The Kimmel debacle shows where America draws the line — and the FCC crossed it, taking Disney along with it.
It's become common for companies to get ensnared in controversy. Think of Cracker Barrel's rebrand, Sydney Sweeney's American Eagle ad, and Bud Light's partnership with Dylan Mulvaney.
But when Disney suspended "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on ABC following threats by the FCC, the bipartisan nature of the backlash set it apart.
From the manosphere to Capitol Hill and Disney parks to America's living rooms, the affair showed corporate America that messing with free speech is a line that cannot be crossed. It could've been a run-of-the-mill culture war, but the pressure from the highest office in the land widened the outrage, experts told Business Insider. While the legal ramifications may not be over — Trump has threatened to sue Disney — businesses and the government are on notice: don't mess with our yap.
"The freedom to say what you want is so fundamental in America. It hits people more in the gut than abject talk about the constitution," Theda Skocpol, a professor of government and sociology at Harvard, told Business Insider. "You can say any damn thing — this is a widely held value across partisan lines."
The rare bipartisan backlash is a lesson for businesses
America's growing political divide is a headache for businesses. It undermines workplace collaboration, hinders financial success, leads to lower employee productivity, and increases turnover.
For some of the world's most iconic brands, it can also mean getting caught in the crosshairs on a global stage.
As the happiest place on earth, Disney holds a special spot in the public imagination. However, it's also become a punching bag in the culture wars, with conservatives seeing a liberal agenda in almost everything it makes.
This time, though, the backlash was bipartisan: Sen. Ted Cruz, Joe Rogan, Candace Owens, and Ben Shapiro joined the chorus of liberal voices in criticizing Disney bending to FCC Chair Brendan Carr's threats. Meanwhile, hundreds of people protested, and search volume for "cancel Disney Plus" and "cancel Hulu" spiked.
Aiming to keep up the pressure on Disney, 100 former ABC News employees this week called on Iger to make clear to defend ABC News against political attacks, while a Disney investor group demanded that the company disclose internal records related to Kimmel's suspension.
The main uniting factor was the pressure from Trump and Carr. Conservatives worried that it could set a precedent for a Democratic administration. One former Disney+ and Hulu subscriber told Business Insider before Kimmel's reinstatement, "If Disney's going to cave to Trump, then Disney doesn't get my money."
"It's not the principle of free speech," Norman Ornstein, a political scientist at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, told Business Insider. "But the willingness to use a regulatory agency and its chair to intimidate adversaries to exact retribution, to use their power to crush opponents, I think that is troubling to the Ted Cruzs of the world, at least some of them."
To Rishad Tobaccowala, a longtime ad industry exec, the episode showed how free speech is a deeply held value in America that crosses political lines. For CEOs, he said, "the takeaway is to align yourself with human values. People aren't as divided as people think, so speak to the center instead of trying to make both sides happy."
To be sure, the glasnost could be short-lived.
Social posts on X during Kimmel's suspension, pulled by social analysis firm PeakMetrics, suggested that a lot of people remain in their ideological bunkers. Its analysis found that conservatives who were jumping on Disney were doing so based on their longstanding grievances about Disney being too "woke" rather than for canceling Kimmel.
Trump could double down on his attacks against the media and other perceived opponents. Victor Pickard, who teaches media studies at the University of Pennsylvania, called the suspension "indefensible, and an unprecedented abuse of regulatory power."
At least for now, the public's response shows its desire to defend free speech against government interference.
"That's up to us," Harvard's Skocpol said. "ABC backed off because there was beginning to be a groundswell."
