What media consolidation means for free speech

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 29 September 2025

⏱️ 8 minutes

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Summary

Jimmy Kimmel’s brief departure from the airwaves triggered a wave of debate over free speech. Partly triggering his suspension was the government threatening to leverage its power over pending media deals. That’s in part due to a piece of decades-old legislation.

Today on the show, we look at how the Telecommunications Act of 1996 set the stage for government meddling and corporate capitulation.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR.
0:11.7	With the suspension and then return of late night TV host Jimmy Kimmel,
0:17.1	free speech has been a big national conversation over the last couple of weeks.
0:21.5	This all began with the tragic shooting of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk,
0:25.2	and comments Kimmel made in the wake of that on his late-night show.
0:28.4	We had some new lows over the weekend,
0:30.3	with the Maga Gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk
0:35.4	as anything other than one of them.
0:37.3	But when it comes to free speech, there's another conversation which deserves more airtime
0:42.5	that may explain how we got here. It's the Telecommunications Act of 1996. This is the
0:49.9	indicator from Planet Money. I'm Darien Woods. And I I'm Adrian Ma. Today in the show, the economics of
0:55.4	television censorship, how the Telecommunications Act set the stage for government meddling and corporate
1:00.8	capitulation. We should start with a little explainer on how TV works in America. So you have the networks, which create
1:12.7	shows like Jimmy Kim Alive, and most of these networks are not actually TV stations. They just
1:18.0	produce shows that TV stations around the country buy. And there are two huge companies that
1:24.0	own a lot of TV stations and buy that content. One of them is called Sinclair Broadcast Group, and the other is Next Star.
1:32.3	Together, they cover most of America.
1:34.3	And the Trump administration has been piling on the pressure to these companies.
1:38.3	It's no secret that Trump hates these late-night comedians.
1:43.3	And that they are not fans of his either.
1:46.1	You can't turn him off.
1:47.7	He won't power down.
	...

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