{"id":237735,"date":"2025-09-19T01:24:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T01:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/237735\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T01:24:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T01:24:16","slug":"inside-the-protest-against-disney-for-jimmy-kimmel-suspension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/237735\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Protest Against Disney for Jimmy Kimmel Suspension"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEntertainment workers expressed fear, anger and disbelief as they took to the streets outside Walt Disney<\/a> Studios on Thursday to protest ABC\u2019s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live!<\/a> following controversial remarks Jimmy Kimmel made about the Charlie Kirk shooting.<\/p>\n

\n\tProtestors crowded the sidewalks around the main entrance to the legacy studio in Burbank, interrupting a placid Thursday afternoon under the studio\u2019s Mickey-branded arch with signs that directed ire at both President Donald Trump\u2019s administration and the entertainment company for allegedly <\/strong>capitulating <\/a>to pressure from a political appointee, Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr. <\/p>\n

\n\tPeople who identified themselves as Hollywood union members mingled alongside others with no connection to the entertainment business, cheering honks from passing cars and raising signs whose messages included \u201cShame on ABC!,\u201d \u201cABC All Baseless Cowards\u201d and \u201cYou Can\u2019t Please Tyrants.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s a First Amendment right. Our freedom of expression, our freedom of speech, is fundamental. And last night ABC and Disney broke that,\u201d Writers Guild of America<\/a> West president Meredith Stiehm told THR amid the throng of protestors. \u201cEveryone\u2019s shocked and everyone\u2019s pretty furious and people want them to change that decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe protest was originally organized by the grassroots group \u201cBurbank Against ICE,\u201d but the Hollywood writers union exhorted its members to attend on Thursday morning, which resulted in the sidewalk quickly being filled out with people in union apparel \u2014 not just for the WGA, but also SAG-AFTRA and the American Federation of Musicians, some of whose members work on Jimmy Kimmel Live!<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Wednesday night, the WGA issued a strongly worded statement<\/a> about the Kimmel decision, which impacts some union writers, but members wanted the union to do more. \u201cOur members are under attack and so is the core democratic principles of this country,\u201d WGA West executive director Ellen Stutzman told THR. \u201cAnd so it was an easy call.\u201d A Writers Guild representative put an estimate of attendees at around 200.<\/p>\n

\n\tA couple of local politicians, California State Assembly member Nick Schultz and Burbank City Council member Konstantine Anthony, also made an appearance to dissent the corporation\u2019s move.<\/p>\n

\n\tBrandishing a sign that said, \u201cDid you even watch Andor?\u201d \u2014 a Star Wars show that depicts rebel resistance against an authoritarian regime \u2014 Anthony laid into Disney and its network ABC for the Wednesday decision to yank their marquee late night host from the air<\/a>. \u201cI believe that Disney and ABC are 100 percent responsible. They gave zero pushback,\u201d he told THR.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tKonstantine Anthony<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKatherine Kilkenny\/THR<\/p>\n

\n\tThe remarks that thrust Kimmel into hot water related to the Sept. 10 fatal shooting of Kirk, a right-wing activist who was making an appearance on a college campus. \u201cWe hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang 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,\u201d Kimmel said in a statement that went viral.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn response, on Wednesday, FCC chair Carr appeared to threaten<\/a> to revoke the licenses of affiliates if they ran Jimmy Kimmel Live! That same day, major local TV station owner Nexstar said it would preempt Kimmel\u2019s show for the immediate future, which was quickly followed by ABC yanking the show \u201cindefinitely.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnthony said of Disney, \u201cThey have a team of lawyers that can fight any sort of FCC crackdown on this, and yet they refused to. Not only did they refuse to, they preempted any action by the Trump administration by suspending Jimmy Kimmel immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tElsewhere on the protest lines, entertainment workers also condemned Disney\u2019s decision, which THR has reported<\/a> was made by CEO Bob Iger and co-chairman of Disney Entertainment Dana Walden.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey\u2019re huge corporations. They have to take a stand. It\u2019s going to affect them, too,\u201d said SAG-AFTRA member Denise Pickering, who was wielding a sign that read, \u201cRemove Trump and keep the free speech.\u201d She added, \u201cWhat else is [Trump] going to ask them to do? What kind of movies are going to come out now?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMyles Warden, a WGA member, expressed concern for the chilling effect that the ABC suspension could have on free speech more broadly. \u201cIf we can\u2019t talk about things that are happening in our country without fear for punishment from our president, then I don\u2019t know what we\u2019re doing as a society,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\tHis thoughts were echoed by SAG-AFTRA member Chelsea Schwartz. \u201cI cannot believe what is currently happening to free speech and a lot of what\u2019s happening in general about rights being rolled back across this country,\u201d she said. \u201cI just wish Disney stood up more to what\u2019s currently happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for what the protestors hoped to gain from pounding the pavement in Burbank, several said a repeal of ABC\u2019s decision the day prior would at least be a start. Said WGA president Stiehm, \u201cWe want Jimmy Kimmel back on the air and we will keep speaking up and putting pressure in any way we can until that happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tProtest against Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s suspension at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKatherine Kilkenny\/THR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Entertainment workers expressed fear, anger and disbelief as they took to the streets outside Walt Disney Studios on…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":237736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[7299,171,50812,606,173,67,132,68,32118],"class_list":{"0":"post-237735","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-disney","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-jimmy-kimmel-live","11":"tag-labor","12":"tag-tv","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us","16":"tag-writers-guild-of-america"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115228355184866534","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}