The News for 10/4/25
The content you hear on this program has not been reviewed by WRFL prior to broadcast and is produced under the discretion of its host DJs, and does not reflect the views of the University of Kentucky, WRFL, or its underwriters.
We’ll get back to the music on 120 Minutes in just a moment, but first, it’s 12:30 and it’s time to check the news.
The Kentucky Kernel reported on Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Education under the Trump administration, concluded that UK violated Title 6 of the Civil Rights Act, apparently for discriminating against white people by spending just $5,000 annually to support The PhD Project, a nonprofit organization that provides minority students with easier access to graduate business programs.
Lexington Herald-Leader columnist Linda Blackford said Thursday that UK already cut ties with The PhD Project in March of 2025, and says it will now look at any other groups it supports that need to be shut down. She expects “a lot of student support will disappear. UK is already complying in advance in lots of other ways: No more funding for Pride or other organizations that support some students. It apparently also takes marching orders from accounts like Libs of TikTok, after it suspended an employee for a Facebook comment on Charlie Kirk’s death. But UK is in a terrible situation, caught between the Trump administration and a GOP supermajority in the Kentucky General Assembly that largely supports Trump’s goals,” she said.
Blackford also reported on Thursday that 9 other universities were told by the Trump administration to sign a “compact” in order to continue to get federal funding. “The new compact requires a stringent loyalty oath to Trump’s agenda, including capping international student enrollment, creating strict definitions of gender, and changing governance structures to prohibit anything that goes against conservative ideas. In return, federal research funding would not be cut off. This compact is expected to be expanded to many more schools. Because UK has already been flagged by the Trump administration, I fear it will be on that list, too,” Blackford said on Thursday.
Tech news website The Verge reports that institutions, organizations, and companies that comply in advance with the Trump administration’s unconstitutional demands have not saved themselves from being targeted, and have in fact remained the subject of further extortion attempts.
Also this week, the U.S. federal government shut down on Wednesday after failing to pass a continuing budget resolution. For its part, UK said that healthcare and current research will continue, but new federal grants will be paused. In the meantime, however, student loans will still be due, and financial aid will continue to be available. Congress is not expected to return for further negotiations until October 14th.
In other news, on our last show 2 weeks ago, we told you about the firestorm surrounding the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live! after threats made by FCC chairman Brendan Carr. Since then, Kimmel’s broadcast has resumed on all major ABC affiliates, including those owned by Nexstar and Sinclair, two media companies that had previously vowed to keep his show off the air.
Finally tonight, in his most recent program on Sunday, Last Week Tonight host John Oliver addressed the topic of free speech, saying the following: “At some point you’re going to have to draw a line. So I’d argue, why not draw it right here? And when they come to you with ridiculous demands, picking fights that you know you could win in court, instead of rolling over, why not stand up and use four key words? Not, “OK, you’re the boss.” Not, “Whatever you say goes.” But instead, the only phrase that can genuinely make a bully go away. And that is, “F you. Make me.”
And that’s… the news.
The News for 9/20/25
The content you hear on this program has not been reviewed by WRFL prior to broadcast and is produced under the discretion of its host DJs, and does not reflect the views of the University of Kentucky, WRFL, or its underwriters.
We’ll get back to the music on 120 Minutes in just a moment, but first, it’s 12:30 and it’s time to check the news.
The chairman of the FCC, Brendan Carr, made headlines this week after ABC pulled “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” from the airwaves—a decision that followed Carr’s public threats to ABC over Kimmel’s on-air remarks on Monday about last week’s assassination of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk.
The FCC chairman warned ABC affiliates on Wednesday that if they didn’t take action to silence Kimmel, the FCC could “do this the easy way or the hard way.”
Within hours after Carr made that threat, major broadcasters like Nexstar and Sinclair pulled the show from their ABC stations. Under internal pressure from Disney, ABC then followed suit on Wednesday, announcing an indefinite suspension of Kimmel’s late night show, which has run on the network for 22 years.
Variety magazine reported this week that overwhelming public outcry suggests that the FCC’s involvement crosses a clear constitutional line. The First Amendment protects political speech from government interference. And when a federal official threatens broadcast licenses over a comedian’s monologue, many see that as a dangerous precedent.
