Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Ben Affleck, Ben Stiller and Lin-Manuel Miranda are among the more than 400 artists to sign on to an ACLU letter calling out “government threats to our freedom of speech” in the aftermath of ABC‘s decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel.
“Efforts by leaders to pressure artists, journalists, and companies with retaliation for their speech strike at the heart of what it means to live in a free country,” the open letter states.
“Last week, Jimmy Kimmel was taken off the air after the government threatened a private company with retaliation, marking a dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation. In an attempt to silence its critics, our government has resorted to threatening the livelihoods of journalists, talk show hosts, artists, creatives, and entertainers across the board. This runs counter to the values our nation was built upon, and our Constitution guarantees.”
The letter does not name Donald Trump or his FCC chair, Brendan Carr, but they are cited in a website introduction. The letter notes, “We know this moment is bigger than us and our industry. Teachers, government employees, law firms, researchers, universities, students and so many more are also facing direct attacks on their freedom of expression.”
“Regardless of our political affiliation, or whether we engage in politics or not, we all love our country,” the letter states. “We also share the belief that our voices should never be silenced by those in power – because if it happens to one of us, it happens to all of us.”
Others signing the letter include Robert DeNiro, Selena Gomez, Kerry Washington, Jason Bateman, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ariana DeBose, Jane Fonda, Jim Parsons, Joaquin Phoenix, Frances McDormand, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Regina King, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jean Smart, Noah Wyle, Diego Luna, Natalie Portman, Olivia Rodrigo, Martin Short and Ramy Youssef.
On his show last Monday, Kimmel said during his monologue, “We had some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and with everything they can to score political points from it.”
That generated furor on the right, with Carr chiming in Wednesday on Benny Johnson’s podcast. Carr said, “We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Hours later, station group Nexstar said it was pulling the show from its ABC affiliates “for the foreseeable future.” Soon after, ABC announced the suspension.
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