The late night host announced that his interview with the Texas Senate candidate will only air on YouTube

Jimmy Kimmel says that his interview with Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico will not air on TV after President Donald Trump’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) threatened Jimmy Kimmel Live!, ABC, their affiliates, and local stations.

During his Wednesday monologue, Kimmel said that while Talarico would stop by the show for an interview on Thursday, viewers at home won’t be able to watch it on broadcast television. Instead, the interview with the Democratic nominee has been relegated to YouTube.

“Tomorrow night, I’ll be interviewing James Talarico — tomorrow night, under unusual circumstances,” Kimmel began. “You know, for a lot of years, for the whole 20-plus years of our show, in fact, I’ve been interviewing Americans who are running for office with no problem at all, just like Letterman did, Leno did, Arsenio, et cetera, et cetera. I’ve interviewed a lot of political candidates from Hillary Clinton to Ted Cruz to Donald Trump himself.”

  • timochka@lemmy.zip
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    8 hours ago

    Can’t wait for Vance or Musk to come to Europe to give us another one of their lectures on free speech… Because it’s only free speech if it’s hate speech, right lads?

  • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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    11 hours ago

    Just put his interview on TV, and openly invite Paxton in for equal time. If he accepts - AWESOME! Interview the shit out of him. If he doesn’t, tell the FCC to go fuck themselves, they tried.

  • criss_cross@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    I can’t tell if this is a Talarico/Dem stunt or if the republicans are really that dense and don’t understand the Streisand effect.

    • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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      11 hours ago

      or if the republicans are really that dense and don’t understand the Streisand effect.

      That’s where I’m putting my bet.

      • criss_cross@lemmy.world
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        12 hours ago

        I know that’s why it’s confusing.

        His poll numbers skyrocket after that incident. He got a lot of free publicity as the “candidate republicans fear most”.

        And then they decided “fuck it let’s do that again???”

    • Doomsider@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      You mean the free speech people are going to end free speech? Never!

      You mean the Don’t Tread On Me group are going to take a woman’s right to choose away? Never!

      You mean the anti-pedophile movement is going to protect pedophiles? Never!

      You mean a corrupt businessman is going to enrich himself through the presidency? Never!

      You mean the guy that wants to go to Mars is actually a space Nazi? Never!

      Shit gets old after awhile.

      • hoppeduponcoffee@lemmy.zip
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        20 hours ago

        Every time you obey these fascists in any way, it empowers them. While I appreciate his sensitivity towards the local networks (not so much towards ABC), every time you cave to these shits, it empowers them even more.

        He missed an opportunity to create a lot more enemies for this administration. Everyone public figure should be giving a defiant middle finger to them. Trey and Matt did it and they’re billionaires for it.

        • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
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          16 hours ago

          While I appreciate his sensitivity towards the local networks (not so much towards ABC), every time you cave to these shits, it empowers them even more.

          He missed an opportunity to create a lot more enemies for this administration. Everyone public figure should be giving a defiant middle finger to them. Trey and Matt did it and they’re billionaires for it.

          Trey and Matt own South Park America. I’m pretty sure Kimmel doesn’t own his Late Show, which is why he has to walk a tightrope

      • PolarKraken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        10 hours ago

        [edit: whoops, thread has already come and gone anyway lol, feel free to ignore, I’d just delete (my own comment) cuz useless but that feels sneaky and weird]

        Kinda is if Kimmel says “I’m not coming to work anymore until that goes on the air”

          • PolarKraken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            10 hours ago

            Haha totally sounds that way, my bad! Nah I just have a tendency to come along commenting on stale ass threads is all, just indicating I did that here.

            • starik@lemmy.today
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              9 hours ago

              I see. No worries.

              You’d be surprised. Some of the more active threads will keep getting new comments for a few days. This one is only 15 hours old and is near the top of All-Active.

              • PolarKraken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                8 hours ago

                Yeah, cuz of dorks like me and the ensuing “discussion” 😂

                Nah all jokes aside I get it, it’s not that fast paced and it’s a small place. I sometimes do it way more awkwardly but this wasn’t really that, you right.

    • acargitz@lemmy.ca
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      19 hours ago

      Only way is elbows up. Give the bully a bloody nose. It doesn’t matter if you lose. He’ll think twice next time and you might inspire others to stand up too.

