States) is in the process of purchase of another, Tegna, a fundamental competitor with which he wants to do for no less than 6.2 billion dollars. But for this you have to obtain the permission of the FCC, the communications regulator; that is, of the Donald Trump government. And Brendan Carr, president of that agency, was one of the most insistent when canceling the Kimmel program.
For its part, although it is not yet in the process, Sinclair has already announced that it is thinking of buying M&A, another media group, as it was learned last August. In addition, its owners are very conservative and its executive responsible, David Smith, is a high -copete republican donor, in addition to intimate friend, contrary to abortion and homosexual marriage. As explained A few years ago, during the mandate of Democrat Barack Obama, Smith forced the chains to broadcast critical stories against the then president. In recent years, he has caused Sinclair to turn towards a more favorable vision of Republicans and Trump.
The role of the national administration in the one has been fundamental; In fact, Carr was one of the instigators of the program suspension. After Kimmel’s comment about Kirk, murdered on September 10, the head of the FCC commented on a podcast that Kimmel had to be thrown “for good or bad,” since he was making an “effort to lie to the US people”, stating that his agency was going to “have solutions to study.” Nexstar was the first to react. They decided to cancel immediately and then followed ABC.
For its part, Kimmel has not opened his mouth throughout the week of the suspension. Although numerous faces of (more than 400, among which are Meryl Streep, Selena Gomez, Diego Luna or Robert de Niro), and despite them, the presenter has remained silent. His only words, on Tuesday in his profile of, have been to remember the, as well as one of the pioneers to introduce political and social comments in the program. “Today I miss this guy,” he said, in a photo with him.
In addition to Nexstar and Sinclair, there are other local groups that broadcast the chain program, such as Hearst and Gray, with numerous local stations. They have no problem, and have announced that they will show the Kimmel program on Tuesday night. Although these types of local chain groups have the right not to issue the content, if they believe it is not suitable for their audience, they use it rarely. For example, the newspaper recalls a case in 2006, when a Mormon of Utah refused to broadcast a Madonna special in which they feared that the singer would make some improper religious gesture, such as hanging on a cross.
It does not seem easy for the positions to reconcile. This week, the National Issuers Association, which represents different television groups, sent a statement and called for calm. In it, titled, defended the freedom of the chains, but also assured that it continued to “see veiled threats suggesting that the stations should be sanctioned for issuing content contrary to a specific point of view”, and assured that this was “incorrect.”
