ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” returns Tuesday night, but Nexstar and Sinclair are keeping the show off their affiliate stations.

Four Democratic lawmakers are opening a probe into Nexstar and Sinclair, two major TV station owners that are refusing to air Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show amid criticism of his on-air comments about the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

In a letter, first obtained by NBC News, the lawmakers asked the corporate heads of both companies for more information about their decisions to pre-empt airings of ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “how those decisions may relate to regulatory issues pending with the Trump administration.”

“If you suspended a late-night comedian’s show in part to seek regulatory favors from the administration, you have not only assisted the administration in eroding First Amendment freedoms but also create the appearance of a possible quid-pro-quo arrangement that could implicate federal anti-corruption laws,” the lawmakers wrote.

  • onslaught545@lemmy.zip
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    2 days ago

    What exactly should they be doing besides opening official investigations into 1A violations? Are you expecting them to go kill the Sinclair C-suite?

    • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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      1 day ago

      Investigate their takeover of American broadcasting. We have anti-monopoly laws for exactly these situations. Their company should be broken up.

    • Seleni@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Maybe do what Republicans always did when they were in the minority and hold the government hostage? I mean surely they’ve seen the move often enough by now to at least give it the ol’ college try…