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This is not a “both sides” issue. The government using its full power—even threatening to—over a joke (and can we dispense with the subterfuge about it being over DEI?) is wholly and completely unacceptable. Random people on social media spouting off about their hatred for this president is not remotely the same as they do not possess the power to force a business to capitulate on a whim. Either we believe in the protections of the first amendment or we do not. And the very idea of the government threading a license over content is de facto state-run media. There has already been a concerted effort to stifle criticism, and now it’s being ratcheted up.

Basically we're under a dictatorship right now. No one will call it that but that's basically what it is. It is all to appease dear leader and his whims. So therefore, anything he says is bullshit. He lies and breaks the law in virtually everything he does so nothing that comes out of our government is legitimate anymore. And even if it is, It's a lone act hidden under hundreds and even thousands of illegal actions. As soon as he is out of power, a whole bunch of people are going to prison. Hopefully him if he's still alive when it all ends.

Respectfully, if you think ABC (News) has become the equivalent of state-run media, then you're not quite familiar with true, legitimate, state-run media.

I watch a lot of ABC and definitely haven’t gotten the impression of state run media. Kind of absurd to claim that of the network employing Mary Bruce, Rachel Smith and George Stephanopoulos who are fearless in their pursuits of truth through all of this administration’s lies. On top of that, Disney has pretty immediately signaled they won’t be rolling over. Brian Stelter even reported this afternoon that Disney has signaled to station groups that contractual obligations to carry network programming will be enforced.

The thing that gets me is this joke about 'old man about to die with a young wife' has been around for decades. It's the last half of Anna Nicole Smith's life. We pretty much can count like clockwork when Rupert Murdoch has had enough of last decade's wife and wants a new one. Leonardo DiCaprio has an entire legend about how he moves on the moment his girlfriend turns 25! I'm more offended by 'fat man/thin wife' sitcoms much more than I ever will be 'lol they're marrying a hot young lady before they die'. It wasn't even that vicious of a joke, it was just the most benign 'we're waiting for the funeral' jab that's been made since that man moved from Marla Maples to Melania. The biggest station revocation came only because KDND literally killed someone in a contest, so there's no way this is a serious effort to challenge licenses because the station cannot possibly control what the network airs, even if they are owned by them, and we're not in a situation like the Super Bowl halftime show. KTRK isn't going to get anyone in Houston whining about a lead balloon punchline, and nor is WPVI. Docking a license just because of a tired joke just feels petty and lame, especially when you've had a national news operation sanewash their way towards a national newscast that's just now a big-budget Inside Edition rather than a full sum-up of today's events (and which is happy to pre-empt anything on the schedule, like they did deciding the last five minutes of General Hospital didn't need to be seen so David Muir could show video of politicians chatting and remind us of how King Charles is).

Jimmy Kimmel didn't say anything wrong. There is no real public backlash, it's all MAGA garbage and the only people upset are republicans who will attack Jimmy Kimmel no matter what he says. ABC caved to MAGA last fall and it was such a disaster they had to backtrack and reverse their decision. trump and the people in his government/army/ice/police/etc.. are actually doing evil actions and are responsible for the murder and torture of thousands of innocent people and you are claiming stuff some Democrats are saying makes "both sides abhorrent"? Nobody is publicly wishing death on trump because of something Kimmel said. Trying to tie the two together is ridiculous. People are wishing death on trump because of what trump and his government is actually doing. Since when has wishing death on a evil person who is a threat to the lives of others been broadly condemned? It is NOT controversial for people to publicly wish death on terrorists, evil dictators, etc.. It happens all the time. If you go over social media you will find comments of people wishing death on multiple terrible groups of people. Everyone from terrorists to evil dictators to murders to child predators. Republicans are the biggest supporters of the death penalty and our Government murders people all the time when there are non-lethal alternatives. I say this as someone who actually wants Trump to stay alive because Trump dying will change nothing, the people in his government are more evil and dangerous than he is, but when he dies his death will be publicly celebrated by a huge part of America and it will be very interesting to see how the U.S. news media handles this.

History is being made in Portland. For the first time ever, we're getting a women's sports-focused RSN and Gray is making it happen. KPDX is being converted from FOX 12 Plus into Rose City SportsNet, the home of Portland Thorns FC (NWSL) and the new Portland Fire (WNBA). It will still be OTA on Channel 49 and Cable 13 (next to KPTV itself). https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.kptv.com/2026/04/27/gray-media-raj-sports-launch-rose-city-sportsnet/%3foutputType=amp

