The Problem With Whiplash

     After my initial comments, I'd been sitting out the ongoing ABC/Jimmy Kimmel/FCC furor.  The most recent development rates a few words: Kimmel's back on.

     In what form, nobody know.  There were serious talks, we're told, but who said what and what promises may have been made remains a mystery.

     Maybe they should've talked to Target.  The retail chain had embraced Pride Month for several years, expanding their rainbow-themed offerings in a way that a few critics decried as cynical "rainbow-washing."  Then came a conservative backlash that included a boycott.  Target backed down, goodbye rainbows -- and that prompted another boycott by liberals and LGBT allies.  The result has been a steady decline in shoppers and sales: many liberals have avoided them since and a lot of the conservatives never came back.  By not picking a course and sticking to it, they lost out.

     ABC/Disney is trying to thread a similar needle.  Kimmel's return will probably get big ratings, but after that, success may take a more-nimble mind than the corporate offices of a big TV network can produce.

     The Press needs to remember they are The Press, covered under what remains one of the world's strongest guarantees of freedom in the First Amendment.  It's uncomfortable; it covers everything from Fox News to NPR, from Hustler to the Christian Science Monitor, from your four-page neighborhood weekly paper to The New York Times, from comedians to snoozingly serious commentators.  Uncle Sam is not the boss of them -- even when they say things the government doesn't like, even when they say things We The People don't like.

     The First Amendment even protects them when they don't say things that many people might like: politically conservative Sinclair Broadcast Group owns 38 ABC affiliates, and they're not going to be carrying Jimmy Kimmel Live!  If the FCC leaned on them to carry the show now that it's back, that would be just as wrong as implying ABC stations that did carry the show might find themselves in hot water.  Say what you will about Sinclair -- I certainly will -- they have picked a position and stayed with it.

     The unifying idea for newspapers, radio, TV and online news outlets has long been -- and should remain -- that they are protected from government pressure over their content.  They should raise a hue and cry when this freedom comes under threat.  They don't have to like one another; I expect them not to agree with one another on politics and culture; but even The Worker and The Wall Street Journal have a shared interest in the First Amendment.  The Press has been taking it for granted.  Recent events show that's not a good idea. "Jawboning" has been ramping up quietly for many years now, and it's past time for it for be tamped back down.