Almost immediately after taking power in October of 1922, Benito Mussolini decided it was necessary to stand upon his autocrat’s pulpit and speak to the entirety of the Italian people as their new prime minister. The resultant speech was, of course, nothing more than one of his typical tirades full of authoritarian drivel.
However, despite the overall nonsensical nature of his address to the nation, there was indeed a single major through-thread that laid out his emerging authoritarian playbook naked and bare for all to see: his persistent attacks on the free press.
In short, Mussolini demonized them over and over again, calling them “the enemy of the people” for providing “the most dishonest, corrupt and/or distorted … political coverage of your favorite [leader]” (presumably referring to himself). Moreover, he threatened swift action against those who did not buy into and champion his narrative of Italian exceptionalism, promising to revoke outlets’ access if they do not fall into line with party thought and effectively replace them with far-right organizations who were previously kept on the margins. Finally, in a true show of authoritarian strength, he declared that he would openly reign-in every corner of the free press using the bureaucratic arms of his administration. In other words, investigations would be suddenly opened against publications that he and the party did not like; networks would only be given approval to conduct business if they fell in-line with party thought, and his own ideologues would be sicced onto the airwaves so that they could make promises about “[using] every resource … throughout [the] government to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these [left-wing] networks (of influence).”
Except, it wasn’t really Mussolini who spewed all this authoritarian nonsense or oversaw all these unnerving attacks on the free press and free speech nearly a century ago — it was actually President Donald Trump. In other words, Trump has been talking like an authoritarian and wielding political power like an authoritarian. In fact, there is perhaps no better evidence for this slip into authoritarianism than the shadow that his administration actively sought to cast across the world of television comedy this past week: the removal of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” from American household’s airwaves due to comments he made regarding the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
To set the scene, the story of Kimmel’s current censorship at the hands of the Trump administration really begins with the story of television giant Nexstar Media Group: one of the largest owners of American Broadcasting Company (ABC) affiliates — the channels that actually air “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” — across the nation. More specifically, it begins with Nexstar’s current attempt to complete a massive $6.2 billion acquisition of fellow media giant TEGNA. In brief, because such a huge transaction would indelibly shakeup America’s media landscape and pose major anti-trust concerns (the merger would pave the way for Nexstar to become the the broadcaster for 80% of American households), the merger, rather reasonably, requires approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
It is through this need of approval that Trump has been able to repeatedly stick his hand into the media cookie jar, as he has appointed a personal attack dog to head the FCC: Brendan Carr, a MAGA-loyalist who once authored a chapter in Project 2025 about aligning America’s media apparatus directly with Trump’s ultranationalist vision. With Carr occupying this top-spot and being the person responsible for signing off on all media mergers, he has been able to leverage his power (i.e. this need for his approval) to consistently get media companies to wholly accommodate the Trump administration’s wishes and agenda. This is precisely what he did in reference to Kimmel.
Consider for a minute what Kimmel’s comments about the Charlie Kirk situation actually amount to. Kimmel was in no way celebrating Kirk’s death, nor was he even attempting to give voice as to why so many on the left are upset with Kirk’s growing mythologization and sanitization — namely, the scrubbing away of his long history of hateful rhetoric and his (ironic) prior statements about firearm death being a necessary evil). Instead, Kimmel was specifically looking to criticize the manner in which conservatives were quick to blame Kirk’s assassination on their typical host of leftist demons in order to score cheap political points (of course, the killer has now been revealed to have no coherent political ideology), as well as how Trump’s seeming lack of grief does not necessarily mesh with his administration’s very public demonstration of and call to mourning. This is what is key in all of this — instead of taking an isolated moral stance on political violence, one that is well removed from anything pertaining to the Trump administration, Kimmel rather choose to call Trump out directly for his response’s apparent disingenuity as well as his team’s readiness to turn Kirk’s assassination into a cog in their broader project of demonizing America’s left. In other words, Kimmel was effectively challenging their proscribed narratives, engaging in an exercise of free speech that ran contrary to party thought.
Thus, it was no surprise that, just prior to Kimmel’s suspension, Carr went onto the conservative personality, Benny Johnson’s, talkshow and made it abundantly clear that Kimmel had to be repudiated by media organizations for challenging the Trump administration’s narratives. His actual verbiage was as follows: “These companies can find ways to change conduct to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or, you know, there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead … We can do this the easy way or the hard way.” The mafioso-esque subtext of this is obvious for all with eyes to see… Take Kimmel off the air, or you will find licenses revoked and mergers rejected.
As a publication whose constituent ground is irrevocably comprised of the right to free speech and a free press, The Fordham Ram cannot sit by idly and stay silent about this disgusting erosion of everything we stand for. Thus, it is the opinion of this editorial board that everyone must take direct action which makes it apparently clear that the rights to free speech and a free press are non-negotiable. Reach out to Nexstar company representatives to let them know that bending the knee to authoritarian maneuvers is unacceptable and cowardly; reach out to your local congressional representatives and demand that they voice your concerns directly to those in the Trump administration; and, most importantly, everyone must continue speaking their own minds, as they cannot silence all of us.