Hundreds of Hollywood celebrities have signed an open letter by the American Civil Liberties Union supporting free speech and condemning Disney’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live!
The letter states that efforts to pressure artists, journalists and others with retaliation for their speech “strike at the heart of what it means to live in a free country.” The message closes by calling on all Americans to fight to defend our right to speak freely.
Some of the signatories (full list of names below) include Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, Robert De Niro, Jane Fonda, Selena Gomez, Tom Hanks, Olivia Rodrigo, Ben Stiller, Jamie Lee Curtis, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Keaton, Regina King, Diego Luna, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Natalie Portman, Maya Rudolph, Martin Short and Kerry Washington.
“We now find ourselves in a modern McCarthy era, facing exactly the type of heavy-handed government censorship our Constitution rightfully forbids,” said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the ACLU, which organized the letter. “The silencing of Jimmy Kimmel and jawboning of media outlets through lawsuits and threats to their licenses evoke dark memories of the 1950s. We must remember, however, that Senator McCarthy was ultimately disgraced and neutralized once Americans mobilized and stood up to him. We must do the same today because together, our voices are louder and together, we will fight to be heard.”
Kimmel was suspended following a comment in his monologue about MAGA’s reaction to the murder of Charlie Kirk that went viral and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr threatened affiliate broadcast licenses if they did not “take action” against the talk show host. Carr’s threat was followed by affiliate owners Nexstar and Sinclair says they would preempt the show, which spurred ABC to suspend Kimmel “indefinitely.”
The move by the FCC and ABC has been followed by widespread condemnation — even among some Republican leaders such as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz — and pledges to boycott Disney and its subsidiaries.
Here is the letter and the full list of names:
“We the people must never accept government threats to our freedom of speech. Efforts by leaders to pressure artists, journalists, and companies with retaliation for their speech strike at the heart of what it means to live in a free country.
Last week, Jimmy Kimmel was taken off the air after the government threatened a private company with retaliation, marking a dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation. In an attempt to silence its critics, our government has resorted to threatening the livelihoods of journalists, talk show hosts, artists, creatives, and entertainers across the board. This runs counter to the values our nation was built upon, and our Constitution guarantees.
We know this moment is bigger than us and our industry. Teachers, government employees, law firms, researchers, universities, students and so many more are also facing direct attacks on their freedom of expression.
Regardless of our political affiliation, or whether we engage in politics or not, we all love our country. We also share the belief that our voices should never be silenced by those in power – because if it happens to one of us, it happens to all of us.
This is the moment to defend free speech across our nation. We encourage all Americans to join us, along with the ACLU, in the fight to defend and preserve our constitutionally protected rights.”