Right now, the breaking news that in

this major reversal, Disney will bring

Jimmy Kimmel back. Uh, that is a long

ways from how they sounded last week,

and that will be tomorrow. Disney and

ABC announcing Kimmel goes back on the

air despite these government Trump

efforts to silence him tomorrow. Here is

the statement. I’m going to read you

exactly what Disney said so you can make

sense of it yourself. Last Wednesday, we

made the decision, these Disney

executives say, to quote, suspend

production on the show, referring to

Kimmel, to avoid further inflaming a

tense situation at an emotional moment

for our country. They continue today,

quote, we have spent the last days

having thoughtful conversations with

Jimmy. And after those conversations, we

reached the decision to return the show

on Tuesday. So, that is the news and

that’s how they’re putting it. Of

course, there’s a lot more to this, and

we’re going to get into that right now.

I’m curious, does this show that some

amount of public pressure works?

Yeah, I think it shows quite clearly the

resistance works. You know, this is a

lesson that I think the American people

understand. Uh we saw with the No Kings

protest. We saw it with people

cancelling Disney Plus. But ever since

uh Trump has been inaugurated in office,

we have seen the elites in this country

uh the CEO class take the opposite

lesson. Uh, you know, I do think that

Bob Iger’s decision decision to settle

with Trump and give money to his

presidential library in December of last

year actually set a tone of elite

submission that we have seen throughout

media. We have seen it throughout

academia. We’ve seen it with the law

firms etc. It’s the actual regular

Americans who have stood up and made a

difference.

Howard,

I think that’s exactly right. And you

know that what Oliver minus one word had

to say about bullies is exactly right.

Um and the amazing thing to me is the uh

cowardice of the huge corporations and

and I is not known for that and he I

think finally realized that this was

going to be a huge problem. But look at

all the the tech companies which are

gazillionaires. They’re kissing Trump’s

you know what all the time. And that is

not a winning strategy in the long run.

And I think consumers just proved to

Disney it was not a winning strategy.

Yes. And it clearly

wrapped all of Disney in a choice that

actually is just one small part of their

empire, Jay. And so on one hand, you

could imagine corporate leaders who

aren’t looking for this fight and

wrongly perhaps think they can get away

from it to say, “Oh, this is just a

little part, right?” Uh the actual

amount of revenue for a late night show

compared to Disney and the parks and

everything and the Marvel movies is

small. And yet what you both just

referred to a massive righteous and very

clear backlash actually supersized it up

to affect some other parts of Disney.

Chay.

Yeah. And the reality is is that, you

know, people talk about the broadcast TV

uh model and how that’s a small part of

the Disney empire. What makes anybody at

Disney think it’s just going to end with

Jimmy Kimmel? What’s the stop after

this? Donald Trump saying, you know, you

guys own Star Wars. I would like Luke

Skywalker to start looking like Don Jr.

Uh you guys uh are doing

or at least Jay Chay or at least have an

orange lightsaber in the mix.

Exactly. That’s a great point. Or, you

know, or have or have the Jedi Alliance

wear MAGA caps now. I mean, you know,

they could decide to dictate every

element of Disney’s business, the nature

of their entertainment, who they hire at

their theme parks. Maybe uh Trump says,

“Hey, I want you to look through the

social media of all your employees and

get rid of those people who said bad

things about me.” You know, what we know

is if you give bullies an inch, they

take a mile. That is why, as Timothy

Cider pointed out, with

authoritarianism, don’t give an inch.

Yeah. And I don’t know how often, uh,

Governor,

that David Letterman and Ted Cruz agree

on

Yeah.

a comedic punchline or how to make a

point. Um, but they both attack the

Trump FCC as the mob. And this comes, of

course, in the wider climate where

that’s not uh what’s the word I’m

looking for? That’s not hyperbolic

because Donald Trump is literally

threatening opponents um saying he wants

his opponents silenced, indicted,

jailed, not because they’ve done any

crime, but because of their free speech.

