We are all acutely aware that the leader of the free world spends a lot of time lying awake in the wee small hours of the morning thinking about the state of the world–at least the version that perhaps the most celebrated malignant narcissist to ever occupy 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is capable of comprehending. Well, thanks to a renewed bout of migraines that honestly is starting to worry me I’m right there with you on that schedule, Sir.
So in the wake of yesterday’s one-two punch that began with America’s First Couple one by one calling for the firing of Jimmy Kimmel for a three-day old joke that unfortunately didn’t age all that well, and Kimmel’s response in last night’s monologue that essentially told them to grow a pair, I laid awake myself wondering what, in the eerily prophetic words of the about-to-pop Karoline Leavitt, shots will be fired next.
For a change, FLOTUS herself took to hubby’s personal blog site and at minimum signed off on this lament:
And as MANDATORY’s Shazmeen Navrange had reported hours earlier, per her loving, loyal hubby this apparently was the end result of a woman going through the kind of PTSD that the medication that he endorsed last week might be apropos for:
Donald Trump …revealed during a press conference that she “immediately” became aware of the intense situation, and the whole of it was “traumatic” for her…Melania was cognizant. It was a rather traumatic experience for her.” …“The first lady was doing a terrific job. She loves the country. She recognizes it better than any. But she told me numerous times, she said, ‘You are in a dangerous job”.
These comments were made over an hour after the shooting and a day before Melania’s 56th birthday.
Knowing the degree of vanity that her “Oscar-worthy” turn in her recent unquestionably successful box office hit demonstrated, I’m not quite sure if her trauma was brought on by Saturday night’s events or the fact that she’s now fully part of a demo that advertisers and casting agents consider to be unworthy of spending an incremental dime on.
And it’s also the demo that disproportionately watches Kimmel and ABC as a whole. Even more so, the local newscasts of its overly sensitive affiliates.
Which means it’s deja vu all over again for Kimmel, who escaped cancellation last fall after he triggered a boycott from the Trump-friendly behemoth that represented a fourth of the country in the wake of commentary about a successful assassination attempt but was restored after a week where then-Disney chairman Bob Iger and his team found a way to restore peace–not so quietly playing the card that live college football might be at risk if they didn’t stop whining. You might recall we used this imagery–thank you, AI–to underscore the even more dramatic suggestion we posited that it should have been Monday Night Football that should have been used as leverage, but it was ultimately a card that didn’t need to be played.
But given that there’s a new sheriff in town, and at least in the case of Nexstar courts be damned they’re now at least emotionally controlling an even greater swath of affiliates, I’m reprising it as a courtesy to Iger’s hand-picked successor. CNN pundit Brian Stelter–who also apparently keeps the candle burning past midnight–dropped that very observation early this morning:
The pressure – which is also coming from President Donald Trump and a host of his allies – has created a headache for new Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro, who succeeded Bob Iger just six weeks ago. The Kimmel controversy is the first major Trump test for D’Amaro, who previously ran Disney’s theme parks and now oversees networks like ABC as well.
Stelter then took the liberty of taking an educated guess or two as to what D’Amaro might be hearing:
Pro-Trump media outlets and influencers blasted Kimmel online after Saturday, foreshadowing a concerted effort from the Trump administration to push him out…”He has to say something tonight, I think, that is conciliatory in a way,” but addresses the First Amendment issues at stake,” veteran late-night reporter Bill Carter said on “Anderson Cooper 360″…
Behind the scenes, ABC executives and Kimmel likely discussed what he might say on Monday night’s show about the controversy. (A)ctions speak louder than comments, and Monday’s actions – like the business-as-usual attitude at Kimmel’s show – signaled that Disney is not buckling under Trump’s pressure.
If that’s indeed true, huzzah. It needs to come from the lips–or at least the social media account–of Josh D’Amaro.
And no, it can’t just come from Dana Walden, who took the leadership role in the negotiations that ultimately returned Kimmel to the air despite the diminished national footprint. Stelter reminded his readers of how biased she is, and that’s independent of her personal friendship with Kamala Harris. Anything she might attempt to offer to support Kimmel will undoubtedly be as angrily dismissed by the First Couple as anything Norah O’Donnell might choose to quote–and I’d offer Melania might actually take that vitriol up a few notches. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, ya know.
Iger was well onto the exit ramp when this all went down, and he had already tarnished his legacy by agreeing to pony up $15 million to “donate” for what was perceived as a license-losing offense by George Stephanopoulos. At that time, he also had a deal on the table to be more fully in bed with the NFL which ultimately resulted in last month’s absorption of its network into its ESPN family of network. D’Amaro has no such encumbrances on his six-week-old tenure, and a lot more runway ahead of him that did Iger–or at least Donald Trump, for that matter.
ABC still apparently believes in the upside of late night television, if for no other reason at the moment no one is offering to buy back the time from them. And with Stephen Colbert about to depart, and CBS no longer selling saleable impressions in Kimmel’s time slot, there’s certainly audience and incremental revenue in play right after Memorial Day. I would hope D’Amaro is well aware of those facts. Any media mogul worth his weight in salt should salivate at the possibility of benefitting from a competitor’s submission.
Now is certainly not the time to take a knee to this administration, and certainly not the “Sweet Pea” that’s cognizant she’s aging out of the demo that gave her that nickname. D’Amaro has a golden opportunity to take a more forceful stand, not only as a sign of solidarity but also a way to establish his own brand on the leadership of the Walt Disney Company. It’s something David Ellison isn’t doing because he chooses not to, nor will Lachlan Murdoch. Nepobabies don’t have to take a stand. Comcast? Their theme parks are still a pale comparison to Disney’s, I’m certain D’Amaro knows THOSE facts in detail.
So Joshie, bone up on the numbers that what’s left of Walden’s support team can supply you with. You probably could now use at least a small fraction of the nearly 1000 experienced brains with those skill sets that you unceremoniously showed the door to earlier this month. But since you somehow concluded they were expendable, you’re gonna have to do the heavy lifting in this case. And it sure wouldn’t hurt your rep to do something positive to offset that short-sighted move.
Making a clear, uncompromising statement that reinforces Kimmel’s explanation, expressing lament for the unfortunate circumstances of Saturday night, and defiantly daring anyone in the Trump administration to tell him how to run his company would at least be a step in the right direction. You’d probably be anointed to folk hero in ways that Iger, or for that matter Walt Disney himself, never reached. You might get a few top-notch talents to choose Disney over Paramount. You’ll definitely get more than a few families who actually can afford the Magic Kingdom to drop a few thousand this summer into your pockets.
It’s your war now, Josh. Go get ’em.
Until next time…