Underneath the Space Needle, between the hulking green-windowed buildings of KOMO Plaza on Thursday, Katie Wilson called on Sinclair Broadcast Group, the parent company of KOMO, to reinstate Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Wilson said if the company continued to kowtow to coercive federal censorship, she would not participate in an upcoming debate with her opponent Mayor Bruce Harrell. The situation—a symptom of the corporate consolidation of media—also prompted Wilson to broadcast her new campaign proposal for public funding for local media.
This week, conservative Sinclair showed its whole ass when it refused to air a freshly reinstated Jimmy Kimmel late night show. Executives at Disney and ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live! off air last week after the host’s lukewarm commentary on Charlie Kirk’s assassination—”We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it”—ruffled Brendan Carr’s feathers, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission. On Tuesday, after Disney adult boycotts sent the company’s stock plummeting ahead of a planned Disney+ streaming subscription price increase , Disney and ABC granted Kimmel his mic once more (the powers that be maintain a different, less wallet-bruising narrative). KOMO’s parent Sinclair did not.
Rather, Sinclair said it wouldn’t air Kimmel until he apologized for his accurate comments and donated to Kirk’s group Turning Point USA. Over 100 Seattleites flocked to KOMO Square near the Space Needle to protest Sinclair’s decision at a protest Saturday. Protesters returned to KOMO Plaza Tuesday for another demonstration.
Sitting for a campaign interview at KOMO’s office earlier this week, Wilson realized “it didn’t sit right” with her to participate. She felt she needed to do something with her platform.
“It is of the utmost importance that we do not let our media, our forums for news and commentary and debate that are so essential to the functioning of our democracy, be subject to control and pressure from the federal government,” Wilson said.
KOMO’s debate, co-presented with the Seattle Channel, is planned for Oct. 8 at Seattle University.
“I really want to do the debate,” Wilson said, calling it a big debate where lots of students will be present. But it’s all dependent on Sinclair “making the right decision.” If the debate doesn’t go forward, there are around 20 other mayoral debates happening this fall.
Regardless of what Sinclair does, Wilson has decided not to spend any more advertising dollars on KOMO.
“I call on Bruce Harrell and his PAC to do the same,” Wilson said.
The whole drama called to mind the precarity of Seattle’s local news environment for Wilson. Without reliable funding, local news outlets will continue to shutter. That happened earlier this week when Cascade PBS laid off its entire 19-person newsroom due to federal funding shortfalls.
Wilson stated that, if elected mayor, she would launch a program similar to Seattle’s Democracy Voucher program to fund local news outlets. Under this plan, residents would get $150 worth of vouchers to spend on whichever outlet they wanted. An organization called Save Seattle News proposed this idea years ago, calling it the Local News Dollars program. Local news is vital for an informed, engaged society. Without it, won’t we sink further into the misinformation muck?
“Public funds can help to sustain and grow our local news ecosystem without giving politicians the power to influence news coverage,” Wilson said. She went on to stress the importance of local news—something all Stranger readers can surely agree with. “Local journalism promotes civic vitality and undergirds our ability to self govern in these dark times.”
Local candidate finds way out of debating rival using a contorted argument. More at 11.
And @1 knows contortions, what with his head so far up his ass!
Yay another property tax levy coming our way! So excited for that.
This is much better press than another article about taxpayer paid political consultants for the current mayor.
More corporate rule
encourages cadet bonespurs
who’s in a big Hurry to strip-mine America
whilst we the people sit in wonder and watch our Rights
evaporate into thin air. KOMO Approves this massage.
I just watched the September 23rd debate.
No wonder Wilson is pulling out of another debate, she was completely lost.
To every question she essentially answered, “That’s such an important question,” and then proceeded with a variation on “we need to study it and work with stakeholders.”
Meanwhile Harrell had specifics, had details, and had numbers.
Being Mayor of the 18th largest city in the United States is not an entry level position. We can’t afford to waste two or three years while Katie Wilson learns how to hold a job.
And while we are on this subject, has Katie Wilson ever had a job, any kind of job?
@6 I’m amused you think the voters who elected Sawant and Shaun Scott care about experience or functional government. We’re gonna waste more than 2 years because the next mayor will spend most of their term cleaning up the inevitable mess and no she has never had a real job.
Corporations
ARE PEOPLE,
TOO, Friendo
and They Have
JUST AS MUCH
RIGHT TO SPEAK
AS We, the Peeps!
And THEY
WANT Bruce!
Won’t
Someone
Think of the
SHAREHOLDERS?
‘Stakeholders”re
a Dime a Dozen!
Just move it to Channel 9. Sinclair doesn’t care about a one-off event in one of their many markets that actually costs money and requires people to create it. Also, Harrell should join the boycott.
Fun fact: Chez Vel-DuRay is in the heart of the city. We have a broadcast antenna, and all we can get is Q13, King, and KCTS. KOMO and KIRO are non-existent.
Boycotts are activist behavior, not governance behavior.
And therein lies the entire problem with electing Katie Wilson to govern.
