§27 —
On cancel culture
Democrat
23,000
Here is the ledger, and I want it read slowly, because each line is a different branch of government. School book removals: PEN America counted 6,870 instances in the 2024-2025 school year alone, across 23 states and 87 districts, touching nearly 4,000 separate titles — and close to 23,000 removals documented since 2021 1. That is not an audience walking away. That is a title being pulled off a shelf by an authority that owns the shelf.
Then the broadcast file. In August, ABC and its parent sued the Federal Communications Commission, alleging the government was retaliating against its license over a late-night monologue and a daytime talk show — the plaintiff there is the network, and the defendant is the agency that renews the license it needs to exist 2. The Associated Press was barred from Oval Office events after it declined to adopt the phrase "Gulf of America," and litigated to get the room back 3. And CBS cancelled its Late Show three days after its host called a $16 million settlement with the president "a big fat bribe," with a merger pending before the administration; the company said the decision was purely financial 4. Four items, four different levers, one direction. A mob can take your sponsor. It cannot take your license, your seat, or your book.
Sources
- 6,870 school book ban instances in 2024-2025 across 23 states and 87 districts, nearly 4,000 unique titles; close to 23,000 documented since 2021 — PEN America Index of School Book Bans ↑
- ABC and Disney sued the FCC in August 2026 alleging First Amendment retaliation over its broadcast licenses, following the Kimmel monologue and an investigation of The View — NPR, 18 August 2026 ↑
- The AP was barred from Oval Office press events after declining to use "Gulf of America," and sued three administration officials over First Amendment violations — PBS NewsHour ↑
- Paramount settled the president's 60 Minutes suit for $16 million; Colbert called it "a big fat bribe" on 14 July and CBS announced the cancellation on 17 July, with the Skydance merger pending administration approval; CBS said the decision was "purely a financial decision" — PBS NewsHour ↑
Republican
CANCELLED
The complaint has a real thing under it and it is worth saying so plainly. People do lose work over a sentence. Sponsors do leave. A crowd online can move faster than any editor and it does not print corrections. If you have watched somebody go through it, you know it is not imaginary.
I only want to be strict about the word, because the word is the argument. A cancellation, as the term is used on this side, describes a private consequence — an audience, a sponsor, an employer choosing to walk 1. No warrant, no license renewal, no subpoena, no seat in a briefing room to lose. That distinction is the entire content of the objection, and it has to hold up turned around. If a private consequence is the offense, then a public one is a bigger offense, and the file on that side is the one with the docket numbers in it.
Sources
“Cancel culture. Now, I've been trying to keep the ledger straight on this one, because both sides use the word and only one side files paperwork. On this side of the page I've got a mob — people posting, sponsors leaving, a show losing its audience. On the other side I've got 6,870 book removals in one school year, a broadcast network in federal court against the agency that renews its license, and a wire service thrown out of the room over what it calls a gulf. Sorry, one thing before you go. Only one of my two columns has a docket number in it. Which one is the culture, and which one is the government?”— Lou
“Cancel culture. Ten years of it, and it always means the same thing — somebody said something and other people got mad. That's not a cancellation, that's Tuesday. A cancellation is when the license is the leverage. Ask the network that had to sue the agency that hands out its licenses. Ask the wire service that lost the room over the name of a body of water. Twenty-three thousand books, and the mob doesn't have a subpoena.”
“Nobody is cancelling anyone. The FCC is asking routine questions, the AP made a style choice and there are only so many chairs, and a network made a business decision about a program — these are four unrelated stories that people are being encouraged to see as one story, which is itself a kind of cancellation of nuance.”