What's so crazy to me is this is happening not because ABC News is doing good journalism and covering trump accurately, ABC News sanewashes, justifies, and downplays everything trump does just like the rest of U.S. television news media, it's because of an entertainment late night talk show. Disney has destroyed the credibility of ABC News and made it look no different than state TV in other authoritarian countries yet they are still a target because they didn't cancel their late night talk show like CBS did. The FCC is signaling that you can turn your entire news organization into pro U.S. government propaganda and still be a target if you air any entertainment programming that is critical of the evil fascist U.S. government. For the U.S. news media, it's fine for trump to order the killing of innocent people, fine for him to order the U.S. "law enforcement" to grab innocent people off the street and send them to torture camps with no due process, fine to put thousands of innocent children who have committed no crime themselves in awful prisons because their parents brought them to the country illegally. Fine for him to threaten to kill a "whole civilisation" , But his life is so precious that any joke about his life ending is just so awful and when someone tries to take his life it's not okay for the news media to be "neutral" like it pretends to be for everything else, When Jeffrey Epstein died the U.S. news media was not saying his death was tragic, but any attempt to take trumps life is beyond horrible and when he finally dies the U.S. news media will act like his death is a devastating somber event. If nobody deserves to be shot and killed no matter what, where was the outrage when secret service shot and killed the first person who tried to shoot trump? The U.S. government shoots and kills people all the time when there are non-lethal alternatives and it's no big deal. Death is only tragic to the U.S. news media when it's evil far right wing Americans. Just making a joke about the death of a right wing president who has ordered the murder of thousands of people is enough for massive outrage and the FCC coming after you.

It would be nice if our current FCC would actually work "in the public interest".... But as we can see that's clearly not the case.

It looks like Gray's WOIO/WUAB/WTCL/WOHZ is finally getting its wish. Come the end of next year, the quad group of stations will be leaving Reserve Square in Downtown Cleveland for suburban Independence at the Independence Technology Center. https://neo-trans.blog/2026/04/17/woio-wuab-wtcl-tv-seek-independence/?fbclid=IwdGRjcARPnDhjbGNrBE-brmV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHr6nB7pGFhzpu-k1XgmpqxdZNpU_yq0XyKceKRwVOhwmjkLciuQdd319xpE7_aem_3kK5hEhiy9drtCWEwQ0VdA

Thankfully ABC doesn’t seem to be as feckless as you believe they should be. If Jimmy can’t make the joke about their age gap, then why did Trump make a similar remark about the age gap just yesterday? This ridiculous capitulation and self-censoring is frankly a very idiotic suggestion.

CBS Evening News Keeps Hemorrhaging Viewers | Chart "The Dokoupil-led “Evening News” hit its lowest-rated month in total viewers since the anchor took over, averaging less than 3.9 million viewers throughout April. In the advertiser-coveted 25-54 age demographic, the show is averaging 497,000 viewers, its lowest April in the demo this century. But the show is up 2% in total viewers from April 2025, which remains its lowest-rated April in total viewers this century." "The show averaged 4.279 million viewers in its first quarter, down 7% from the same period last year, while its 25-54 audience was at 535,000 viewers, down nearly 20%." " It comes as competitors such as ABC News’ “World News Tonight” averaged 8.54 million viewers and roughly 1.1 million in the demo —more than double CBS News’ numbers" "Weiss told staffers in January that ratings were not her ultimate measure of success." It's not just CBS Evening News. CBS News is hitting ratings low from morning to night The New CBS News Drives New Ratings Lows | Charts "while “CBS Mornings” is also on track to hit its lowest total-viewer numbers since October after a steady decline throughout the year’s first quarter"

In this article about the NBC News Now expansion with Christine Romans, there is a mention of the news service upcoming move next door to 3A. Within that there’s a nugget that NBC Nightly News will “make use of the same facility.” I do wonder if this is legit reporting or if it is an assumption by the publication as a hook to link to a previously published article. The reason I question it is because Llamas currently pivots from Nightly to Top Story from studio 1A. So why would the NBC News Now studio shuffle impact Llamas and team? But I could also see it being legit, especially if the streamer’s 5-7 and 8-9 hours continue to be based in DC and LA studios. https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/christine-romans-two-hour-show-nbc-news-expands-streaming-1236722408/

Again, we agree that there is government overreach and that reviewing licenses over content screams past that overreach line. Over a cup of coffee, we would take a step back and probably agree on 98% of things. But, if we believe in the protection of the First Amendment, we should also agree that is still a difference between "spouting off", and saying that precious assassins are "rolling over in their graves", and desiring someone with "decent aim" (current viral TikTok video quotes) regardless of who the subject matter is. When things like that take off, it only provides others with unnecessary ammunition to tie that to recent quotes from a late night host to get to where we are currently at. Kimmel should be allowed to make jokes, wanting someone dead should always be condemned, and the FCC has no business to be reviewing ABC O&O licenses over this. I stand by both sides being abhorrent in their own ways and we deserve better across the board. I'm rooting for humanity, and right now it's not in Washington D.C., on TV, or any social media platform.