Also democracy vouchers are a non factor in elections. A waste. A pittance to liberals in exchange for their tacit approval for paid elections. Let’s not seek to revive our dying press with the same tools that didn’t save our democracy.
Besides, the people are polarized, so you’ll just be funding two separate echo chambers. Maybe the press is dying because it has turned to political clickbait all day every day shit. I mean look at this rag we’re commenting on. Government should be funding the stranger as much as it funds fundie elementary schools. Zero. Maybe the voters don’t want to fund that shit en masse?
Or here in Seattle, maybe they do, because really it’s just about the candidate having that more-liberal-than-thou feel.
Sinclair doesn’t give two shits about the Seattle mayoral election, which makes this nothing but performance art by Wilson.
Sure, we should fund public journalism with the money left over after funding public housing and government-run grocery stores and free transit and and and
guess who’s Back?
it’s On.
did KOMO
cave to
Katie?
nah.
don’t
be Silly!
Sinclair and Nexstar put Jimmy Kimmel back on their stations. Poor Katie – how can she get out it now!
@16 — great query, KkKool-Aide Drinker! (Prepare to be Uplifted):
(projecting YOUR Fears — how very On-Brand for you MAGATypes!)
from Mayoral Candidate Katie Wilson
speaking Truth to KOMO’s casual
capitulation to our Fascist King:
“I cannot in
good conscience
participate in an event
that will drive viewers and
dollars to a broadcasting corporation
that colludes, capitulates, and collapses
like a house of cards under pressure from
the Trump administration,” Wilson said [on 9/25].
Wilson also pledged not to spend
campaign advertising dollars on any
Sinclair-owned outlet. “We should all be
able to agree that Seattle will stand up for
our basic civil liberties and not simply fold
under threats from Donald Trump,” she said.
Sinclair’s original (BOLD, AF!) statement:
Sinclair’s ABC stations
will air a special in remembrance
of Charlie Kirk this Friday, during Jimmy Kimmel Live’s timeslot.
The special will also air across all Sinclair stations this weekend.
[well, maybe Not in Seattle?
there’s an Awful lotta Progressives!]
In addition, Sinclair is offering the special to all ABC affiliates across the country.
Sinclair will not
lift the suspension
of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
on our stations until formal
discussions are held with ABC
regarding the network’s commit-
ment to professionalism and accountability.
Sinclair also calls upon Mr. Kimmel
to issue a direct apology to the Kirk family.
Furthermore,
we ask Mr. Kimmel to make
a meaningful personal donation
to the Kirk Family and Turning Point USA.
Regardless of ABC’s plans for the future of the program,
Sinclair intends not to return “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
to our air until we are confident that appropriate
steps have been taken to uphold the standards
expected of a national broadcast platform.
[Capitulation to Cadet Bonespurs’ every Whim?
Sure! Why Not!? EVERY day is KKK Day
in the USofA with King Cum Cadet
Bonespurs at the helm]
[until it Isn’t:]
Sinclair and Nexstar capitulate, agree to resume airing
Jimmy Kimmel Live — without Sinclair’s demands being met
After Sinclair announced that it was backing down, Wilson recommitted to the debate.“I’m pleased that Sinclair Broadcast Group has made the right decision, and I’m proud to have played a small part in standing up against federal government overreach and censorship,” Wilson said today.
“I’m also very excited to join the October 8 debate at
Seattle University, which will be broadcast on KOMO TV.”
–by Andrew Villeneuve, September 26th, 2025
https://www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/2025/09/sinclair-and-nexstar-capitulate-agree-to-resume-airing-jimmy-kimmel-live-without-sinclairs-demands-being-met.html
So: Standing on Principle?
Harrell: unknown
Wilson: Yes.
“Local news
is vital for an informed, engaged society.
Without it, won’t we sink further into the misinformation muck?”
how much does KOMO/Sinclair
Devote to Local News? or do they just
Feed us whatever’s palatable to Middle America?
The Corporate Narrative
is STRONG af at KOMO:
see how they Tried to
Bend Jimmy Kimmel
to their Always pro-Corporate
“Christian” Nationalist*
Playbook?
*Republican ‘Jesus’ Approves this Message!
THANK YOU
Katie Wilson!
You Reflect
OUR Values.
@1 & 16
your condemnations
which’re Projections’ve
proven to be, once Again
Way Off Base. keep trying!
even a stopped clock
is right, every once
in great while
@18: There’s no value in electing a woke activist and “community organizer” as our mayor.
@20 (& @1 & 16)
that’s what they slurred
TWO-Term President
Obama, with,
isn’t it?
a “Community Organizer”?
so far
on This thread
you’re 0 for 3. Care
to make it Zero for Four?
oh and judja know?
Jesus was
Woke
AF.
look it up!
Obama was a very smart moderate senator. Katie Wilson is an ill informed communist nothing.
The comparison is absurd.
@20: Jesus was woke? Next thing you’ll tell us he was non-binary.
ah
YES
the KKKommies
are here.
So, the debate is back on now?
nope. Bruce
chickened
out