Former Disney chief executive Michael Eisner has spoken out against the suspension of ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’, calling the move “yet another example of out-of-control intimidation.”
In a post on X on Friday, Eisner questioned why business and academic leaders were not speaking up in defence of free expression. “Where has all the leadership gone? If not for university presidents, law firm managing partners and corporate chief executives standing up against bullies, who then will step up for the First Amendment? (sic)” he wrote.
He also criticised the pressure placed on Disney by Brendan Carr, chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), following remarks Kimmel made about the shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. “The ‘suspending indefinitely’ of Jimmy Kimmel immediately after the Chairman of the FCC’s aggressive yet hollow threatening of the Disney Company is yet another example of out-of-control intimidation (sic),” Eisner wrote.
Eisner added: “By-the-way, for the record, this ex-CEO finds Jimmy Kimmel very talented and funny.”
Why was Kimmel suspended?
ABC announced on Tuesday that Kimmel had been taken off air indefinitely after his comments about the shooting of Charlie Kirk. During his monologue, Kimmel accused the “MAGA gang” of “desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.”
FCC chair Brendan Carr later said Kimmel was “appearing to directly mislead the American public,” and threatened action against Disney. Kimmel has not yet commented on the decision.
Eisner, who ran Disney from 1984 to 2005 during the so-called “Disney renaissance” with films such as The Little Mermaid and The Lion King, is the most prominent former Disney leader to weigh in on the controversy.
