John Oliver blasts Disney boss Bob Iger over Jimmy Kimmel ouster

Late-night comedian John Oliver blasted Disney CEO Bob Iger for ousting Jimmy Kimmel after attacks from the FCC – warning that “history is also going to remember the cowards.”

During his HBO show “Last Week Tonight” on Sunday, Oliver urged Iger to take a stand against the Trump administration with an ominous warning about the Disney boss’ legacy.

“History is also going to remember the cowards who definitely knew better but still let things happen, whether it was for money, convenience, or just comfort,” Oliver said.

“Look, at some point you’re going to have to draw a line. So I’d argue, why not draw it right here?” he continued.

“And when they come to you with stupid, ridiculous demands, picking fights that you know you could win in court instead of rolling over, why not stand up and use four key words they don’t tend to teach you in business school?…And that is, ‘F— you, make me.’”

Oliver’s teardown of Iger came after ABC last week suspended Kimmel “indefinitely” after he said right-wingers were politicizing Charlie Kirk’s assassination – and seemingly implied that the killer might have been a MAGA conservative.

Just a few hours before ABC announced Kimmel’s suspension, Carr had suggested there was a “strong case” for the FCC to take action against ABC and its parent company, Disney.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said during a podcast with Benny Johnson, a right-wing pundit and YouTuber.

Oliver likened the FCC chairman’s remarks to those of a Mafia boss – the same comparison earlier made by Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

“As threats go, that is pretty clear. It’s like if someone threw a brick through your window with a message that said, shut up or else, then followed it up with more clarifying bricks saying, by or else we mean we will hurt you physically, then this is the mafia, by the way, followed by, you know, like in ‘Goodfellas,’” Oliver said.

The late-night host slammed Nexstar and Sinclair – two major owners of ABC affiliate stations – for yanking Kimmel’s show off the air.

“Basically, Brendan Carr said jump, and Nexstar took his d— out of their mouth for just long enough to say, ‘How high exactly?’”

“The sequence of events here could not be clearer, because it was all done in plain view. Carr leaned on broadcasters to take down Kimmel. They did that, sometimes even directly citing Carr while doing so, and then Carr celebrated with a fun GIF,” Oliver said.

Carr has sent humorous gifs to media outlets in response to inquiries about Kimmel’s suspension, including an image of characters from ‘The Office’ cheering and dancing.

“That sure seems like a pretty clear case of the government pressuring companies to censor speech. And it’s not like Trump is even trying to hide it,” Oliver continued.

The day after Kimmel’s suspension, Trump – who cheered the late-night host’s ouster – said that the US government might start revoking broadcast licenses from networks that are mostly “against” him.

He said that ultimately the decision “will be up to Brendan Carr,” who earlier called Kimmel’s comments “truly sick.”

During his show’s opening monologue on Monday, Kimmel said: “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.”

Carr on Thursday denied that his calls for ABC to take action against Kimmel were linked to the late-night comedian’s anti-Trump politics.

He argued that networks with TV licenses – like ABC, NBC and CBS – have an obligation to serve the public interest, and Kimmel failed to do so by “appearing to directly mislead the American public.”

The day after Kimmel’s monologue, court documents were filed that showed that the mother of Tyler Robinson – the accused killer – told investigators that “her son had become more political and had started to lean more to the left.”