Even Republican senator Ted Cruz compared Carr’s tactics on Friday to those of a mafia boss, saying that “the government shouldn’t be in the business of deciding what speech is acceptable on the airwaves.”
Former president Barack Obama made a rare public statement Thursday, saying “This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent — and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating to it.”
Stephen Colbert, host of the Late Show on CBS—which won an Emmy on Sunday but is still slated to end next June after being cancelled by Paramount—said Thursday night, “With an autocrat, you cannot give an inch. If ABC thinks this is going to satisfy the regime, they are woefully naive.”
And indeed, the FCC chairman has since hinted that ABC’s “The View” could be next, suggesting further scrutiny on the network despite its compliance. Trump, for his part, demanded Comcast cancel the Tonight Show and Late Night, whose host Seth Meyers has long been critical of him. “Do it NBC!!!”, he posted on Wednesday.
Speaking at the Atlantic Festival on Thursday, former Late Show host David Letterman warned, “We all see where this is going, correct? Managed media,” and said, “You can’t go around firing somebody because you’re fearful or trying to suck up to an authoritarian—a criminal—administration in the Oval Office.”
Thursday night’s Late Show also saw a rare appearance of Colbert’s former satirical persona from the Colbert Report, with him saying in character that the best way to defend your rights and freedoms is to not use them and to stay silent to protect yourself, offering relatable commentary to all of those currently dealing with fearful and compliant institutions.
Former Late Night host Conan O’Brien also spoke out on Friday, saying, “the promise to silence hosts for criticizing the administration should disturb everyone on the Right, Left, and Center. It’s wrong and anyone with a conscience knows it’s wrong.”
As the fallout over ABC and Kimmel continues, the tech news website The Verge now questions whether these public airwaves will be able to remain a space for First Amendment-protected speech as they have been since their inception, or whether they will succumb to the ongoing threats and attacks from the Trump administration.
Finally tonight, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported Friday that the UK employee we told you about on the show last week who was targeted by Libs of TikTok for his online comments on Charlie Kirk and then suspended by UK as a result “remains on paid administrative leave pending an investigation” into his speech.
And that’s… the news.
The News for 9/13/25
The content you hear on this program has not been reviewed by WRFL prior to broadcast and is produced under the discretion of its host DJs, and does not reflect the views of the University of Kentucky, WRFL, or its underwriters.
More 120 Minutes on WRFL in just a moment, but first, it’s 12:30 and it’s time to check the news.
The Kentucky Kernel reported earlier on Friday, September 12th that UK has placed one of its employees on administrative leave from his job after he made a comment using his own personal social media account outside of work about Wednesday’s assassination of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk.
Brad Van Hook, who is the key shop manager in UK’s administrative services, posted a comment on a WKYT Facebook post about the assassination. In it, he quoted the historic American lawyer and civil rights advocate Clarence Darrow, writing, “I have never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great satisfaction.”
The X account @libsoftiktok, which has over 4 million followers, first brought widespread attention to Van Hook’s comment in a post on Wednesday night. The Lexington Herald-Leader further reported that Libs of TikTok, weaponizing its platform against ordinary people in its typical fashion, spent much of the day Thursday targeting people who made social media comments about Kirk’s death, often tagging their employers.
UK responded Thursday to this targeting of its employee by Libs of TikTok by placing Van Hook on paid administrative leave from his staff position, with a UK spokesperson issuing a statement on behalf of the university condemning his remarks, offering their own opinion that the comment was “insensitive, cruel and wrong”, “does not reflect who we are as a community” and that “talking about it more gives it the space it doesn’t deserve”. And despite Van Hook making his comment on an external channel unrelated to the university, the spokesperson also said that UK was conducting an investigation into him for his speech, referring him to “the appropriate officials”.
This action taken by UK has caused a firestorm online, with the Kernel’s posts about the incident currently standing this late Friday night at a total of over 2,000 reactions and 500 comments, with many of them accusing UK as a public university of violating Van Hook’s First Amendment rights, asserting that he was merely exercising his Free Speech in a personal capacity, much like Charlie Kirk himself did throughout his career prior to his death on Wednesday, speaking on college campuses defending his own right to make insensitive and controversial statements, including when he spoke most recently here on UK’s own campus in 2023.
More details about this story and those reactions to it can be found on the Kentucky Kernel Instagram.
And that’s… the news.