Don’t Just Cancel Kimmel, End Broadcast TV

In December 1901, Guglielmo Marconi, a self-taught Italian inventor and pioneer of wireless telegraphy, stood on a blustery hilltop in Newfoundland and heard the faint, rhythmic taps of Morse code—the letter “S”—transmitted wirelessly from across the Atlantic.

It was the first time a radio signal had crossed an ocean, proving that long-distance wireless communication was possible.

His success sparked a global explosion of interest in wireless broadcasting. Amateur hobbyists began rigging up transmitters in garages and barns. Commercial ships installed radios for safety and navigation. News services started experimenting with real-time transmission.

Within a few short years, the airwaves were a chaotic mess—signals clashing, overlapping, and cutting each other off mid-transmission.

The electromagnetic spectrum had become a chaotic free-for-all. So naturally, the government stepped in to impose some law and order in this wireless Wild West.

It took until 1927, with the passage of the Radio Act, for the federal government to organize and allocate the broadcast spectrum.

The law created the Federal Radio Commission, the precursor to today’s FCC.

According to the Radio Act, anyone who wanted to broadcast had to apply for a license for an exclusive protected frequency to transmit their signals.

But there was one catch. The government recognized that the broadcast spectrum was limited—a scarce public resource. So every applicant had to prove that their station would serve “public convenience, interest, or necessity.”

That standard still applies to this day.

You might be surprised to learn that even in the era of Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+, there’s still a substantial amount of broadcast spectrum in the US allocated to over-the-air television—roughly 300 megahertz.

This is a significant amount; by comparison, 300 MHz constitutes approximately 25% of all broadcast spectrum currently allocated to 5G networks.

But instead of using that spectrum to make 5G mobile signals faster and stronger, that 300 MHz remains reserved for the likes of ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, and their affiliate broadcast stations.

That’s especially absurd given that Washington has poured over $42 billion into rural internet initiatives just since Biden’s “infrastructure” law, with little to show for it.

Meanwhile, the real solution to strengthening America’s digital infrastructure has been staring them in the face on late night TV.

If the roughly 300 MHz still reserved for over-the-air television, were to be reallocated to mobile data networks, it would instantly expand available 5G bandwidth by 25%, boosting speed, coverage, and reliability nationwide.

More importantly, shifting this spectrum from legacy TV to modern mobile networks would deliver high-speed internet to underserved regions at a fraction of the cost, with 500 to 1,000 times more usage than the trickle of traffic currently watching TV.

Remember, the TV stations essentially receive a monopoly over US airwaves, and in exchange they are supposed to serve “public convenience, interest, or necessity”.

Yet everyone in America has to suffer a crappier mobile signal so that Jimmy Kimmel can have a platform to trash the President on TV every night (and get paid $15 million a year to do it!)

There’s been a lot of discussion over the past few days since Jimmy Kimmel was taken off the air. Many are calling it censorship. Even Senator Ted Cruz weighed in, saying it was “mafia tactics” and accusing the government of heavy-handed coercion.

Let’s not be naïve. Obviously when the FCC chairman went on the record saying “we can do this the easy way or the hard way,” it sent a clear message.

But I don’t think Disney needed that much of a push.

These late night shows already lose money. No one’s watching them. Kimmel, Colbert, Fallon, etc. are competing for tiny scraps— the handful of people who still watch traditional TV at all.

Kimmel (and Colbert) then went out of their way to alienate 50% of their already fledgling audience by becoming a rabid leftist… and then had to compete against the other late-night host still clawing for viewers from the same shrinking pile.

Given such dire circumstances, why would any rational business executive want to keep paying Kimmel $15 million? Disney was probably just looking for any excuse to end the show—and this was a pretty convenient one.

But the larger point here isn’t whether Jimmy Kimmel was censored or canceled. The real question is: why do any of these broadcast television stations still exist?

If there’s one thing that’s become crystal clear, it’s that these stations no longer serve the public “convenience, interest, or necessity.”

Their dramas and comedies routinely shove woke narratives down viewers’ throats. Some of these are completely absurd, like CBS’s The Equalizer featuring a 55-year old woman who beats up hardened criminals with her bare fists.

Plenty of other shows feature cultural norms that run completely counter to mainstream American values.

And to cap it all off, the late-night “entertainment” shows feature leftist drivel. Kimmel (who coincidentally delighted in Tucker Carlson’s firing from Fox News) once mused that unvaccinated people should die. His audience roared with delight.

But the worst part of these TV networks’ airwave monopoly is their ‘news’ divisions.

The nightly news was a key part of their “public convenience, interest, or necessity” going back to the 1927 Radio Act. And for decades, Americans turned in for trustworthy reporting.

Networks built their reputation on it and prided themselves on the credibility of their news divisions; and their FCC broadcast licenses were granted, in part, based on that commitment.

Titans like Walter Cronkite became national treasures. Tom Brokaw anchored the nation through 9/11. Whenever or wherever there was a critical moment in history, there they were— not just reporting the news, but telling the truth.

Today, those same divisions— ABC, NBC, and CBS news— have abandoned any pretense of objectivity. What was once public service has become political activism, then partisan propaganda, and blatant electoral manipulation.

In the September 2024 Presidential debate, ABC News “fact checked” Donald Trump 92 times, Kamala Harris zero times. CBS News “routinely edited” its interview with Kamala Harris, which just happened to make her look like a more decisive and intelligent candidate.

All three suppressed the Hunter Biden laptop story, and all three ran endlessly with the Russia hoax.

It’s painfully obvious that these networks do not serve the public good anymore. But worse, they have played a major role in deepening America’s terrible ideological divide.

This hyper-partisanship that they helped create is a key reason why Charlie Kirk is dead.

ABC, NBC, and CBS have been able to peddle their poison because they hold exclusive rights to airwaves that are owned by the public. They were given a gift, and they’ve routinely abused it.

Given modern technology, those publicly-owned airwaves could be easily repurposed for something far more valuable—delivering a literally 1,000x benefit to society through expanded mobile data and high-speed rural internet.

So the real question isn’t whether Jimmy Kimmel was canceled.

It’s, why haven’t ALL the broadcast networks lost their monopoly over the public airwaves— which are collectively owned by every man, woman, and child in America?

Source

Simon Black is an international investor, entrepreneur and permanent traveler. His daily letter is both educational and entertaining, and we suggest that those who want unbiased, actionable information about global opportunities sign up for Sovereign Man’s free, actionable newsletter at http://www.SovereignMan.com.

From Simon Black of SovereignMan.com

Source: https://www.schiffsovereign.com/trends/153568-153568/