One way to gauge the intentions of would-be authoritarians is to see how far they tolerate the jesters. An early sign of Vladimir Putin’s quest to bring Russian media to heel was the 2001 axing of Kukly (Puppets), a TV show that often satirised the thin-skinned president. There were Putinesque echoes in last week’s suspension in the US of Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show by Disney-owned ABC — two months after his fellow comic Stephen Colbert, to whom President Donald Trump has a similar aversion, was taken off air. Kimmel’s return this week after a noisy backlash is a notable reversal, even if nearly 70 local TV stations refused to screen his show. But the threats to US media freedom are only growing.
判断潜在威权主义者意图的一种方式，是看他们对讽刺者的容忍度。弗拉基米尔•普京(Vladimir Putin)意图驯化俄罗斯媒体的早期信号之一，是他在2001年砍掉了“Kukly”（傀儡），这档电视节目常常讽刺这位玻璃心总统。上周普京式的做法在美国重现——迪士尼旗下的ABC电视台暂停了吉米•基梅尔(Jimmy Kimmel)的深夜脱口秀，就在两个月前，同样遭到唐纳德•特朗普总统厌恶的喜剧演员斯蒂芬•科尔伯特(Stephen Colbert)的节目也被撤下。基梅尔本周在强烈反弹声中重返荧屏，尽管美国近70家地方电视台拒绝播放，这仍然是一次引人注目的逆转。但美国媒体自由面临的威胁正在不断加剧。