In an earlier life -1970, to be precise – I worked at WJZ-TV, the ABC station in Baltimore, MD. I produced and directed The Arnold Zenker Show, a daily 9:00-10:00 am, LIVE talk show.
Arnold was smart, good-looking, and could strip away BS like a surgeon with a scalpel. Prior to his talk show, he had been a lawyer for CBS network in New York and once, during a strike, subbed for Walter Cronkite. He was smitten by the experience and moved to Baltimore to try his hand at on-camera work.
During those days, we used to love poking the Nixon White House, not on every show like Colbert or Kimmel, but frequently.
One day, I came across a LIFE Magazine article about an FBI agent who had been fired by J. Edgar Hoover “with prejudice”. LIFE wanted to interview him but lost track of him in Baltimore. I made a few calls and a few hours later: “Hi. I hear you’re looking for me.“
He appeared the next morning, a courteous, modest, somewhat subdued man in a dark suit, white shirt, and dark tie, right out of the FBI’s dress code book, if they had one.
His story, which Arnold gently brought out, was both sad and infuriating. Hoover’s “with prejudice” prevented him from getting another job, to the point where he had to leave his wife and kids, and work incognito.
An hour or so after the show, I got a call from Ron Nessen’s office. He was Nixon’s Press Secretary at White House. It wasn’t to compliment us; they wanted a tape of the show.
I went upstairs to the VP’s office and told him I “might’ve” screwed up. He shook his head, leaned back in his chair, then smiled and said, “you tell them we’ll be glad to make a copy of the show. It’ll cost $5,000 and will require an Ampex videotape machine that costs $100,000.”
(In 2025 that equates to $41,749 for the tape, and $834,990 for the machine.)
I called the White House and left the message – and they never called back.
In those days, the most TV stations a company could own was seven. The reason was to prevent any one company from having too much control of the media. The Reagan Administration considered that over-regulation and overturned it in 1984. Additional stations under one owner, they said, would not threaten “the diversity of independent viewpoints in the information and entertainment markets.”
Today, Nexstar owns 197 stations, 32 of which are ABC affiliates. Disney owns ABC network. Tegna owns 64 stations, 13 of which are ABC affiliates. Paramount owns both CBS network and 28 stations, 15 of which are CBS affiliates.
This summer Paramount needed FCC approval for an $8 billion dollar merger with SkyDance, a media conglomerate. Currently Nexstar is waiting for FCC approval for a $6.2 billion dollar merger with Tegna.
As most of us know, Trump hates criticism. As most of us also know, Late Night comedians love poking him with satire, which narrows his eyes and reddens his face.
Not long after Trump started whining in July about Colbert’s jokes, Paramount/CBS cancelled Colbert (effective next May). Immediately afterwards the FCC approved the $8 billion Paramount-Skydance merger.
The media front-paged it. Colbert fans boycotted CBS and Paramount.
When Trump whined again, this time about Jimmy Kimmel, FCC Chairman Carr suggested the network suspend Kimmel, saying “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.” Sinclair Broadcasting dropped the show from its 41 ABC stations and Nexstar and Tegna refused to air Kimmel on their 43 ABC stations. (Note: Nexstar and Tegna still need FCC approval for their $6.2 billion dollar merger).
That’s when Disney/ABC caved and took Kimmel off the air.
And then, finally, Late Night audiences, as well as hundreds of Hollywood heavyweights and millions across the country, erupted at Trump and the FCC and at Disney/ABC.
So Disney/ABC caved again. Effective Tuesday, Sept 24 Kimmel was back on the air. He knocked it out of the park.
These two incidents are not just examples of the President trampling the First Amendment. They’re not just examples of why the seven station rule should never have been dropped.
They’re examples of corruption – at the highest level of our government.
And they’re part of a deliberate pattern. Trump has used the power of the government’s purse to bring universities to heel, withholding billions of already committed federal dollars from them. He has used the Justice Department to bully law firms into giving him millions of dollars of free legal services. This month, it was the FCC and the media’s turn. Not to mention the people he’s fired for disloyalty.
Who’s next?
This systematic corruption and abuse of power is symptomatic of every dictator who took over a country, from Stalin to Hitler to Orban, to name just a few.
Wouldn’t it be great if the Late Night comedians inspired the whole country to stand up to this dictator and take back the democracy he and his cronies are deliberately destroying?