Former CEO Michael Eisner Blasts Company for Caving to ‘Out-of-Control Intimidation’ from Trump’s FCC
AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian
Michael Eisner, former CEO of the Walt Disney Company, blasted his successor for the decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel’s show, characterizing it as caving to “out-of-control intimidation” from President Donald Trump’s administration.
Kimmel’s show Jimmy Kimmel Live! was indefinitely suspended by ABC after comments he made about Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old charged with the murder of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend, with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” said Kimmel.
Trump and other Republicans lauded the suspension while Kimmel’s supporters denounced it as censorship, since it came in the aftermath of vociferous criticism from the president and comments from his Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr that his agency “can do this the easy way or the hard way” if companies don’t “find ways to change conduct and take action.”
Eisner, who headed the House of Mouse from 1984 until 2005, weighed in on the controversy Friday afternoon in his first tweet since April 2024. Eisner passed the baton to Bob Iger, who recently wrested back the CEO position from Bob Chapek in 2024.
In his post, Eisner did not mention Iger by name but lamented the lack of “leadership” shown in the decision to suspend Kimmel’s show “immediately” after Carr’s “aggressive yet hollow threatening” of Disney, calling it “yet another example of out-of-control intimidation” by the government, and suggesting this move put “political or financial self-interest” over free speech.
Eisner’s full post read:
Where has all the leadership gone? If not for university presidents, law firm managing partners, and corporate chief executives standing up against bullies, who then will step up for the first amendment? The “suspending indefinitely” of Jimmy Kimmel immediately after the Chairman of the FCC’s aggressive yet hollow threatening of the Disney Company is yet another example of out-of-control intimidation. Maybe the Constitution should have said, “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, except in one’s political or financial self-interest.” By-the-way, for the record, this ex-CEO finds Jimmy Kimmel very talented and funny.
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