New York, Sept. 22 -- ABC's decision to halt new episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live! has rippled far beyond late-night television, igniting a national fight over speech, power, and how much pressure a government can exert on a broadcaster before the chill becomes the point. On Monday, the women of The View broke their silence and anchored the debate in first principles. "No One Silences Us," Whoopi Goldberg said on air, compressing a week of outrage, legalese, and political hardball into five words that landed like a gavel.

To industry veterans, the collision felt inevitable. Late night is a pressure valve built to roast the powerful. Regulators are supposed to defend the marketplace of ideas, not ice it. When those worlds clash, the immediat...