    • volore@scribe.disroot.org
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      22 hours ago

      nothing scares these christofascist clowns like an actual Christian using Christ’s teachings to tell everyone there’s nothing Christian about Trump and his ilk, and I am 100% here for it. That’s the only way we’re ever going to deprogram a large portion of these MAGA morons, whenever this bullshit ends.

      • protist@retrofed.com
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        19 hours ago

        They seem to be incredibly scared of Talarico’s message, given this is the second time this has happened to him specifically. They should be scared, because his message is fucking incredible

      • Nouvellalia@lemmy.world
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        21 hours ago

        I don’t think turning a person from one fascist leader to another is “deprogramming”. It certainly won’t keep them from just doing it again in a few years.

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              18 hours ago

              yhwh

              listen, if they can highlight the parts of the bible they like (stoning gays, women’s servitude to men, slavery, many others, take your pick) and yank out the parts they don’t (95% of the rest of the book) for the purpose of dividing this country into bullshit culture wars; then so can any reasonably well-versed and so-inclined preacher do the same with the verses that tell you to love your neighbor, not to fuck around on your partner, or those about Jesus visiting the temple and chasing the money-changers and merchants out with a whip. All it takes is someone that can quote their own book back at them that isn’t also a giant piece of shit, and Talarico nominally seems to believe in the nicer parts of the Bible and not the batshit insane ones.

              I can’t read the man’s mind, he might be a more sociopathic duplicitous piece of shit than Fetterman turned out to be – but I’d certainly be surprised if that turned out to be the case, at least Fetterman gave off signs. I’m sure we can at least agree, that assuming he is what he seems to be, it would be better to have the aforementioned morons following Talarico – and by extension, the nicer parts of the bible – rather than hanging on President Shits-His-Pants every word, no?

              • Nouvellalia@lemmy.world
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                12 hours ago

                I absolutely agree that Talrico or people using their dumb book against the magat brainwashing, is what we need right now. I am not speaking against that at all.

                I was simply musing that it’s not deprogramming. It’s reprogramming or redirecting maybe.

                Look, it’s simply not possible to unhook these people from fascism. The best we can hope for is to bind them to a version of it that helps the community rather than hurts it. I think “good guy jesus” is the best we can do, and I am behind Talrico style reprogramming 100%.

                I just also think it’s important to acknowledge that the reason these people are so ripe for fascist picking is not because trump did anything much, he simply slightly diverted the programming that the church and their parents and the schools put in them as kids. If we ever want to even have a chance at minimizing future hitlers and trumps, we have to stop this before it starts.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      Paradox of Tolerance. Fascists leverage an open society to build political support, then close off the society as soon as they’re in power.

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      22 hours ago

      They never mean anything they say, and all their “principles” are just bullshit. They never cared about your freedom of speech. I bet a sizeable amount of BUT MAH FREEZED PEACH asshats would be ecstatic if Jimmy Kimmel were to be given a death sentence for offending the republicons.

      • apftwb@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        “Look, I am not too happy about Jimmy Kimmel’s sentence, I think it is a bit harsh. but still agree with this administration on how they are handling other issues”

    • Malica@lemmy.zip
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      20 hours ago

      They don’t believe words have meaning, they’re only to be used as cudgels and shields.

    • jaaake@lemmy.world
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      22 hours ago

      Literally what happened with the same politician being interviewed by Colbert during his primary. FCC told them they couldn’t air the interview, they posted it on YouTube, Streisand Effect happens and it’s one of the most viewed Colbert videos ever. It won him that election. I think Jasmine Crockett was a better candidate and she may have stood a chance had she gotten that level of exposure.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        21 hours ago

        It won him that election.

        Idk about that. Talarico had a stronger ground game and a prodigious fundraising haul. He won with a healthy 6-pt margin over Crockett.

        Incidentally, CBS gave plenty of coverage and multiple interviews to Crockett during her primary run. And Crockett was even interviewed - multiple times, including on CBS - specifically over the Colbert show controversy. The idea that she just wasn’t getting enough press to win in Texas seems sparse.

        I think the biggest baggage Crockett had to carry was Colin Alred’s. He flubbed it in 2022. So Texas voters decided to try and run another Beto-style West Texas cracker, instead of a second Dallas social media suburbanite.

