“Is there any way we can screw him?” requested President Richard M. Nixon.
“We’ve been trying to,” an aide responded, alluding to the White Area’s efforts to take away from the airwaves an ABC communicate display host whose evaluations of the management had positioned that “son of a b—h” at the leader government’s enemies record.
Over 50 years in the past, Nixon and his crew sought to make use of the overall weight of the government – with calls to community executives, Federal Communications Fee lawsuits, IRS audits and FBI investigations – to silence “The Dick Cavett Show.”
Cavett, who perceived to personify the liberalism that Nixon despised, had drawn the president’s ire through platforming anti-war activists like John Kerry and Jane Fonda, along side left-wing radicals equivalent to Stokely Carmichael.
Nixon in the end failed in his try to silence Cavett. ABC executives have been dedicated to impartial media, whilst the broadcasting business as an entire had garnered the eye and accept as true with of a huge target market, which insulated them from political force.
It’s a pointy distinction to President Donald Trump’s 2nd time period, throughout which he has loudly introduced his need to rid the country’s televisions of his critics, and is making headway in doing so. In July 2025, CBS introduced the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s overdue evening display. Whilst the community maintained this used to be “purely a financial decision” in keeping with scores, it got here within the wake of Colbert mocking each the president and the community.
“I hear Kimmel is next,” Trump crowed within the days after. Lo and behold, ABC in short suspended Jimmy Kimmel on Sept. 17 over feedback the comic made in regards to the reaction to the homicide of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. The suspension used to be lifted 5 days later, after it generated standard backlash and changed into a flash level free of charge speech debates within the U.S.
However why has Trump been ready to shake up late-night TV in tactics Nixon by no means may just?
It’s tempting to think about the community generation – the ones many years within the twentieth century when CBS, NBC and ABC ruled tv – as a golden age of impartial broadcasting and loose expression.
On the other hand, as political historians of media, we all know from our analysis that TV has all the time been a battleground of politics, industry pursuits and broadcasting beliefs.
The plain appeasement of Trump through community executives displays simply how a lot has modified in each the media and regulatory panorama since Nixon’s time.
Tv’s decline
Direct force from the White Area used to be the fast catalyst for ABC’s resolution to in short pull the plug on Kimmel.
Brendan Carr, the chair of the FCC, threatened ABC and its associates whilst talking at the podcast of right-wing commentator Benny Johnson.
“These companies can find ways to change conduct to take action on Kimmel,” he stated, “or, you know, there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.” Quickly, Nexstar and Sinclair, which personal dozens of ABC associates, introduced that they might pull the display, forcing ABC to behave.
That stated, community tv’s fading position within the American media ecosystem most probably made the decision an entire lot more uncomplicated.
When Nixon used to be looking to nix “The Dick Cavett Show,” this system averaged 5 million audience an evening. The rival “Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” frequently pulled in 11 million audience.
Dick Cavett interviews Beatles guitarist George Harrison on ‘The Dick Cavett Show,’ which aired on ABC from 1969 to 1975.
Bettmann/Getty Pictures
But even Cavett’s rather smaller target market is greater than double what Kimmel and his colleagues in overdue evening tv can rely on lately.
Via the 2010s, extra audience have been looking at clips of overdue evening communicate displays on their telephones and computer systems than on tv. These days, over 40% of other people underneath 30 say they don’t watch broadcast or cable TV.
Kimmel does have over 20 million subscribers on YouTube and thousands and thousands extra on social media, however ABC has struggled to monetize this following.
Briefly, overdue evening is not the TV crown jewel it as soon as used to be. In consequence, it’s a long way more uncomplicated for executives to make a decision to chop the twine on a Kimmel or a Colbert.
Deregulation and consolidation
Broadcasting has all the time been a industry the place the ones on the most sensible are swayed through the base line.
However again in Cavett’s day, most sensible decision-makers on the networks have been nonetheless dyed-in-the-wool broadcasting executives. Leonard Goldenson, the president of ABC whom Nixon’s aides hounded, had created the community from scratch and used to be invested within the beliefs of impartial media. Over at CBS, founder William S. Paley had spent many years construction the community’s logo and recognition and held identical ideals. They sought after to protect the respectability in their networks, which made them extra resolute when faced with political assaults.
Now, on the other hand, without equal choices about what occurs at ABC and CBS are made through executives on the megacorporations that personal them.
A long time of deregulation – particularly, the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which spurred a wave of media mergers and consolidation – have allowed broadcasting lately to be ruled through a handful of big conglomerates. They personal no longer most effective the networks, but additionally studios, cable channels and web products and services.
Those media giants want executive approval to additional extend their empires. This contains the United States$8 billion merger that made Paramount Skydance the landlord of CBS in summer season 2025 – a deal that used to be authorized only a week after CBS introduced the cancellation of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” Disney, which owns ABC, additionally has primary offers pending that require the federal government’s go-ahead.
If without equal purpose is ever-increasing earnings for shareholders, eliminating a overdue evening display might appear to be a small worth to pay – particularly if a specific program threatens the federal government’s sign-off on a large deal.
Charging ‘liberal bias’
The decline of scores and media consolidation has left tv extra susceptible to makes an attempt at political intimidation than ever sooner than.
Trump is a long way from the primary conservative to make use of the tv networks as a political punching bag. His means of tarring nationwide broadcasters with the comb of “liberal media bias” can also be traced again to right-wing media activists who, as early because the Forties, argued that the mainstream media close out conservative concepts and voices.
Other people protest in New York Town in opposition to ABC’s resolution to droop Jimmy Kimmel from his overdue evening display.
Stephanie Keith/Getty Pictures
Nixon, satisfied that the country’s tv business used to be in opposition to him, introduced the ones techniques to the White Area. In public, he depended on his vp, Spiro Agnew, to slam the networks as a part of an irresponsibly opposed liberal “unelected elite” with “vast power.” In non-public, Nixon abused the administrative center of the presidency to annoy and intimidate broadcasting newshounds, administrators and managers.
However the president’s no-holds-barred way is exceptional. Via threatening broadcasting licenses, instigating investigations and submitting complaints – all whilst mentioning the mainstream media “the enemy of the people” – Trump has became the dial as much as 11.
His management’s luck in quickly getting Kimmel off the air is clearly yet one more bankruptcy in an ongoing disaster free of charge speech. Sadly, given the developments within the dating between American media and politics during the last half-century, it most likely received’t be the ultimate.
