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It's good that you mentioned this, because Kevin Orpurt is rejoining WTHI as its Chief Meteorologist. Although he looks different, it is so good to know that he is coming back.

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/media/republican-state-attorneys-general-join-suit-stop-nexstar-tegna-merger-rcna343016 Even though this doesn't do a damn thing except delay the inevitable. It's not a solution. Fuck the Ohio AG for being so transparent.

First off, that link is bad. Here's a shorter, easier-to-read, and direct version that's free of the unnecessary LinkedIn detour and its URL cruft: https://thedesk.net/2026/04/five-states-added-to-antitrust-lawsuit-against-nexstar-over-tegna-deal/ The governors being Republicans or Democrats have nothing to do with it. It's the Attorneys General who are involved in the lawsuit. As it happens, three of them are Republicans -- in Indiana, Kansas, and Pennsylvania.

Seriously? The president of the United States can do anything with no limits of evil but a late night host joking about his death should never be acceptable and that's non negotiable no matter what? Yes I know his corrupt supreme court gave him total immunity but what if he followed through on his threat to end civilization in Iran? What if he decides to do what he has always wanted to do and drop a nuclear bomb somewhere? We are talking about a joke here, he's not calling for people to assassinate anyone, and yet even a joke about him dying should never be accepted because he's the "president". Jimmy Kimmel has nothing to do with the country being divided. The country is extremely divided because one half of the country is terrorizing the other half. Could you imagine in the 1930s someone saying "The jews and the nazis are so divided right now and they are never going to be united if we keep talking bad about Hitler". That's what you sound like. Donald Trump posts about killing public figures all the time. He has millions of cult like loyal followers who are mentally unstable with military style machine guns and he still posts about how his enemies should be killed by firing squad. Even republicans who turn on him like MTG get death threats from his supporters. The fact that you think a late night talk show host should be held to a higher standard than the president of the United States when all he is doing is a silly joke and the president constantly puts peoples actual safety in danger with actual death threats is stunning.

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.

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.

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.

Don't buy it at all.

And people forget that Rather was #1 for several years after Cronkite retired. CBSEN slipped to second in about 1987.. a strong second and still occasionally first. A big part of that slide was the switch to people meters for overnights in major markets. And another factor in the early/mid 90’s was CBS losing NFL to FOX and several powerhouse CBS affiliates in major markets to FOX.

Five more states are now joining in on the bipartisan lawsuit. You read that right. Indiana and Vermont are two of the five joining in and they have Republican governors. https://www.linkedin.com/safety/go/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fthedesk.net%2F2026%2F04%2Ffive-states-added-to-antitrust-lawsuit-against-nexstar-over-tegna-deal%2F&urlhash=nYYk&mt=1bo3E9OQnzdhNC0dKhy12ougIWpPSsFiiBQcZxG59cFmeHlUgKXRrRe0oiFAChEW28ArcVEnZhLZXKmHURoPMZwJm75rPvMitgSOTMCpxsDEXqJSsx1kw18hDg&isSdui=true

To me, Rather was fine, flaws and all--- Somebody had to be in third place , and that was him. Dan Rather is no Cronkite but his tenure was the most stable era of the evening news since ole uncle Walter's departure. The broadcast reamins no better without Rather.

Annnnnnnnnd, let's all cool down for a bit. Maybe we should all let the dust settle on this thread until we get actual headlines, because some of us can debate back and forth til blue in the face. Not restricting posting, not locking the thread, so I don't want to hear anything about censorship. I'm just suggesting that everyone has well-established their points, by now.

I do not think it is the least bit wise of Kimmel to joke about the death of the President - how ever implied or mild the joke may purport to be. Even though Kimmel denied wrongdoing in his later monologue, he knew better than to make such a joke especially after last year's fiasco. I don't care who is the President or which political party he is part of. Jokes that hint at the death of the incumbent President should not be on television. Period. And that should be non-negotiable. Our society has never been more divided and making jokes about a President's death does nothing to unify the viewing audience on common ground and should never be accepted as part of our discourse in society. ABC management can fix this mess by talking to Kimmel behind the scenes and ensure he steers clear of such jokes in the future. And provided that a clear agreement is reached, then Kimmel should be given another chance. That said, this is bad for business at ABC and management will have to make some difficult decisions in the coming days.

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"

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.

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.

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 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).

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's official, longtime Chicago journalist Paris Schutz is the latest person coming to NBC 5 and he is starting on Monday, May 4. He will continue working in political and investigative journalism when he gets to Channel 5, which he has built a big reputation for over the years. http://nbcchicago.com/news/local/nbc-5-adds-acclaimed-journalist-paris-schutz-to-its-expert-on-air-talent-lineup/3929165/

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

I really don't think it's necessary to make new topics just because X station introduces a new voiceover...

awshitherewegoagain.gif UPDATE: It just got real.