Labor Unions Rally to Kimmel’s Defense

As Jimmy Kimmel Live!’s suspension enters its third day, the entertainment industry’s unions are making it clear: they’ve got Kimmel’s back.

Protests have been held outside ABC’s headquarters on both coasts, with the Writers Guild of America East rallying Friday outside the network’s new building in Lower Manhattan.

Veteran late-night writers were seen among the large crowd of WGA members gathered to show support for Jimmy Kimmel, who is a member of the union.

Sam Wheeler, WGAE’s Executive Director, lambasted the various powers at play in the decision to remove Jimmy Kimmel from the airwaves. “I don’t think I need to tell this crowd that Donald Trump is a tyrant… that Brendan Carr’s attack on ABC and its affiliates is an assault on the First Amendment… that ABC’s capitulation to that attack is corporate cowardice at its absolute worst,” declared Wheeler.

“The people who need to hear this are the executives in this building,” he added, “because they need to understand that this period in American life is not going to last forever, and when it’s over, we are going to have some hard questions about what kind of courage you displayed in this moment.”

“Despots are not created. They don’t come out of nowhere. They are enabled,” added Liz Hynes, a WGAE Council member and writer for Last Week Tonight. “Every single inch that we cede to an autocrat is an inch ceded by cowards. Donald Trump is not a wise or brave man. We don’t have to let him do this.”

Those statements echoed a sentiment put forth in a joint statement from the WGA’s East and West branches shortly after Kimmel was pulled by ABC.

“The right to speak our minds and to disagree with each other—to disturb, even—is at the very heart of what it means to be a free people. It is not to be denied,” said the guild. “Not by violence, not by the abuse of governmental power, nor by acts of corporate cowardice.”

SAG-AFTRA, of which Kimmel is also a member, was quick to declare that it condemned Kimmel’s suspension.

“Democracy thrives when diverse points of view are expressed,” the labor union said in a statement. “The decision to suspend airing Jimmy Kimmel Live! is the type of suppression and retaliation that endangers everyone’s freedoms.”

SAG-AFTRA was also one of several Hollywood labor groups to sign on to a joint statement on the issue the next day, in conjunction with the Directors Guild of America (DGA), American Federation of Musicians (AFM), and International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE).

“The indefinite removal of Jimmy Kimmel Live under government pressure is not an isolated incident. It is part of a disturbing trend of increasing interference in creative expression,” the groups alleged.

“This kind of political pressure on broadcasters and artists chills free speech and threatens the livelihoods of thousands of working Americans. When a private citizen, business, or television network bows to government intimidation, it strikes at the heart of our First Amendment rights.”

The groups added that such instances “pull the rug out from under the hardworking American workers behind the scenes who make these productions possible” by creating unnecessary loss of work, particularly “at a time when America’s film and television industry is still struggling due to globalization and industry contraction.”

The Producers Guild of America soon followed suit. “Late-night television has long been a space where satire and commentary contribute to our national dialogue,” the union said in its own statement. “We believe that artistic expression is essential, and that critical voices must not be silenced.”

After leading a chant of “Bring Jimmy back!” to the gathered crowd at today’s WGA rally outside ABC, NYC Comptroller Brad Lander directed his remarks at Kimmel’s network. “You can fix this right quick and show which side you’re on by doing one simple thing right now: Bring Jimmy back.”