We've seen this happen before

As you know, Jimmy Kimmel’s show was canceled due to two factors. One is a federal government, specifically the FCC, that is turning into the Thought Police. Two are the cowards and quislings at Disney and ABC, who are under the illusion that they can forfeit just a little of their freedom and the Thought Police won’t eventually confiscate it all.

Since then, there has been an outpouring of support by artists and journalists, politicians and free-speech advocates, as well as other late-night hosts. CBS News reported that, last night, “Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon opened their late-night shows using a mix of humor, song and expressions of solidarity” with Kimmel.

Colbert’s commentary was notable. He reran the segment of Kimmel’s remarks that FCC Chairman Brendan Carr called “the sickest conduct possible.” That segment: “The MAGA Gang [is] desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it. In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving.”

“Given the FCC’s response, I was expecting something more provocative,” Stephen Colbert said. “That’s like hearing that Playboy has a racy new centerfold and finding out it’s just … Jimmy Kimmel.”

https://youtu.be/ZdGLJly6P7c?si=YYZMcr3FUdnVhTri

He went further.

Colbert said it sounds like the FCC told ABC to punish Jimmy Kimmel or else. “It feels to me shutting down this type of speech would represent a serious threat to our freedoms,” he said. “And you know who else thinks that? Brendan Carr in 2020 when he tweeted: ‘From internet memes to late-night comedians … political satire … helps hold those in power accountable. Shutting down this type of political speech - especially at the urging of those targeted or threatened by its message - would represent a serious threat to our freedoms.’”

That’s good, and I think we should remain hopeful, but I think we should also be realistic. The regime has moved from being coy about its plan to punish dissent to being open about it. The Times reported yesterday that the president said “broadcasters risk losing licenses when hosts criticize him.” His followers are bragging. Benny Johnson, the prominent propagandist, said: “We did it for you, Charlie. And we’re just getting started.” With Kimmel canceled, a chill has set in.

I would now expect TV people to be looking over their shoulders, not only at the candya---- who cut their paychecks, but to the snitches eager to rat them out. We can expect that chill to seep into their work. And that chill will likely be chilliest among people Trump already dislikes. Indeed, as I was writing those words – “a chill has set in” – I was alerted to Kelby Vera’s piece in HuffPost: “'The View' Stays Silent After ABC Shelves Jimmy Kimmel's Show.” Vera said: “It seemed like ‘The View,’ which also airs on ABC, wasn’t going to risk ruffling any feathers by broaching the Kimmel controversy on Thursday’s show.”

It’s as MSNBC’s Anthony Fisher said yesterday afternoon: “What is happening now is actual, successful, speech-chilling censorship.”

And we have seen it before.

Fisher refers to the “maga thought police,” a spin on the secret police force, modelled after Soviet Russia’s, featured George Orwell’s 1984. (It punishes “thoughtcrimes.”) Zack Beauchamp wrote a big piece about the “the third red scare,” a reference to the first one, in the 1920s, and the second one, in the 1950s, in which the country seemed to erupt in paranoia about Communists hiding behind every tree. This time, though, instead of the red being that of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, it’s that of the Republican Party of the United States.

And finally Jeet Heer said on Thursday: “This is the biggest attack on free speech since the McCarthy era but it also has significantly less popular consensus behind it than the second Red Scare. It's being done on behalf of a minority faction led by the most unpopular president in modern history. Organizing against this can win.”

Good organizing needs good messaging. That’s why, in addition to saying what’s happening now is like what happened in the first and second Red Scares, we should dust off the old 20th-century liberal rhetoric and update it for a new kind of totalitarian regime. And I think, without really being aware of it, Ro Khanna did just that.

“This administration has initiated the largest assault on the first amendment and free speech in modern history,” the congressman said. “They’re making comedy illegal. Brendan Carr pressured ABC to cancel Jimmy Kimmel and Disney [which owns ABC] canceled Jimmy Kimmel, this canceling from an administration that lectured us about culture.

“That’s why today I’m introducing a motion to subpoena Brendan Carr to bring him in front of this committee to stop the intimidation of private businesses and to stand up for the First Amendment.

“Now it’s not just Brendan Carr. Attorney General Pam Bondi is prosecuting hate speech, even though hate speech is constitutionally protected and even though we’ve had so many lectures from my friends on the other side of the aisle not to prosecute hate speech.

“And then what about our vice president, the champion of free speech, as he told us during the campaign. The vice president is telling Americans to snitch on fellow Americans with offensive posts and to call their employer so they can be fired. And the vice president is threatening to prosecute political organizations that he disagrees with.

“We are Article 1 of the Constitution, not foot lackeys … It is time that we stand up for our constitutional role to defend the freedoms of Americans? People are tired of us giving our power to Donald Trump at JD Vance. We have an obligation to our constitution, not to Donald Trump at JD Vance, as they ride roughshod over the First Amendment.”