Will Trump's Attacks on Comedians — and Their Bosses — Send a Chill Through Late Night? | Analysis

By Brian Lowry

Do late night comedians — and more pointedly, their studio bosses — need to fear reprisals and retaliation for jokes they tell about Donald Trump? Such a threat might sound remote, but the prospect could have a chilling effect on one of the country’s leading forms of political commentary: late night comedy.

Despite legal guardrails protecting free speech, the question becomes whether a Trump administration can use the Federal Communications Commission’s oversight of broadcasting to create headaches for these companies, and by extension, the hosts.