The first amendment is under attack. The President of the United States has openly stated that he wants all of the network late-night comedians to be fired.

Why not? They satirize him and they have low ratings. POTUS tells his FCC Chair/Loyalist to use his broadcast licensing authority to strong arm the affiliates. He goes too far.

Could it be more clear what’s going on here? The implications of this situation impact not just citizens. They are an existential threat to corporations in the business of communications.

Corporations have duties to balance the needs of their shareholders, employees and customers. Some of these are legal requirements and some are just good business. The reasons a corporation is taking a particular action cannot always be divulged. From a strategic point of view, it may be unwise to explain.

The President’s lack of subtlety and poor choice of target caused him to decisively lose the Kimmel war.

No doubt Disney (and their affiliates as well) were in crisis management mode, faced with what appeared to be a lose/lose situation. They would be boycotted either way.

If Disney had sided with Kimmel, the left would rejoice and move on. In suspending Kimmel, they unleashed backlash that transcended our intractable political divide.

Were Disney’s actions what it seemed? I consulted some AI chatbots, gathering information about comedian responses to Kimmel’s suspension. Moving on to substantive analysis, I explained the purpose of my questions:

“Bigger picture, I have a hypothesis that given that the government had leverage the conflicting business interests of affiliates and ABC, I am wondering if somewhere in Disney it was suggested that suspending Kimmel was the best course of action because: Settling a baseless lawsuit didn’t work, CBS has canceled Colbert but he is still on the air, as is Fallon and other superstar comedians. The top podcast is hosted by a comedian..... We can win this!”

With informal power, the source of that power must be considered and protected. Corporations and performers lose their power if they alienate their customers and audiences. It is time to stop choosing sides and focus on addressing our increasingly dysfunctional government. Corporations hold significant power that can be leveraged in the fight.

It’s going to take more than protesting and boycotting. The interests of most corporations are not served by aligning with an agenda of retribution. Trust them.