Greetings! Yesterday, late-night hosts rushed to the defense of ABC’s sidelined gabfest star Jimmy Kimmel.  I haven’t watched everything but Jon Stewart’s opening monologue last night on a special Thursday night edition was particularly brilliant and it’s available on YouTube. The NY Post has a good recap of Stewart’s bit as well...Dept. of Surprises: Ben Shapiro, one of the right’s most influential thinkers, argues that while he’s happy that Kimmel is gone for now, he cautions on what he calls overreach.  “The FCC should not be threatening action against ABC or its affiliates or Disney based on Jimmy Kimmel being a jackass,” he wrote in today’s Daily Wire...The shocking murder of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk on September 10 triggered a massive traffic spike to the 45 mostly right-wing news websites TheRighting monitors.  According to my exclusive analysis of Similarweb data, the tragic event resulted in the largest surge in visits to those websites since the 2024 election of Donald Trump.  For instance, CNN’s visits skyrocketed from 11 million on September 9 to 31 million on September 10. Fox News more than doubled its visits from 7.5 million on September 9 to 16.2 million the day of the shooting. NBC News soared from 2.6 million on September 9 to 16.3 million on September 10...Weekend Watch:  If anyone needs a refresher course in how media companies used to stand up to the federal government, I recommend Steve Spielberg’s 2017 movie The Post, which delves into how the Washington Post defied the Nixon administration at considerable risk to its future, by publishing the Pentagon Papers. The other (obvious) choice is the classic Watergate drama All the President’s Men.  Both are available for rent on Amazon Prime...If you keep reading, I’ll keep Righting. Howard

Greetings: Dept. of No Surprises: Trump called the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel “Great News for America.”  Except he called the suspension a cancellation in last night’s Truth Social post. Sloppiness on Trump’s part or wishful thinking? He also slammed NBC’s late-night hosts Jimmy Fallon and Seth Myers as “total losers,” urging their network bosses  to “do it” to them too.....What happens to Bill Maher now?  Mr. Politically Incorrect might have had a friendly White House  dinner with The Donald and Kid Rock last spring, still that doesn’t mean he’s immune from getting kicked to the curb by his corporate masters.  Will the self-proclaimed fearless Maher defend his fellow late night denizen Kimmel?  His “Real Time” airs on HBO Max tomorrow night.  Worth noting: the streamer’s parent is Warner Bros. Discovery, target of a potential Paramount Skydance takeover. Paramount Skydance is controlled by David Ellison, son of the richest man in the world, Larry Ellison. This gazillionaire father/son team is cozy with Trump. Ellison, the elder, is close to owning TikTok, a deal that has the blessings of the MAGA-in-Chief. Maher would be cancelled in a  New York minute if he was seen as an impediment to the Ellison’s building their media empire. It’s worth remembering that the jettisoning of “Late Night with Stephen Colbert” was collateral damage during the Skydance/Paramount merger earlier this year...Can’t help but wonder about “Saturday Night Live.” The late night fixture, a perpetual needler of politicians, left and right, for more than half a century, has its season premier October 4. Will SNL’s anti-administration tone be muted?.... Dept. of Corrections: Yesterday I erroneously called ChatGPT ChatCBT.  It’s not wise to anger the AI gods....If you keep reading, I’ll keep Righting. Howard