NABET-CWA Statement on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Nexstar and Sinclair

The National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians–Communications Workers of America (NABET-CWA) released the following statement in response to Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group’s preemption of Jimmy Kimmel Live!:

This week, the American people learned how easily our right to freedom of speech can be silenced by consolidated media ownership in thrall to a president determined to consolidate his own power. 

This coordinated attack on our First Amendment rights by the Trump administration and the media companies Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group has laid bare a simple truth: our democracy cannot afford to compromise on media consolidation. The federal cap on the number of stations a single company can own is a necessary protection for a free and fair democracy. 

NABET-CWA is renewing our call on Congress to prevent the Trump administration from eliminating the existing standards for broadcast ownership. Our Constitutional right to freedom of speech is too precious to be left subject to the whims of corporate cowardice. 

Jimmy Kimmel is back on air this week due to the power of the people – people who came together to boycott, protest and demand that Disney-ABC resume production of the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show. By refusing to carry the program, Nexstar and Sinclair have pitted narrow corporate interests against the values of all Americans who stand together for free speech. But by the power of the people, our freedoms will win.

Our union stands united with workers across broadcasting, journalism, telecommunications and other industries that do the real work of facilitating the great American marketplace of ideas. We stand for the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, and the freedom of every worker who chooses to speak truth to power.

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