I hate that messaging has to be this dumbed down but you're absolutely right and I wish Democratic leadership would get this through their thick Ivy-league skulls

To be fair, Ramius was Lithuanian, and maybe a Lithuanian accent sounds kind of like Scottish when speaking Russian.

(Doesn't explain the end of the movie when he's actually speaking English but shh)

I guarantee there are Disney boardrooms and zoom calls full of executives hammering this out right now. But it also really sucks that the future of freedom of speech is going to be determined by executives arguing over if it's better for their bottom line to defend a former Man Show host.

How does this benefit or hurt ABC and the Disney corporation? Do they risk a lefty boycott? Risk making enemies with the Trump administration? Do they want the headache of trying to restructure their broadcast operations in a dying medium? Do they give the Trump FCC an inch and let them take a mile?

ABC may have contractual obligations that they can enforce their affiliates to air their programming, but they may not. But that also requires painful and expensive litigation. They might also seek affiliates, but that is risky and carries with it a whole other set of hurt.

So the question is:

This is, and I want to be clear, absolutely CHILLING. But is there a 1st amendment violation?

The biggest avenue here for 1A protection is Brendan Carr's actions. But Disney would have to argue that his THREAT was actionable and sue to defend.

Sinclair and Nexstar are just being shitty businesses.

- Nexstar, who needs FCC approval to buy Tenga and obtain unprecedented media market ownership, threatens to pull Kimmel and potentially other ABC programming over Kimmel's perceived slight.
- Sinclair, who has always been shitty, does the same

ABC panics and "temporarily" suspends the show.

From what I've been able to piece together, reading between the outrage and the actual headlines, here's what actually happened:
- Brendan Carr, FCC Chairman, THREATENED to pull ABC's broadcast license and has been poking at them for a few weeks

bsky.app/profile/clev...

He should be able to catch Abbott pretty easily I say start with him

No regular people pulling this shit online can wear it, too. "Both sides are the same"-d us straight into fascism

Honestly shocked the river water hasn't gotten him yet