The Media Research Center’s Nicholas Fondacaro spent a Sept. 19 post being sad that his hate-watching of “The View” wasn’t sufficiently rewarded because the co-hosts didn’t talk about Jimmy KImmel:
If ABC’s The View was known for anything, it was that the six co-hosts were loud and very opinionated. But for two airings, on Thursday and Friday, the liberal ladies had not so much as alluded to the story which dominated much of the liberal media’s time and fearmongering in the latter part of the week: ABC’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel. Instead, there seemed to be an undercurrent of angst as their infamous “Hot Topics” segments came off as a bit blunted and they covered bizarre things like hyping their WikiFeet scores.
Not long before going their summer hiatus, The View was very vocal in their defense of “comedian” Stephen Colbert after CBS announced that they were canceling his show. “Because it’s very clear that if it is political, this is the dismantling of our democracy. This is the dismantling of our Constitution,” Hostin declared at the time. “That means the very rubric of our democracy is being dismantled. And I think every single person should be really, really concerned about it.”
A pretty strong statement for them to not say something when the suspension was in their own house at ABC. Perhaps recent comments from FCC Chairman Brendon Carr taking aim at The View had them spooked, but they’ve also boasted that they weren’t afraid of the Trump administration. Or perhaps, they were spooked the Disney and ABC executives who suspended Kimmel; the same ones who scolded them once before that they needed to tone down their rhetoric or face consequences.
Despite Kimmel’s suspension being announced the night prior, the Hot Topics conversations on Thursday only focused on the congressional hearings of FBI Director Kash Patel and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. respectively.
[…]Friday episodes of The View were often pre-recorded on Thursdays. The show’s relatively recent move to stop announcing which episodes were recorded live, made it difficult to precisely ascertain the timelines for then new shows were recorded in relation to breaking news. In this case, Carr’s suggestion that The View could be under the microscope.
The only Hot Topics segment they did on Friday’s episode was once again about former Vice President Kamala Harris’s new book about the 2024 presidential election. Pitched as a preview of what they’ll discuss with Harris during her appearance on the show next Tuesday, they talked about her regret of not picking former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to be her running mate.
[…]After they ended that segment, they discussed Martha Stewart’s thirst traps and their WikiFeet scores; WikiFeet being the website were creepy people posted images of celebrities’ feet and rate them. Hostin had all their scores: “Joy, you score a 4.07 out of five … Ana, 4.38 … Alyssa, 4.43. Sunny, 4.46. Sara, 4.83.”
And out of their five guests over the course of those two days, none of them discussed politics.
Do you need a hug, Nick? Sounds like you need a hug.
Fondacaro’s disappointment was balanced by his employer’s giddiness at being credited for its role in Kimmel’s suspension:
Following Wednesday’s indefinite suspension of ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel for malicious comments on Monday about the Charlie Kirk assassination, The New York Times penned an article Friday morning online that credited MRC NewsBusters news analyst Alex Christy for sparking the backlash and suspension with a viral social media post (viewed over 15.5 million times).
[…]As the Left’s newspaper of record, The New York Times has faced MRC’s scrutiny for 38 years, with our relentless dissection of its fact-twisting and bias. MRC President David Bozell, after vetting reporter Stuart A. Thompson, gave a brief statement for the article, backed by his press team to ensure MRC’s stance was accurately quoted.
That quote from Bozell: “We’re going to look for media bias anywhere and everywhere we need to go look … Late night included.” That’s a lie; the MRC has shown no interest in exposing the rampant right-wing bias at Fox News.
Also, we thought that the MRC hated the Times so much that it would instinctively refuse any praise from it. Looks like the MRC is desperate for praise no matter where it comes from.
Craig Bannister checked in from his propaganda post at the decimated CNSNews.com to tout how “A chart showing how Jimmy Kimmel’s late-show ratings had been plummeting prior to his indefinite suspension by ABC has gone viral as social media users suggest that he was pulled for more than just his offensive, false comments regarding the assassination of conservative Charlie Kirk.” Bannister didn’t mention that Kimmel has the top ratings in the 18-49 demo.
Meanwhile, intern Isaac White was in (employer-endorsed) denial that the Trump administration pressured ABC to suspend Kimmel:
ABC’s indefinite suspension of late night “comedian” Jimmy Kimmel sent a shockwave across the media landscape. On Friday, CNN This Morning claimed FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and President Trump’s reactions to the suspension constituted government pressure against First Amendment rights and were seemingly itching for someone to sue them.
The left believed it had found some sort of dystopian pattern now that two late night hosts had been canned this year alone.
[…]What exactly did the government say against Kimmel? “The President made the comments about, ‘He was fired because he had low ratings. I wanted this to happen for quite some time.’ Carr said, you know, ‘Use the term public interest.’”
So Trump, Kimmel’s most frequent target, was happy Kimmel, for now, was gone? And Carr, the head of the agency that regulates network television, mentioned the possibility of using FCC authority?
White then played a form of whataboutism:
The other main talking point the left had fallen back on was the FCC’s interest in public interest. But apparently, according to Williams, “we’re not talking about the public interest here.” He brought up two unsavory programs: MILF Manor and Who’s Your Daddy?.
The lewd and scandalous nature of those shows may be morally repugnant, but they do not disserve the public the way late night comedies had for the past decade. They crossed the political Rubicon when Trump first took office through their insistence to partisanship.
White’s idea of a TV show trying to “disserve the public” is to make jokes about Republicans. Also, if MILF Manor and Who’s Your Daddy? are so “morally repugnant,” why hasn’t resident MRC entertainment hate-watcher Dawn Slusher written about either of those shows? Those sound right up her alley, yet we could find no writeups in the MRC archive.
White concluded by sneering: “If Kimmel had made any intelligent decision recently, it would be shutting up for the first time in ever. Law low, Kimmel.” We don’t recall anyone at the MRC telling Rush Limbaugh to shut up and lay low after he spewed three days of misogynistic hate at Sandra Fluke — in fact, they defended Limbaugh and spewed their own sick hate at Fluke.