In an earlier post I commented on the dangers of fascism and its growing rise in the United States, parading and invading under the banner of MAGA and Donald J. Trump Jr.

So now the Trump regime, via the FCC’s Chairman Brendan Carr (who, by the way, authored the section of Project 2025 on the FCC) has pushed ABC to cancel Jimmy Kimmel Live. And ABC (owned by Disney) caved in and cancelled his show immediately. Not even a runway for a sort-of graceful exit. Just cancelled.

You know, for a party that has gotten up in arms about being ‘cancelled’ this is yet another exhaustingly familiar example of the hypocrisy that is core to the MAGA regime. If you are reading this and are not yet alarmed by what is happening – JUST with media control – then I hope you will stop and consider the possible awful future these acts portend. And what are other countries that tightly control their media so as to suppress rights and voices? Thankfully, independent experts at Reporters Without Borders are watching:

Notice how orange (weirdly applicable) the U.S. has gotten?

Please visit their page, and use their interactive graphic to see what press freedom looks like in the U.S. and elsewhere over time. Then think about the rise of authoritarians and fascism.

Then think about yourself, your kids, your friends. In a world of controlled press, knowledge and dialogue is constrained. Education suffers. An educated citizenry becomes a wish, rather than a reality.

As the two newspapers in Moscow years ago were called, Truth and News – my Russian professor in the 1980’s quipped that “there is no News in Truth, and no Truth in News”.