The Mickey Mouse logo is all over Walt Disney’s headquarters in Burbank, California. But on Thursday, those famous ears were also on display outside the studio on protest signs, including one labeling Disney executives as “cowards” for suspending Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talkshow in response to pressure from the Trump administration.
Disney, which owns ABC, “indefinitely” suspended Kimmel’s show on Wednesday night, following threatening remarks by Trump’s Federal Communications Commission chair, Brendan Carr, about possible regulatory consequences for comments Kimmel made about Trump and the Maga movement’s response to Charlie Kirk’s killing.
As many Americans condemned the incident as a blatant government attack on free speech, others attacked Disney and its CEO, Bob Iger, for what they saw as a swift capitulation to the Trump administration’s demand that they censor a prominent comedian.
As calls grew for boycotts against Disney and other companies involved in removing Kimmel from the air, an estimated 200 to 300 people protested outside Disney’s headquarters in Burbank on Thursday afternoon, in a demonstration that had been promoted by the Hollywood writers’ union, the Writers Guild of America, calling on ABC to “Bring Back Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
Another 100 people demonstrated outside ABC’s studios in New York, Variety reported, where the crowd chanted “un-American” and “Kimmel must stay, Iger must go”.
At a third protest, outside the Hollywood studio that hosts Kimmel’s show, protesters chanted “Down with the FCC” and “ABC bent the knee”, Variety reported.
“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. Not by violence, not by the abuse of governmental power, nor by acts of corporate cowardice,” the WGA had said in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter condemning the show’s suspension.
The Writers Guild of America West shared images of protesters holding signs in Burbank demanding Kimmel’s reinstatement and criticizing the violation of free speech rights.
One demonstrator held a poster that read “No bread and no circus?” – an apparent reference to the Trump administration going after a popular entertainer as polls show Americans are also struggling with what they see as rising prices and a struggling economy.
Multiple protesters held signs noting that the controversy was reminiscent of the plot of one of Disney’s new Star Wars spinoff shows, Andor, which focuses on the fight against authoritarianism.
“I believe that Disney and ABC are 100% responsible. They gave zero pushback,” Konstantine Anthony, a city council member from Burbank, told the Hollywood Reporter, which noted Anthony was carrying a sign that read: “Did you even watch Andor?”
“We want Jimmy Kimmel back on the air and we will keep speaking up and putting pressure in any way we can until that happens,” the Writers Guild of America West president, Meredith Stiehm, told the Hollywood Reporter.
