Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker has called for boycotts and protests against broadcast outlets that are tied to Wednesday’s decision by the Walt Disney Co. and its ABC network to indefinitely suspend comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s nightly talk show, including against WGN’s television and radio stations and ABC-7 in Chicago.

It was part of a larger call to action by the two-term governor after ABC pulled “Jimmy Kimmel Live” following Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr’s threats that the agency would take steps against the network over comments Kimmel made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Two of the network’s largest affiliate groups, Nexstar Media Group Inc., and Sinclair Broadcasting, said they would pre-empt or suspend airing Kimmel’s show on their stations after Carr’s warning, which prompted ABC to pull the show off the air indefinitely.

Nexstar acquired WGN-TV and WGN-AM radio from the former Tribune Broadcasting Co. in September 2019. WGN-TV, which is not an ABC affiliate, is among more than 200 owned and partner stations under Nexstar, which also is seeking FCC approval to acquire Tegna’s 64 television stations. Additionally, Sinclair, which owns ABC’s largest affiliate group, is also seeking merger options that would require FCC approval. ABC-7 is owned and operated by Disney.

Pritzker, appearing Wednesday night on MSNBC’s “The Briefing with Jen Psaki,” said the threat of FCC action over Kimmel was using the power of government to “intimidate” companies over people who criticize the Trump administration. Kimmel has been an outspoken and repeated critic of Trump for years, and Pritzker has been a guest on Kimmel’s show.

“I do not understand why people are not standing up and pushing back when they ought to, because what’s at stake here is free speech, it’s our Constitution and our way of life. Do we really want the president of the United States intimidating people, organizations to get others fired?” Pritzker asked.

“And so we only have one other thing to do, which is public action, people actually speaking up, speaking out, boycotting, showing up and protesting, and their representatives who agree with them doing the very same,” said Pritzker, an ardent critic of Trump and a potential 2028 presidential aspirant.

On Thursday, Pritzker’s campaign issued a statement saying the governor’s call for action included Nexstar properties, including WGN, as well as Sinclair’s.

“An attack on the First Amendment of this magnitude is a five alarm fire and we should all be treating it as such. What’s clear here is that Nexstar and Sinclair are capitulating to the president so he approves their mergers. Everything should be on the table,” the statement from Pritzker’s campaign said.

Nexstar, which owns the CW Network, NewsNation and Antenna TV, also has Illinois stations in Rockford, Champaign and Peoria.

Sean Compton, president of Nexstar’s Networks, also oversees the day-to-day operations of WGN’s radio station. Compton previously worked for Tribune Broadcasting and, before that, Clear Channel Radio, where he produced Trump’s nationally syndicated radio commentary, “Trumped!” from 2004 to 2008 and has said he remains close to the president.

Sinclair, which had owned TV stations in the Champaign-Springfield and Quincy markets, sold those Illinois stations earlier this year and no longer has any outlets in Illinois.

Pritzker’s campaign said the governor’s call to action would not affect his dealings with journalists from those outlets.

“The Governor is calling for people to write letters, write e-mails, post online, speak up, and protest,” the campaign said. “Not for the punishment of local journalists for corporate machinations.”

On his Monday broadcast, Kimmel said, “The MAGA gang [is] 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.”

The motive of Kirk’s alleged killer has not been confirmed, but the top local prosecutor said the suspect “had become more political and had started to lean more to the left, becoming more pro-gay and trans.”

Carr, the FCC chairman, said in an interview Thursday with CNBC that Kimmel “was not making fun” but “was appearing to directly mislead the American public about a significant fact that probably one of the most significant political events we’ve had in a long time, for the most significant political assassination we’ve seen in a long time.”

A day earlier, Carr threatened FCC action against Disney.

“This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney. We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr told right-wing commentator Benny Johnson. “These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

“First of all, Brendan Carr went out today, the FCC chair, and basically warned — called out Jimmy Kimmel by name,” Pritzker said Wednesday night. “And then a couple of hours later, he was put on indefinite hiatus, suspension, whatever you want to call it.”

Pritzker said of Carr’s remarks that “it’s intimidation, clearly. And this is what we’re seeing across the board from the Trump administration.” He referenced Trump’s lawsuits against media outlets as well as multimillion-dollar settlements with Paramount, CBS-TV’s owner, over the editing of CBS’ “ 60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris in October, and a defamation suit against ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.

The CBS settlement came as Paramount was up for sale and required FCC approval. Shortly after the sale was approved, CBS announced it was cancelling another late-night Trump critic, comedian Stephen Colbert.

“They’re using the power of the government to go after businesses, to get them to do things that they need or want, right, either to pay them, as we have seen, or to fire people, as we have seen,” Pritzker said.

“If people will write letters, write e-mails, post online, speak up, protest, that’s what I’m calling for … I think that it may be that ABC and Disney see that they may have made a mistake and they would reverse that decision,” he said. “By the way, if they do that, you can see what happens when organizations and people stand up and push back. You can actually accomplish something. You can move the ball.”

Pritzker noted that “there are consequences, there’s no doubt, to standing up. The consequences of not standing up, though, are much, much worse.”

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