Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York, said he’s pulling out of a planned WABC-TV town hall this week due to its parent company’s decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel Live following a Trump administration threat.
Mamdani’s campaign confirmed he would not participate in a town hall that was to be aired on WABC-TV on Thursday.
“I am withdrawing not as an indictment of the local affiliate or the hard-working journalists there, but rather in response to the corporate leaders who have put their bottom line ahead of their responsibility in upholding the freedom of the press,” Mamdani said at a press conference at New York’s Four Freedoms Park on Monday.
“It is not the government’s job to bully talk show hosts off of the air. It is not the government’s job to tell us what we can and cannot talk about,” he said.
A WABC spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.
ABC pulled Kimmel on Wednesday, hours after FCC chairman Brendan Carr threatened the network and its stations over comments that the late-night host made earlier in the week.
The network’s decision has triggered a backlash and a renewed focus on free speech rights, as well as corporate capitulation in the face of Trump administration threats. ABC parent The Walt Disney Co. has transactions seeking approval of the administration. Before ABC announced that it was pulling the show, Nexstar said that it was taking Kimmel’s show off its ABC affiliates. Nexstar is seeking FCC approval for a merger with Tegna, something that won’t be possible unless the agency repeals or revises a media ownership rule that limit the number of stations any one company can hold.
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