So, it’s not like the Kimmel thing

happens in a vacuum. Other people’s free

speech is being sanctioned with other

things. Uh and they both liken this to

mob tactics. Here’s Letterman. Take a

listen. Uh Howard

Brendan Carr. Yes. Uh, so this guy, the

FCC is, we can do things the easy way,

we can do things the hard way. Who is

hiring these goons? Mario Puzo,

the the FCC. We’re not happy until

you’re not happy,

governor.

You know, the same thing is going on,

interestingly, in the Democratic party.

The government shutdown is a perfect

example of it. uh they they they raised

raised the white flag the last time and

let some ridiculous awful bill through

that’s going to do a lot of damage to uh

the public uh especially including a lot

of Trump voters and red states. Uh and

now they’re saying no, we’re not unless

you include us in the negotiation and we

can do something for these folks that we

care about, we’re not supporting you and

if the government closes that’s your

problem. If you don’t do that, there’ll

be more and more of this pushing people

around. So, this is a Trump tactic. He

used it in business for years and years

and years. He wasn’t a particularly

successful business guy. And this is not

a particularly successful tactic as long

as Americans remember who they are.

There’s been a lot of Americans

forgetting what America is about. And I

think the Disney uh people uh learned

the hard way that

the Trump administration is trying to

make it even harder for reporters at the

Pentagon to do their jobs of keeping us

all aware of what the Defense Department

is up to. NPR reports that going

forward, journalists must sign a pledge

not to gather any information, including

unclassified reports, that has not been

authorized for release. Those who fail

to obey will lose their press

credentials. Basically, don’t do

reporting. The National Press Club

blasted the move, saying in a statement

in part, quote, “This is a direct

assault on independent journalism at the

very place where independent scrutiny

matters the most, the US military.”

Joining us now is Kevin Baron, president

of Elevation Global Strategies and

former executive editor of Defense One.

He’s also the former vice president of

the Pentagon Press. Okay, Kevin, this

strikes me as the most insane press

policy I’ve ever seen coming out of the

Pentagon. And that has to say something.

Basically,

they’re saying, “Don’t report on

anything that you find out because

you’re reporting a in a motion that

literally would have prevented all of

the great accountability journalism that

has happened over the years about our

country going to war.

Yeah. I mean, if this, you know, if this

policy stands, it’s the death of of

American journalism at the Pentagon.

It’s nothing less than that. I covered

the building for, you know, more than 15

years. You live inside that place. And,

you know, I it’s a special place. It’s a

very unique

job for journalists even in Washington

for lots of reasons. The Pentagon is

America’s military headquarters. So any

reporter that works there and it’s a

small number of reporters uh in in the

American media ecosystem who have ever

been able to have the the privilege of

being a Pentagon reporter. It’s a small

press corps and there’s not a lot of

turnover and the people that work there

know trust me they know I know they the

seriousness with the duty that they’re

given. You know, by reporting on the

military, you’re reporting on not just

the leadership, the political leaders,

but the senior military leaders

themselves and all the way down the

chain of command through uh all every

every level of troop you can think of.

Uh and it goes not just from that

building, but around the world. When

you’re on the Pentagon press corps, you

travel to military bases, and in our

case, back in the day, it was war zones,

combat outpost, forward operating bases.

You go to foreign embassies. You go to

NATO headquarters. Uh you go on to

ships. You travel in military aircraft,

nuclear command aircraft, helicopters.

So many places where your life is in

their hands and vice versa. It’s a very

symbiotic relationship. There’s a lot of

trust that’s built and required in it.

All that to say, no president and no

defense secretary have ever come close

to having any kind of problem with the

press corps that would require anything

close to restricting the press corp’s

movements and actions like this. It’s

just it’s just beyond comprehension.

Despite the outcry Pete Hegsth has

actually been boasting about this,

doubling down on it. He posted on X

saying, quote, “The press does not run

the Pentagon. The people do.”

Is Is that true? So, who represents the

people in this equation? Is it Pete

Hegsth or is it reporters who come from

all over the country who work hard to

get the opportunity to get in there and

ask questions on on behalf of the

communities they serve?

