The activist group Indivisible of Central Ohio organized a protest on September 23 to protest ABC's cancellation of Jimmy Kimmel and Sinclair Broadcasting's refusal to air it. Some ABC stations, those owned by Sinclair, will still not be broadcasting his show, in an effort to suppress Kimmel from criticizing Trump.            

You hear a lot about the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: the right to bear arms. But it is the First Amendment, the right to free speech, assembly, and religion that is being undercut by the Trump administration. Of course he isn't the first to attempt to inhibit those rights. He is perhaps more obvious and authoritarian. Almost all presidents, if not all, have tried in one way or another to suppress dissent.  The Alien and Sedition Act, in the early years of the country, put pressure on groups opposing war to conform. Trump and his sycophants have suggested employers should pay attention to what their employees do during their personal hours, and fire them for dissension. Woodrow Wilson during WWI even established what he called the “Committee For Public Information” to censure critics of WWI. 

ABC channel 6 Columbus, owned by Sinclair Broadcasting, is still refusing to air Jimmy Kimmel, even after ABC itself caved to pressure. We must oppose attempts to prohibit press freedom, and it is especially important now under the most authoritarian leaning president, arguably, in U.S. history.