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.