You know, for one of the few times, I’ll

say this out loud, Pete Heads is right.

The American people elected this

president and this president chose this

defense secretary and the Senate GOP

confirmed him. So, this is the policy

you get. It shouldn’t be a surprise. You

know, it it was it would have been a

surprise if they started with this back

in February, but there have been a

sequence of of guidances that have come

down from the defense secretary’s office

limiting press movements, limit

targeting certain members of the press,

certain organizations where they were

they lost their their seats, they lost

their their broadcast booths. Uh they

all of these are moves that made it

harder for reporters to report the

truth, harder to get information that

like as as Hexath statements say is not

pre-authorized and pre-approved. And

like you said, at least harder to do

journalism. Uh so yeah, it the Pentagon

gets to set these rules as do all the

agencies. You know, at the State

Department, it’s different. The State

Department, if you want to meet with

someone and you’re reporter, at least

back in the day, maybe it’s changed

recently, you had to meet with them like

at the cafe. You couldn’t wander around

the building wherever you want to. even

even on hallways like you can at the

Pentagon. You really can if you in until

recently, if you have a Pentagon press,

first of all, you’ve already been vetted

to some level to get into the building

and have that pass um and to have earned

your your your job in the first place in

journalism. Um but when you have that

that badge, you can walk all over the

Pentagon. You can’t walk into certain

rooms that are already locked and have

codes and you need, you know, permission

to go into, for sure, but it’s actually

part of the job of doing it. You have to

walk around. I was a I started as a

start and stripes reporter. You get

there early in the morning and you would

make the rounds. Meaning you go from

your desk in the press room to the Army

public affairs office, the Navy public

affairs, the Air Force, you go around

the building and that’s just the basic

of reporting to go talk to people to

talk to public affairs officers and

anybody else you want to who’s willing

to talk to you. I was going to say that

maybe the a silver lining in all this is

that you don’t have to do the reporting

because Mike Waltz or Pete Hex will put

you on a signal chat and they’ll just

report to you all the military plans and

then you can and then you can report.

He’s got guys he is he’s lost it. Donald

Trump is crying like a tiny little baby

because Jimmy Kimmel beat him. And now

this is a double whammy for Trump

because few people maybe there would be

some I guess there’s 300 million

Americans and billions of people in the

world, right? more than 300 million

Americans. But um most people either

supported what Trump did and are now

going to be mad at him for backing down

or

people who didn’t support him aren’t

going to give him credit for this.

They’re not He’s not going to get credit

for the backdown. He’s not going to get

credit because oh, this didn’t end up

getting worse, right? uh ABC, uh Disney,

all of that, the the the local

affiliates, some of them might get

forgiven, I suppose, but for the most

part, people, Donald Trump spent

political and personal capital on this

story,

using his direct control and his

indirect influence on the FCC, which

again indirectly influenced stuff, to

make this move and it failed. So now

everybody now knows that Donald Trump

will try to remove his enemies from the

air and that if folks stand up, the

public especially, but also other people

involved in the media and and and and

and government officials and what have

you, if they stand up, the bully will

back down. And now Kimmel has the

opportunity to not only be victorious,

but now has a a real sense that like

that that he is he’s bigger than this.

You know, he’s not more powerful than

the president, but he’s powerful enough

to stand up to the president when the

president and his cronies do unjust

things. This is going to be one of these

moments that people look back on and say

when Donald Trump realized he did not

have the absolute power was when he took

shots at everybody and and a lot of

universities and law firms and

individuals and government agencies they

bent the knee. But there was a moment

where Donald Trump took a direct shot at

free speech, free media, the first

amendment and folks stood up. Folks

stood up. Jimmy Kimmel stood up. Yes, of

course. But also other media figures,

you folks like like you guys, folks like

myself,

Democrats in Congress, and even a few

Republicans in Congress, they stood up.

And in that pressure, even the wannabe

tyrant Trump could not resist. This is

historic.