American Politics

[seanfhear]

Yeah? Is that supposed to be some kind of gotcha?

How do you feel about the head of the FCC threatening a broadcaster's licence because a TV comedian made a very mild political joke? The objectionable line seems to have been that MAGA were struggling with the idea that the Kirk shooter was "one of their own". Meanwhile, it was silent when Fox News broadcast a suggestion that homeless people be murdered by lethal injection. The head of the FCC is one of the authors of Project 2025.

In fairness, I suggest that Jimmy Kimmel's employers were just waiting for the right time to get rid of him ( as were Stephen Colbert's employers ) ~ ~ Their viewing figures are shockingly low ~ ~ They had become party political and very unfunny ( opposite of funny in fact ) ~ ~ How come these guys fail to work out that they are supposed to entertain by being funny and entertaining ?

Let's say the host of the Late Late Show spent every show shilling for Sinn Féin ( just to give an example ) ~ ~ How long realistically could that be allowed to continue ?

The real surprise is ~ ~ How the hell were Colbert and Kimmel allowed to get away with producing such boring dirge for so long ~ ~ And with such low viewing figure.

I suppose now, Jimmy Kimmel can go back to Black-Face and being a public pervert behind a woman on TV ! !

[John83]

None of that is what I asked about. How do you feel about the government regulator threatening the license of a broadcaster for nakedly political reasons?

Some of it is bunk too, e.g., Colbert was the highest rated show in his time-slot last year.

[pineapple stu]

Isn't it funny how the troll is still dominating the conversation because people keep feeding him?

[Neish]

Can facts be a gotcha ?

He lost approx 10-12% viewers over summer months when traditionally TV rating drop due to holidays and longer bright hours. Trump has lost 15-20% on his approval ratings since his inauguration

[passinginterest]

Isn't it funny how the troll is still dominating the conversation because people keep feeding him?

That's almost the crux of the issue though isn't it? How do you change these extreme views if you don't keep trying to engage? It seems that belligerence and ignorance has become the way to "win" any argument. I very rarely engage in debate online because it's been very polarising for a long time, nobody has ever won an argument on the internet after all, but what else is there at this point? Just try and let the "post-truth" era run its course? Maybe a massive rise in infant mortality due to the anti vax crowd, or a full scale world war might start to change things? It's hard to see anything other than a generation of suffering before things might start to moderate in the US at least. Where are the moderate Republican's gone? It's mad to be yearning for someone as balanced and statesman like as George W Bush!

[pineapple stu]

I guess the flip side of the problem is that any real debate has been sidelined by a vocal minority (this thread is a microcosm of that) - and that's also bad.

There's definitely an extent to which a new generation can react against the defining characteristics of the one that went before - Andrew Doyle (in The New Puritans: How the Religion of Social Justice Captured the Western World) suggests this may be a way that we pull away from the more extreme social justice/witch hunts we're seeing lately.

But that could be a case of addressing the symptom rather than the cause. If a new generation rebels against, say, the idea that men can enter women's sports or that wearing blackface 15 years ago is somehow horribly offensive, the question is whether they'll just find other things horribly offensive and go after them Salem Witch-style, or whether they'll moderate their views overall. They're two very different things of course.

I do increasingly think that social media needs to be burned and destroyed though. And "Oh you can't regulate the internet" - but then I think we saw with Trump's TikTok ban that you can. And yes, I'm sure there's ways and means around those bans, but if banning X, Tumblr, TikTok or whatever ones are best gone after means interaction decreases by a significant amount, then that's got to be a win. And if some influencers or content creators lose their jobs, well in the greater scheme of things, so what?



(And yes, I'm aware of the Simpsons meme on the irony of appearing on social media in order to decry it, so don't bother pointing that out)

[seanfhear]

None of that is what I asked about. How do you feel about the government regulator threatening the license of a broadcaster for nakedly political reasons?

Some of it is bunk too, e.g., Colbert was the highest rated show in his time-slot last year.

How would you say Colberts ratings were against the likes of Jay Leno ( not to mention Johnny Carson )

These guys have gone very party political ( maybe to make headlines ) because virtually no one was watching their shows !

Is it Ok for chat show hosts to be party political ?

Surely, if they have gone very biased to one party ( political side ) then it is the job of the regulator, to regulate ~ ~ It is actually very surprising that, these totally biased chat show hosts got away with so much for so long !

And let's be honest about it, their party political musings ain't exactly helping the American Democrat party because virtually no-one is watching these very boring shows ! !

