On Friday, Netflix made an $82.7 billion offer to buy Warner Bros./Discovery.  Soon after, Trump said that he would personally get involved with the decision whether or not to approve the sale.  At first, that didn’t mean a whole lot other than it was so Trump, needing to very inappropriately impose himself and put his name on everything, putting his fingers on a decision that is usually left up to unbiased regulatory agencies.
 
Then came the story that Paramount Skydance will try to top Netflix’s offer, and upped their hostile bid to $108 billion.  Okay, not unexpected, but even at a higher number they were considered pretty much the also-ran. 
 
But then came the story that Paramount’s offer turns out to come with a partner -- Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner's private equity firm.  But also, unmentioned in Paramount's press release, others would be involved, as well:  sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar.  (Shocking, I know, that they were left unmentioned.)
 
In making its case to Warner Bros./Discovery shareholders, Paramount says it has a smoother path to regulatory approval than does Netflix. For the record, “Smoother path” is such a charming phrase when that path includes the son-in-law of the U.S. president.
 
But it gets worse.
 
Because then comes the story reported by The Guardian that Trump and billionaire Larry Ellison, one of the wealthiest people in the world, and a major supporter of Trump  -- as well as being the main shareholder of Paramount Skydance and father of David Ellison who is the company’s president.  It must be noted here that Warner Bros./Disovery is the parent company of CNN.  And what The Guardian reports the two men discussed is "having CNN anchors Trump doesn't like fired if Paramount Skydance is able to buy Warner Bros./Discovery.
 
With Jared Kusher's private equity firm, of course.  And the unmentioned sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar.
 
P.S.  Warner Bros./Discovery also owns HBO.  Which airs Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, that has been relentlessly scathing to the Trump administration.
 
No word yet if Trump and Larry Ellison discussed HBO…
 
Which brings us back to –
 
“Trump said that he would personally get involved with the decision whether or not to approve the sale.   At first, that didn’t mean a whole lot…”
 
Hey, it turns out, it does mean a whole lot.  Go figure.

Who would have imagined that in a Trump fascist world of corruption where controlling the news and media, along with the hiring and firing of personnel, is at the forefront of its most basic voracious needs, it would have come to this?

If you didn't see "Last Week Tonight" with John Oliver last night, the Main Story was on Public Media.  Or more specifically, cutbacks to funding.  It's a very interesting report, focusing in large part on what PBS does that most people aren't aware of, especially as a local service.  It's also prime ground for some wonderful humor, and there's a terrific twist at the end.

If you didn’t see Last Week Tonight with John Oliver last night, the Main Story was on Bari Weiss -- who is the new supposedly-moderate, but actually solidly conservative opinion writer who Paramount just made the editor-in-chief overseeing CBS News.  The report is excellent -- very detailed, damning on why the hiring is troubling, and (through gritted teeth) often very sardonically funny.

At around noon, I updated my article on the far-right reaction to Jimmy Kimmel making a joke, and ABC putting the show on an indeterminate pause.  If anyone read the article before then, I wanted to clarify the change.

In the original version, I'd written that Kimmel's joke was edgy, and had one thing in it that was accurate, but pretty close.  On going back to re-read the joke -- and John Berman on CNN doing a great job pushing back at the excruciatingly unwatchable Scott Jennings to correct the far right's total misinterpretation of Jimmy Kimmel's joke (as well as CNN's Brianna Keilar pushing back on Rep. Barry Moore, MAGOP of Alabama, correcting his total misinterpretation) -- I realized that Jimmy Kimmel's joke was actually spot-on accurate, just not phrased clearly.

This the joke --

"We had some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize the 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.”'

Jimmy Kimmel did not say that the shooter was MAGA (as the far-right is contending he did) -- but rather that MAGA overreaction before knowing anything at all about the shooter was to do everything possible it could to desperately show that the shooter, whoever he was, WAS NOT "one of them."  And in that effort, make the shooter seem to be far-left.

And given that Trump himself (who had  made a blistering, false attack on the left for the shooting death of Kirk) was later asked on camera how he was doing after the death of his friend and replied that he was doing fine – and immediately began talking about the trucks coming to the White House to build the new ballroom he wants...

...it becomes all the more clear that Jimmy Kimmel had his TV show indeterminately paused for making a joke and point that were 100% accurate.  But the far-right and FCC chairman didn't like the joke, and so, using the power of government to undermine the First Amendment forced ABC to take a cowardly action.