Here is my perspective- thoughts about the president aside... What isn't helping Kimmel right now, nor his rationale for the joke, is that there are plenty of examples on social media (pick a platform, any platform) where there are people are openly cheering for an assassin, upset that shooters miss, and wishing someone would be successful at completing that task. You can disagree with someone and even loathe them, but wishing death upon someone, anyone, publicly is terrible- and doesn't help the problem right now. That said, I think the president has far overreached with retaliation on many fronts and criticism is warranted and more than fair. However, I can and do also believe that Kimmel's explanation on Monday was simply trying to put the cat in the bag. For the first amendment crowd, correct- Jimmy can say what he believes is a joke, but on the flipside of the coin you cannot control or demand how people receive your joke. I might think a comedian is hilarious, you might very well think the same comedian is awful. While Kimmel's skit was written in a way where he was able to say "I meant their age difference", that reference could have easily been written into the joke itself and had prevented *some* of the backlash. A previous comment noted that the age difference jokes are not new- and correct on that front. But late night comedy has changed. Carson, Leno, Letterman, et al. would all wear their stripes at times, but also take shots at all sides of the spectrum- something that enough recent data shows has become quite one-sided (Kimmel, Fallon, Colbert, Gutfeld, and Stewart are all guilty in their own rights). Cooler heads need to prevail on both sides, and quickly.

https://latenighter.com/news/stephen-colbert-declined-five-year-cbs-deal/

Yes sometimes someone like George Stephanopoulos will point out a lie or ask a tough question, and yes ABC News hasn't fired him for doing so, but they did fire Terry Moran. if ABC News was your only source of media, or even worse if you only watched ABC World News Tonight as your source of news, you would be totally unaware of most horrible evil things this administration is doing. The ICE raids for example get almost no coverage. On September 30 when ICE agents in Chicago zip-tied children with no clothes, it was not even mentioned on ABC World News Tonight even though this would normally be the type of story ABC News would be all over (the local ABC Chicago station did cover it). The kids being tortured in ICE "detention" get almost no coverage. Yes they cover things like ICE agents shooting Americans in public but just like state TV in other authoritarian countries most of the terrorizing by the Government goes unreported or downplayed. That's what makes them appear like state TV in my opinion, there are 2 types of state TV, ones like RT that justifies and defends whatever the Government is doing, and ones like CGTN that ignores and downplays what the Government is doing and focuses on other news, and that's what ABC News looks like to me. The trump admin still does interviews with ABC News, and ABC News is rarely criticized by trump, the fact that the FCC is trying to take ABC off the air because of Jimmy Kimmel and not ABC News coverage kind of speaks for itself. Disney has ensured that ABC News is no threat to trump, but he's coming after them anyway because of Kimmel.

I read the entire VF article and to be quite honest and blunt, the CBS Evening News has been irrelevant since the retirement of the late Walter Cronkite in 1981, before I was even born. I had no care for Rather in the chair during the 80s, 90s and 2000s and no matter how many times they have tried to revitalize that flagship broadcast, it long since hit the iceberg and sunk. And that's the way it is.

Not sure where this Payton to NY thing keeps coming from. Realistically, it’s probably for his wife’s career that they’ll move back. He’s not getting mornings, though I’d have no objections. They’re not splitting morning from 10 am. Payton is not being stashed in Philly until someone departs in NY. To his credit, it appears he didn’t burn bridges and was sent off with good wishes. If they found themselves with several openings it might position him as a candidate. The most plausible scenario is some kind of stronger role if by some chance both Payton and Brittany had parental leave at the same time and they needed temporary help. Or somewhere down the line Karen retires and they elevate Brittany to mornings creating a weekend opening. Otherwise, possibly a gig at another station and/or following the “Nor’easter Nick” model of creating a business independent of TV.

Apparently Chris Sowers announced on his Facebook live last night that he and his family are moving back to a South Jersey in June. Curious if 6 would welcome him back. They could give him weekday mornings and promote Karen to 10am and 12noon. Alternatively, give him back weekend mornings, send Peyton to WABC (as it’s a matter of time before Sam is completely out the door).

I'm not saying he didn't grow or improve, but I just think there's way too much weight being put on being passed over for a promotion on ONE occasion. Cecily & Adam are locked in on evenings, Karen was already on mornings when she shifted chairs, so all that's left is the weekend evening slot, where it's quite obvious they wanted to replace a Black female with a Black female. No conspiracy, hardly slighted, he was just...stuck. Shit happens.

I remember Chris in Chicago. The Chris Sowers Fan Club confuses me. Deeply unremarkable talent.

This whole ordeal has taken another wild turn. On April 4th, the old WMNN-LD/WXII-LD/NewsNet studio building was sold to a "Greenwad, LLC". This appears to be a holding company registered to a lawyer. There is not any information about what "Greenwad" is. This part of the transaction is not particularly interesting itself, but read on... On April 27th, with the sale of WXII-LD and WMNN-LD to Lowcountry 34 Media still pending, the FCC ordered Bridge News to file license renewal applications for all of their stations, alleging this is part of an investigation "for possible violations of the FCC’s prohibition on unauthorized transfers of control of the station licenses." The weird thing about these two transactions? The studio building was not sold by Bridge News. It was sold by Lowcountry, who apparently took ownership of the property from Bridge News on October 1st 2025, nearly four months before the paperwork to transfer control of the stations was filed. It will be interesting to see what the FCC thinks is going on here.

awshitherewegoagain.gif UPDATE: It just got real.

After nearly 20 years on Good Day Sacramento, Ashley Williams is leaving the program. However, unlike Dina Kupfer who just left the station, Ashley is NOT leaving KOVR/KMAX. Instead, she's moving to the night shift to anchor Primetime Sacramento at 8:00 on KMAX 31.