The Political Silencing at the Emmys — And Everywhere Else

Image source: Rolling Stone

I love TV. I love it so much. I often wonder if the main reason I write novels is the very slim chance that one might get adapted into a series and then my actual dreams will come true. There is nothing I would rather do than cuddle up with my favorite takeout and a good show. Or honestly even a bad show! As long as I’m invested, television to me is a comfort of the highest order.

Anyway, things are dire. The first amendment is being stripped blatantly and before our eyes. In TV terms, we are now living in a BoJack Horseman punchline. The company in BoJack is brilliantly called “AOL-Time-Warner- Pepsico-Viacom-Halliburton- Skynet-Toyota- Trader-Joe’s;” everything has merged such that one conglomerate has full control, and we’re not far from that reality. Between Colbert and now Kimmel being forced off air, we’re seeing how the Trump administration is wielding influence through these mega corporations to silence high-profile voices speaking truth to power.

Though the Kimmel news comes just months after Colbert’s cancellation, Kimmel is hitting harder because there is no question that he is being removed by ABC (Disney) as the result of an on-air comment. Whereas CBS (Paramount) had plausible deniability, lamely claiming Colbert’s chart-topping 11-year-run was removed for “budgetary” reasons (despite the fact that the…