Jimmy Kimmel Suspended Over Kirk Comments
The FCC Chair went on a podcast and now Kimmel is on indefinite hiatus.
Via the AP: ABC suspends Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show indefinitely over his remarks about Charlie Kirk’s death.
ABC has suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show indefinitely following comments he made about Charlie Kirk’s killing.
The network’s decision Wednesday came Nexstar announced its ABC affiliates would pre-empt “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” indefinitely over his comments.
“Mr. Kimmel’s comments about the death of Mr. Kirk are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse, and we do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the local communities in which we are located,” said Andrew Alford, President of Nexstar’s broadcasting division.
So, I guess Kimmel must have made some really outlandishly gross joke yes?
Well, no.
In his monologue on Tuesday, Kimmel said that “we hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
This strikes as an incredibly mild statement,* and one that isn’t been about Kirk personally in any way. It also, in no way, celebrates or excuses Kirk’s death. It is a vague criticism of a group of persons who are not Charlie Kirk.
It seems worth noting that Trump, in his inaugural address, promised to “bring back free speech to America.” However, it would appear that we are in a moment in which saying anything about Charlie Kirk can put your livelihood in jeopardy.
And before anyone tells me that the First Amendment only applies to the actions of government, I would not the following as reported by NBC News: Disney’s ABC pulls ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after FCC chair criticizes the host’s Charlie Kirk comments.
On Wednesday, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr threatened to “take action” against Disney and ABC over Kimmel’s remarks.
Carr made his comments during an interview with conservative commentator Benny Johnson, describing Kimmel’s remarks as “the sickest conduct possible,” and saying the FCC could move to revoke ABC affiliate licenses as a punishment.
[…]
Following Carr’s comments, Nexstar Media Group, Inc. announced that the company’s ABC affiliates will pre-empt “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” for the foreseeable future beginning with Wednesday night’s show. Nexstar has more than 200 stations in the U.S.
In a post on X, Carr thanked Nexstar for “for doing the right thing.”
This is quite clearly a relevant member of the administration making a public threat, and a company capitulating to that threat out of fear of what the government might do.
This is what authoritarian government looks like: behave like we want you to behave, or else there will be consequences.
This is happening with brazen regularity over this topic. The administration and many of its allies have not only decided that you can’t say anything that might be deemed in bad taste about Kirk’s assassination, but they are to the point of basically saying you can’t say anything at all, lest it be used as a pretext to punish you.
Note that Jimmy Kimmel will be fine, one way or the other. But there are many, many people who work for him to produce that program. All of those people are now being held hostage to the whims of FCC Chair Carr and whatever he can do to extort ABC to keep speech that the administration doesn’t like off the air.
And like my post about the TAMU Lecturer who was fired, all of this is about creating an atmosphere of fear by threatening livelihoods.
I would conclude by noting that it is a brutally ironic reality that many on the right are extolling Kirk as a free speech champion, but are using his murder as an excuse to engage in a pretty substantial attack on free speech.
(More on that at some point, I suspect.)
*By the way, I would say that everyone needs to stop speculating about the motives and mind of the killer. Let that unfold when we have more information.
Like with Iraq and WMD, if you got angry about the left and cancel culture, you were duped by the right. Moderates think that there’s a compromise out of this predicament, much like George W Bush going from the guy who lied about WMDs so his administration could invade a random country to sitting next to Michelle and having a reassuring laugh about candy. Ain’t going to happen.
I filed a complaint against Disney/ABC just now with both the attorney general and the governor’s office, urging Newsom and Bonta to publicly announce investigations into this matter. Jimmy Kimmel Live! is filmed in Hollywood California, with Disney headquarted in Burbank and heavily subsidized by state and local taxpayers such as myself.
We therefore have vested interest in discovering whether Kimmel’s suspension was in response to or collusion with Trump admin threats. If so, and IANAL, this seems a straightforward trampling on the First Amendment rights of Kimmel show employees — and perhaps a violation of California law? If Kimmel violated company directives, rules, or policy, that’s one thing. But government cannot coerce your employer into punishing you for opining on the ideology of Charlie Kirk’s killer.
