The cancelling of Jimmy Kimmel’s show and the equally abrupt demise of Stephen Colbert’s program is a blow to American democracy more significant than meets the eye.

To be honest, I rarely stayed up late enough to watch either show live, but I loved watching snippets. Both satirists are brilliant at mocking the high and mighty honestly and in good fun, using humor to reveal both the absurdity and devastating effect of their actions. Their approach found an audience, particularly in young viewers, who have little patience with more staid political analysis. 

President Trump understands that humor is the most powerful way to undermine his legitimacy. Allegedly, he ran for president because President Obama had the temerity to mock him at the White House Correspondents’ dinner. This is a man who cannot take a joke. Remember also that Volodymyr Zelensky rose from obscurity playing a hilarious TV version of a Ukrainian president. His humor revealed difficult truths. So does that of Colbert and Kimmel and other late night entertainers.

Most troubling, Trump has now proclaimed that anyone who criticizes him on the public airways, true or false, should be silenced. This is a truly chilling, intolerable hallmark of an authoritarian regime. We must band together to find alternative platforms for defenders of free speech.  

Janice Cooper
Yarmouth