I had another article planned for today, but then late yesterday afternoon another story came along, and I couldn’t let it pass without notice.  Especially since it’s a companion to my piece yesterday on Trump and the MAGOP making an assault on the First Amendment by trying to create a new definition of “hate speech.”
 
The story, which you likely have seen by now, is that ABC has cravenly and temporarily "paused" the Jimmy Kimmel show because of the far-right and FCC being supposedly "outraged" over a comment and biting joke. 
 
There were some edgy comments in his joke, including one that is being called out a a supposed lie by MAGOPs, but is not a lie or even a mistake, but just awkwardly phrased -- and hey, I do understand that the standard for accuracy is high because, after all, Trump and MAGOPs never say anythinggggg even close to inaccurate in the MAGOP Bubble World, and that includes the other day when Trump defending his war crime action bombing another Venezuelan boat by saying that 300 million people die each year in America from drugs, even though last year only 62 million people died around the entire world from all causes, natural and otherwise, because he was speaking theoretically --  but the final quip that Jimmy Kimmel made (ironically) about far-right supposed "outrage" at commentary after Charlie Kirk's death was, “In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving.”
 
It should be noted, lest anyone think this was heartless and false that Trump (who previously had been blistering in his unjustified attack on the left for the shooting death of Charlie Kirk) was asked on camera how he was doing after the death of his friend Kirk and replied that he was doing fine – and immediately began talking about the trucks coming to the White House to build the new ballroom he wants.
 
We know this is fake "outrage" by the MAGOP world at Kimmel because they both were perfectly OK with Fox's Brian Kilmeade saying on air that the homeless who refused assistance should be "euthanized" and "killed."  And further, Fox was OK with it, too, since they didn’t reprimand Kilmeade at all.
 
By the way, there was just a mass attack on a group of homeless in Minnesota. 
 
Yes, it may have been purely coincidental.  But what a terrible look it is, even if so.  And that’s still an “if.”
 
And yes, this is ABC taking the action with Kimmel, not the government.  Sort of.  Because it comes after the far-right FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said, ““We can do this the easy way or the hard way… There’s actions we can take on licensed broadcasters. Frankly, I really think it’s past time that a lot of these licensed broadcasters themselves push back on Comcast and Disney and say ‘We’re not gonna run Kimmel anymore… because we licensed broadcasters are running the possibly of fines or license revocation from the FCC.’”
 
And comes after Trump had said, after Stephen Colbert’s show was cancelled, “Kimmel’s next.  Kimmel is gone.”

Which brings us back to pretty much literally that whole, y'know, First Amendment thing.  The government may not be making a law to silence speech Trump and the MAGOPs don't like, but they're making the wink-wink, dog whistle bullhorn threat to do so.  The whole "Who will rid me of the turbulent priest?" gambit.
 
So, there’s no hiding behind pretending this was just private business taking action.
 
And in a related story, Nexstar Media Group (that owns 200 broadcast stations in 116 cities) is was supposedly “outraged” by Kimmel’s monologue and announced that it is indefinitely pulling Jimmy Kimmel's show from its service.
 
One wonders if the “outraged” Nexstar carries "Fox News" because…well (okay, you know the drill here):  Brian Kilmeade called for the homeless to be "euthanized" and "killed"!!!  And Nexstar didn't announce that they had any problem with that.
 
And there was just a mass attack on a group of homeless people in Minnesota.
 
And yes, this is Nexstar taking the action with Kimmel’s show, not the government.  Sort of.  Because of that whole, y’know, pesky FCC Chairman statement and Trump’s.
 
Oh, and Fun Fact:  Nexstar is in the process of trying to get local ownership rules deregulated.  And need government approval.  Go figure.
 
And far-right fascist FCC Chairman Carr put out a tweet that began, “I want to thank Nexstar for doing the right thing.”  And ended with, “I hope that other broadcasters follow Nexstar’s lead.”

Which brings us back, again, to pretty much literally that whole, y'know, First Amendment thing.  Only this time without the dog whistle threat, and just straight to the bullhorn.
 
As the great Molly Ivins once wrote, “It reads better in the original German.”
 
Over a joke.  That was edgy.  And accurate.  And spot-on at the end. Because this is about threatening the press and media to fall in line.  Not actual “outrage.”
 
Because if you’re not actually outraged by a broadcaster not joking and literally saying that the homeless should be “euthanized” and “killed” – after which a group of home people are attacked! – then you’re not really “outraged" at all.
 
What you are is fascist.
 
And if someone fascist doesn’t like being called “fascist,” that’s on them.  Either look up what a fascist is – or stop enabling fascists, stop voting for fascists and stop being a fascist.