Anyway, I feel like my governor and other state officials should try to compel Disney/ABC to explain itself, and to assert Californians’ right to criticize Kirk’s long history of racist, homophobic, inciteful vitriol. Although Newsom is an imperfect vehicle; apparently, he allows his kid to bathe in that bile.
@Modulo Myself:
This isn’t cancel culture. This is the federal government threatening a corporation, and then the corporation capitulating for fear of reprisals from the government.
If we reduce these kinds of things to simply “cancel culture,” we are, in my view, missing what is really going on.
I mean, what’s the example on “the left” that fits what we are seeing?
(And I also don’t want to position myself as some defender of some vague set of past somethings.)
@Modulo Myself: @Steven L. Taylor: Or I am misunderstanding your comment? Upon re-reading, I am not sure I can say for certain what your first sentence means.
Sickening.
Unamerican.
Weak.
I cancelled Disney+.
If they reinstate Kimmel, I’ll un-cancel.
Not to horserace this serious issue, but it smells like anti-speech overreach by the right and thus a pretty rare opportunity for Dems. Every liberal in the country should be posting things like “You have a right to criticize Charlie Kirk’s bigotry” and “Don’t let Them stop you from telling the truth about Charlie Kirk” and “Why don’t They want you to hear Charlie Kirk’s quotes?”
There’s a certain kind of voter that doesn’t like it when “They” assert Puritanical control. And in this case, They have actual names, faces, and real power — and aren’t just random anonymous Twitter accounts.
It’s been said many times but bears repeating: the MAGA interpretation of “free speech” is that they have the right to peddle their propaganda uninterrupted on any and every platform in America. Any refusal is “censorship”, regardless of the reasons or the non-government nature of the party involved.
As to criticism of the regime, however: the President of the United States does more than rule and represent his country. The nation manifests itself in his person. For all intents and purposes, he is the United States. It therefore follows, as a matter of logic, that an attack on the President – even an indirect one via criticism of his movement – is an attack on the nation itself. Furthermore, again as a matter of logic, such attacks must give aid and comfort to the nation’s enemies, whoever they may be. Consequently they constitute treason, for which the penalty is death.
It is a taped show. Not like he said it live. The network allowed it to air and didn’t edit the show. So how do you suspend someone for something they said after you allowed it to air? Obviously we know why. I may as well start learning Russian. I feel like I live there. And ditto on his comments, that was beyond tame, not controversial at all. Imagine if Kimmel advocated for killing homeless people? I would imagine one bruised hand with thumbs going ALL CAPS on fiction social.
This is weird. Someone left a message asking me if I’d be on the show.
Guess not now.
Brendan Carr is the worst FCC chair ever. He’s a MAGA warrior first, last and foremost. The owners of ABC/Disney want to buy TENGA and its array of TV stations, a purchase that requires FCC approval, and Carr has shown his willingness to extort concessions from would be purchasers (like the outfit that bought CBS’ parent company). Looks like Jimmy Fallon is now in the crosshairs as Trump decimates the late night format.
Yeah.. people often use ‘this violates the first amendment’ pretty inaccurately.
This case, though… the shoe definitely fits.
But what’s depressing is how that fact will have absolutely no effect on any of the perpetrators involved.
@Steven L. Taylor: Yes, this is cancel culture and since the right has made such an issue of it for the last 5+ years, we need to call it just that, and everyone should be pointing out that this is happening in practice, what liberals were accused of in theory. That is typical of the right. The wine and complain about all the bad things liberals are doing to them with weak said evidence, then they persecute everyone with its real implementation. I’m not sure society at large has let it synch in how serious of an assault on free speech this is.
@HelloWorld:
This isn’t cancel culture, this is state directed suppression of ideological opponents voices.
@Assad K: Semantics. Its an escalation of cancel culture. Shows them to be the hypocrites that they are.