'The court of King Trump'

Media barons bow to president to protect deals

- Mark Sweney

The move to indefinitely suspend Jimmy Kimmel's 22-year run on late-night TV is the latest sign of the pressure US media businesses are under to bend to the rightwing views endorsed by Donald Trump, or face commercial cancellation.

The decision by the Disney-owned ABC followed Kimmel's on-air accusations that the Republicans were doing everything they could to score political points from the killing of Charlie Kirk.

It came after one of the biggest owners of TV stations in the US, Nexstar, had said it would replace Kimmel's show for the foreseeable future.

Nexstar's rapid decision to announce it would replace Kimmel's show comes as it attempts to get clearance from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), run by a Trump appointee, to buy rival Tegna in a $6.2bn (£4.5bn) deal.

A second operator, Sinclair Broadcast Group, said it would run a Kirk tribute in Kimmel's timeslot today.

The FCC chair, Brendan Carr, had already warned of fines or the loss of broadcast licences if the show remained on-air.