[seanfhear]

He lost approx 10-12% viewers over summer months when traditionally TV rating drop due to holidays and longer bright hours. Trump has lost 15-20% on his approval ratings since his inauguration

There is virtually no-one watching these shows at any time ~ ~ Which probably explains why they are doing the controversial political stuff i.e. To get mentioned in the media.

When virtually nobody is watching their shows they have to stir up stuff in the media ~ ~ This time Jimmy Kimmel went too far and has correctly being sacked for it. I am sure his bosses are glad to see the back of him. It will be telling that Jimmy Kimmel will almost certainly disappear from public view, with-out a big network to push him. I have seem more talented stones ! ! !

[SkStu]

Not at all. It’s bullsh*t. How would you react if they silenced Joe Rogan (I don’t know if that’s a good comparison)?

On the other hand, news media fully has a responsibility to remain unbiased and report facts. That has disappeared in the USA and has crept elsewhere.

Anyway, back on point, with the exception of news media, anyone can say whatever the fck they want without breaking the law. Whether it’s funny or not is for individuals/viewers to decide. Not some bullsh*t regulator. I could take or leave Kimmel, I like Fallon and despised Colbert. But - back to principles - give me the smart and irreverent humour of someone like Ricky Gervais any day of the week and keep letting him do his thing.

[seanfhear]

Not at all. It’s bullsh*t. How would you react if they silenced Joe Rogan (I don’t know if that’s a good comparison)?

On the other hand, news media fully has a responsibility to remain unbiased and report facts. That has disappeared in the USA and has crept elsewhere.

Anyway, back on point, with the exception of news media, anyone can say whatever the fck they want without breaking the law. Whether it’s funny or not is for individuals/viewers to decide. Not some bullsh*t regulator. I could take or leave Kimmel, I like Fallon and despised Colbert. But - back to principles - give me the smart and irreverent humour of someone like Ricky Gervais any day of the week and keep letting him do his thing.

Surely, there is nothing stopping Jimmy Kimmel doing his own podcast ?

Let's see how Jimmy Kimmel gets on without a big network behind him ? !

Interestingly, it was Barack Obama that took a law off the books requiring media ( I assume national media ) to Not mislead the American People. Strange things can come from strange places in American Politics ~ ~ American Politics is very dark behind the scenes, regardless of the Soap-Opera played front of house !

[Razors left peg]

The whole point of the Kimmell thing is not whether hes good or bad, whether you like him or not. Its that Trump has said, that these TV stations cant keep their license to operate if they allow hosts to criticize him. I posted the recording of it on previous page, so this is not just some theory. It's the leader of the country strong arming the media.

I read something last night that Disney, who own ABC are trying to buy Fubo TV and need the Trump admistration to approve the deal because of anti competition laws etc, and that's why they caved so quickly on Kimmell.

[seanfhear]

The whole point of the Kimmell thing is not whether hes good or bad, whether you like him or not. Its that Trump has said, that these TV stations cant keep their license to operate if they allow hosts to criticize him. I posted the recording of it on previous page, so this is not just some theory. It's the leader of the country strong arming the media.

I read something last night that Disney, who own ABC are trying to buy Fubo TV and need the Trump admistration to approve the deal because of anti competition laws etc, and that's why they caved so quickly on Kimmell.

You could take Lefties seriously on this sort of thing, if they had not been totally silent on people that they did not like getting sacked / de-platformed etc etc etc.

Lefties were more that happy to silence anyone that disagreed with them.

If Jimmy Kimmel was pulling in the viewers by being entertaining and funny, then he wouldn't have been doing boring political stuff in the first place.

Kimmel was only doing this stuff because he didn't have the talent to do anything else.

[tetsujin1979]

But eggs were expensive

[Nesta99]

You'd always kind of assume that if appointing a head of a law enforcement agency that you'd opt for somone with a background in law enforcement not a social media podcaster like Patel. It'd be like me being appointed as garda commissioner cause I'm a Dundalk fan and so was the Minister of Justice. Or a head of a key aspect of a department of defence like the pentagon being run by news presenter who then fires a bunch of military people, makes unilateral decisions on foreign policy without a president's or givernment's knowledge eg Ukraine support, has to do an about turn when its reported and next up journalists' access is revoked. If i thought it was possible that there would be a military coup in the US that would overthrow government it would be Popgun Pete. Donald acts on advice of who the last person he spoke to and soundbites from his preferred soap outlets. Patel is a lackey, Hegseth is his own person, kows what he wants and will keep trying.

[John83]

You could take Lefties seriously on this sort of thing, if they had not been totally silent on people that they did not like getting sacked / de-platformed etc etc etc.

You're really determined to make no distinction between government action and public opinion.