Hour 1: The Maniacal Giggler (feat. Brian Stelter)
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What breaking news is affecting the political landscape in America?
This is the Dan Levitar Show with the Stugatz Podcast.
Before we get to Brian Stelter to talk about Jimmy Kimmel, these are obviously really turbulent times all over America. And there is danger and chaos and violence everywhere. Mike, what is the breaking news now on what's happening with ICE and the state militia that we are weaponizing? Well, details are still going in, and we want to be responsible because I saw Chrissy Noem and J.D. Vance also went to Twitter probably a little too soon to send out a certain message. But there was a shooting at a Dallas ICE facility. Two detainees at this facility are dead. One is injured. The suspect is dead.
How did public outcry influence Jimmy Kimmel's return to ABC?
Still coming over the news cycle, but according to social media, these shots were fired from a nearby rooftop. There are things being weaponized and political conversations immediately happening after violence and death because the content mill is something that is fed too quickly before we even have a chance to process, never mind getting to mourning. But with Jeffrey Epstein and with Jimmy Kimmel, we have found at least two issues where it seems like most Americans are pretty close to united. And in the case of Kimmel, this feels like a situation where public outcry made Disney do something that Disney didn't want to do. So Brian Stelter is the former media correspondent for the New York Times and Vanity Fair.
He's got three best-selling books, Top of the Morning, Hoax, and Network of Lies, and he's the current CNN media analyst. Brian, in your reporting, what is it that has happened over the last four days? Was it simply that everyone started canceling Hulu and Disney subscriptions?
Yeah.
What role does audience pressure play in media decisions?
It's more complicated, but I do believe people dropping those subscriptions did make a difference. Let's start from the premise that Disney always wanted to bring Kimmel back on the show. It's not as if the executives who run Disney, like Bob Iger, the CEO, and his deputy Dana Walden, it's not like they're secret Trumpers who are big fans of MAGA media and want to turn ABC into Fox News. That is far from the case. All right, Bob Iger donates to Democrats. He thought about running for president against Trump. Dana Walden is known for being best buds with Kamala Harris. These executives not only love Jimmy Kimmel personally, they are also politically in, I would say, some sort of sync with Jimmy Kimmel.
But they looked around, they react very quickly to pressure last week. And that's what they did, right?
How does Brian Stelter analyze Jimmy Kimmel's recent monologue?
They reacted by pulling the show and they wanted to find a path forward. It took them a few days. And I think the audience pressure, Dan, the consumer pressure, it did make a big difference, but they always wanted to bring the show back anyway.
You're sure about that? Because the original reporting I saw on that, it seemed like people were saying that indefinite was likely to become he wasn't coming back. You're sure about that?
Well, look, I was skeptical. I thought it was unlikely his show was going to be back on broadcast TV because I was thinking to myself, these station owners were not going to let it go back. They were too fearful of the Trump administration. They were too concerned about pressure from Trump and Brendan Carr.
What are the implications of Disney's relationship with Jimmy Kimmel?
I think it is important there was this groundswell of public concern, all these free speech groups, all these First Amendment experts, all of these random ordinary consumers, right? All these protesters outside Disneyland. It's never a good look for Disney when you have free speech protesters outside Disneyland. So, yeah, I think this story was unique in some ways amid all the other Trump controversies because it did create so much outrage and backlash. And yes, I do think that made a difference. We don't know for sure, right, what Disney was thinking. We don't know what the bottom line impact of the cancellations were. But I think what we do know for sure is that these executives love Jimmy Kimmel, they wanted the show to be back, and they decided by Monday the temperature had cooled down enough that they could do it, they could bring him back.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What breaking news is affecting the political landscape in America?
0:00–0:54
2
How did public outcry influence Jimmy Kimmel's return to ABC?
0:54–2:04
3
What role does audience pressure play in media decisions?
2:04–2:58
4
How does Brian Stelter analyze Jimmy Kimmel's recent monologue?
2:58–3:37
5
What are the implications of Disney's relationship with Jimmy Kimmel?
3:37–4:36
6
How does the media landscape compare between the U.S. and Hungary?
4:36–5:18
7
What strategies do media companies have against political pressure?
5:18–5:52
8
What future challenges might Jimmy Kimmel face in his career?
5:52–39:30
Speakers
5 identifiedMore from The Dan Le Batard Show
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