        • jaaake@lemmy.world
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          19 hours ago

          Sounds like you’ve got better insight into Texas politics than I do. From my outside perspective, this is what put Talarico into the national spotlight. I was previously unfamiliar with him, but had seen her fighting the good fight against GOP stupidity and ICE specifically.

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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            18 hours ago

            From my outside perspective, this is what put Talarico into the national spotlight.

            Sure. Nationally it was big for his brand. But all the local media was on this race months beforehand. Texas Tribune, Houston Chronicle, all the local stations. Ken Paxton running against John Cornyn showed an enormous fissure in the Texas Republican Party when it was already sporting wounds in Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio. Everyone who follows Texas politics was locked in on the Texas Senate race going back to 2025.

            Also, plus, too, Abbott running for a third term as Governor was kinda assumed to be a shoe-in. And Texas is a big media market. So Senate is where the coverage naturally went.

            I was previously unfamiliar with him, but had seen her fighting the good fight against GOP stupidity and ICE specifically.

            I mean, Crockett was certainly good at getting in front of a camera. But she was heavily keyed in on African American civil rights and not terribly popular with Latinos. Without Talarico in the race, she could have probably clinched it. But he’s scratching all the itches that your classic Central Texas indie voter loves.

            I think Talarico caught people off guard because he codes as a classic Conservative Republican in appearance and demeanor. But that’s just what Anne Richards / LBJ loving Texas Democrats all look like.

    • DaveyRocket@lemmy.world
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      11 hours ago

      That’s the problem. There are a lot of people on Earth 2 who only get information the old-fashioned way. So Internet-savvy people, who probably already know how to find this kind of information, will be happy to have another choir-friendly preacher, but the people who most need to hear this now never will.

    • bedwyr@piefed.ca
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      22 hours ago

      How far are we from youtube censoring stuff like this that the admin asks them to?

      We really need to further grow some alternates, youtube is too large to trust, even if google didn’t own them.

  • MrVilliam@sh.itjust.works
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    20 hours ago

    Literal evidence of chilling free speech. He is self censoring in response to threats of legal consequences by the government. It’s the easiest, slam dunk court win on infringing on constitutional rights, but this executive branch and these judges are so extremist that it’s still not a guaranteed win. This election really could be the last chance to reclaim some semblance of freedom.

  • Corvidae@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    There seem to be some similarities to the Colbert incident. Talarico? They want to censor Talarico’s views?

    • skittle07crusher@sh.itjust.works
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      16 hours ago

      Makes sense to me! As opposed to the fake Christians and Christofascists, here you have a real Christian and a more or less Christosocialist

    • skittle07crusher@sh.itjust.works
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      16 hours ago

      Makes sense to me! As opposed to the fake Christians and Christofascists, here you have a real Christian and a more or less Christosocialist

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      It’s the same trick, executed out of the same playbook.

      Go to the FCC, say “We’re going to do an interview with a popular candidate for Senate”, get a nastygram from some DOGE staffer back in response, then generate a bunch of attention-grabbing headlines with “The Man Won’t Let Us Interview America’s Coolest Senator on TV so Come See It On Our Website Instead”.

      • Thunderbird4@lemmy.world
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        20 hours ago

        You’re suggesting that this is a stunt by Talarico’s campaign or by Kimmel? You’d sooner believe that both Kimmel and Colbert’s shows would pull the same stunt to boost their YouTube channels than believe trump’s FCC when they say they’re willing to pull broadcast licenses over political discourse?

        • BigPotato@lemmy.world
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          20 hours ago

          It can be everything - Kimmel’s people could know that Trump would threaten ABC to not air the interview, allowing them to get more views. Talarico’s team might know that the interview would get canned, giving them more publicity. Trump’s people may be actually trying to suppress Talarico’s team from getting the publicity and totally plan to pull the license. ABC might be aware of all of this and planned to kotow from the beginning.

          Who knows?

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          18 hours ago

          You’re suggesting that this is a stunt by Talarico’s campaign or by Kimmel?

          Kimmel. He’s a hack, so of course he stole Colbert’s bit.

          You’d sooner believe that both Kimmel and Colbert’s shows would pull the same stunt to boost their YouTube channels

          I think Kimmel’s boosting his own brand because he’s also on his way out.

  • yeehaw@lemmy.ca
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    21 hours ago

    I watch it primarily on YouTube anyways so that works for me.

    But still, what a fucking insecure rapist loser trump is.