ABC stunned the media world on Wednesday by announcing they were suspending Jimmy Kimmel Live! indefinitely after several ABC station groups withdrew their support for the show. It was a similar shock to CBS setting a cancellation date for Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
The Left went into conniption fits, grieving both festivals of partisan propaganda. We heard a thousand cries of the “First Amendment” being despoiled and the old reliable screech about Trump’s “authoritarian playbook.” ABC’s George Stephanopoulos mourned the assault on “independent media,” and he’s the last person in America who would qualify for that label.
What did Kimmel say that became the last straw with ABC affiliates? He flagrantly lied on Monday on murder suspect Tyler Robinson, claiming “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.”
To use another phrase beloved by the liberal media, there was “no evidence” Robinson was part of a “MAGA gang,” or any notion that it makes sense that a Trump fan would shoot Charlie Kirk. That’s some kooky conspiracy theorizing. Does Kimmel think his show isn’t all about “scoring political points”?
It was especially instructive that some of Kimmel’s most ardent defenders came on CNN, which used to make commercials boasting its motto was “Facts First.” Facts came last in defending Kimmel. Brian Stelter quoted Trump-hating On Tyranny author Timothy Snyder: “He said the general pattern in regime change is that the comedy gets better, and then it gets banned.”
Nobody banned Kimmel, and no one should call 92 percent of what he does “comedy.” It’s not getting better. It has all the appeal of year-old milk.
CNN host Jake Tapper attacked Fox News for summarizing the outrage as “Kimmel suggests Kirk assassin was one of the MAGA gang despite reports of leftist leanings.” That’s true, but Tapper protested: “I don’t know that I think that that is an accurate description, but they have the First Amendment to write what they want to write.”
The motto for that would be “Facts Fuzzed.”
The highlight in unintentional hilarity came as CNN This Morning aired a clip of Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-N.Y.) trashing Trump as a “wannabe mob boss,” and Democrat analyst Meghan Hays proclaimed “We are running dangerously close to state-run media . . . We are losing our democracy. They’re dismantling democracy by doing this.”
Spare us all the leftist bleating about democracy and the First Amendment. These people have routinely called for Fox News to be pulled from cable systems. Stelter said crushing Fox wasn’t about freedom of speech, just “freedom of reach.”
Leftist journalists have supported conservative actors and celebrities being punished. Kimmel celebrated Tucker Carlson and Rosanne Barr being cancelled. Now they equate a suspended TV show to fascism. No one has a constitutional right to a TV show. When CBS canceled So Help Me Todd, it wasn’t fascism. It was a routine cancellation. It happens all the time.
They cannot see how offensive they are to the Trump-voting half of America. Just like Kimmel, they offer nothing but contempt for Trump voters, who Kimmel “joked” after the 2024 election they voted for a “criminal.” He has zero class.
Pompous leftists in our media elites endlessly equate themselves with democracy and with freedom of speech, no matter how aggressively they advocate that the opposing side should be censored as “misinformation.” Even now, they seem more upset about Kimmel being suspended than about Charlie Kirk being murdered. But canceling a show is much less than cancelling a life.
