Last week, the propaganda press assured us that self-described comedian Jimmy Kimmel was pulled off air because President Donald Trump was an authoritarian, a fascist, or tyrannical. It didn’t matter that Disney executives themselves said Kimmel was yanked because he planned to double down on false and inflammatory commentary. No, what mattered to the propaganda press was spinning the story to malign Trump.
Of course the narrative collapsed Monday when Disney announced it would bring Kimmel back on air days after he falsely stated that Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin was “MAGA.”
“Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country,” Disney said Monday afternoon in a statement. “It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive. We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”
Disney itself admitted once again that pulling Kimmel off air was merely a business decision — exactly what was reported at least four days ago. It wasn’t Trump or the FCC — if it was, Disney would not be reinstating Kimmel. But that’s not what the propaganda press told us. Instead, they deliberately misled Americans so that they could distract from their own culpability in creating a hostile environment that led to Kirk’s assassination by painting Trump as the real problem and Kimmel as the real victim.
Reuters’ Dawn Chmielewski, Helen Coster and Aditya Soni wrote “Disney’s Kimmel suspension shows Trump’s increasing grip over media.” The trio claimed the suspension came “under pressure from the Federal Communications Commission” in the “latest demonstration of the power of President Donald Trump” to “bend media, entertainment and digital platforms to his will, as he uses political pressure to mute criticism and punish institutions he sees as biased against him.”
Rolling Stone’s Andrew Perez, Nikki McCann Ramirez, and Asawin Suebsaeng wrote that “Trump and company are using Charlie Kirk’s assassination as an excuse to ramp up their ongoing campaign for total power,” likening the president to an “authoritarian.” The trio claimed “The Trump administration got late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s show taken” off the airwaves.
Rolling Stone’s Al Franken compared Trump to a fascist, while Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., claimed “fascism is not on the way, it is here.”
Former President Barack Obama similarly peddled the false claim, posting on X: “After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.”
If Trump and his FCC were really the boogeyman the left claimed, Disney would not have reinstated Kimmel. But that story (you know, the real story) doesn’t advance the left’s goals. In fact, report it honestly and the left has to admit one of their own made egregious and false comments about Kirk’s assassination that only inflamed an already volatile atmosphere. So instead, the propaganda press spun the story to shift blame onto Trump — falling back on the same old tired narrative that Trump is an authoritarian and fascist.
Of course, don’t hold your breath for Rolling Stone, Reuters, Barack Obama or the rest of them to tell the truth now, to apologize for peddling blatantly false information, or for ginning up hysteria about “fascism.”
But their refusal to correct the record — combined with their deliberately false smears against the right — is why conservatives are being killed.
Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2
