Left-wingers are angrier about Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension than they were about Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
Maybe that’s understandable. Charlie was a young, dynamic, fun conservative who loved free speech and respectful dialogue with his opponents. He was a decent human being.
The late-night comics who are most outraged about Kimmel are old, stale, angry leftists who are anything but decent or even funny. Jimmy might be the worst of the bunch.
On Wednesday, ABC suspended Kimmel indefinitely after the host’s egregious lie about the ideology of Kirk’s assassin. “We hit some new lows over the weekend,” Kimmel said on Monday’s show, “with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.”
The Federal Communications Commission’s website is clear: Recipients of broadcast licenses, of which ABC is one, are prohibited “from broadcasting false information concerning a crime or a catastrophe if:”
- the licensee knows this information is false;
- it is foreseeable that broadcast of the information will cause substantial public harm; and
- broadcast of the information does in fact directly cause substantial public harm.
At least the first two are arguably in play. God forbid the third one comes to pass.
The assassin was clearly a radicalized left-winger, as was stated by law enforcement very early on. It was entirely foreseeable, given that hateful rhetoric about Kirk and other conservatives had already incited the assassin, that lying about his motivation by attributing it to the already-lied-about Right could incite further left-wing violence. That’s especially true when Leftmedia talkingheads refuse to correct Kimmel, instead insinuating that he was censored for speaking the truth, and reporting today that the motive is still unknown.
That said, those FCC regulations are arguably unconstitutional. The First Amendment makes no exceptions for the freedom of speech, though it’s also true that broadcast networks don’t have a constitutional right to serve as propagandists for one political party.
Let’s just get rid of the FCC.
Either way, Kimmel may be a crude jerk and a hypocrite who once hosted the misogynist “Man Show” and wore blackface, but he’s no dummy. He knew this was a bald-faced lie, but because he’s made a career out of such mockery, he thought he could get away with it. He reportedly even planned on doubling down the following night.
Instead, he beat Stephen Colbert to the exit, and he may never return.
Speaking of Colbert, it’s no surprise that he was among the angriest over Kimmel’s suspension and is planning to have his pal as a guest soon. Last night, he primarily directed his ire at the Trump administration. “That is blatant censorship, and it always starts small,” Colbert said. “And if ABC thinks this is going to satisfy the regime, they are woefully naive.”
Jon Stewart offered outlandish praise for “Our Great Father” and “Dear Leader” Donald Trump, while Jimmy Fallon had a voiceover give an administration-approved message about Trump’s trip to the United Kingdom.
These bits are hilarious only in their utter lack of self-awareness. These unfunny clowns have been shamelessly parroting Democrat talking points while hating on Trump for years.
Indeed, Chuck Schumer sounded exactly the same: “It is outrageous, it’s a page right out of Xi’s playbook. This is just despicable and disgusting, and against democratic values. Trump and his allies [are doing what] autocracies do. I am just outraged by it. This is what dictators do. This is what Xi would do. This is what Putin would do.”
Regarding the FCC and the allegation of government censorship, both Left and Right media outlets are expressing consternation over Chair Brendan Carr’s comments, questioning whether the government’s heavy hand has silenced Kimmel’s voice.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said Wednesday before Kimmel’s suspension. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take actions on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
At the risk of talking out of both sides of my mouth, I’ll say two things. First, if Joe Biden’s FCC had said, Nice broadcast license you have there; shame if anything happened to it, every conservative and Trump supporter would rightly be in an uproar. At best, Carr muddied the waters. Second, Trump’s FCC didn’t actually do anything — all Carr did was tell a podcaster that this was worth looking into.
That second part is an important distinction. ABC has every right to yank one of its overpaid stars from any time slot. The First Amendment does not guarantee Jimmy Kimmel a highly paid gig falsely trashing Republicans — a gig that he’s had uninterrupted for 23 seasons until now.
Moreover, it’s an open question whether Carr’s comments provoked ABC’s decision. Conservatives were quickly marshaling a boycott effort against ABC, and there was a rebellion among executives at Nexstar and Sinclair, who said their affiliates that broadcast ABC’s content would cut Kimmel’s show indefinitely. Notably, both Nexstar and Sinclair are seeking merger approvals from the FCC.
The C Suite at Disney clearly panicked at the idea of producing a high-priced show that millions of people wouldn’t even be able to see, especially when Kimmel’s ratings were already circling the drain.
In other words, yes, government censorship is wrong, but this wasn’t necessarily government censorship.
Government censorship is what Joe Biden’s administration did by coordinating with Facebook to suppress certain speech about COVID. Government censorship is what Democrat after Democrat after Democrat routinely calls for when they hear anything they don’t like (i.e., “misinformation” and “disinformation”). Democrats perfected speech suppression over the last five years.
Now they’re upset? Now they’re decrying “authoritarianism”?
Trump is once again pondering beating them at their own game. “If they’re 97% against, they give me only bad publicity, or press — I mean, they’re getting a license. I would think maybe their license should be taken away,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “It will be up to Brendan Carr.” He made a similar threat in August.
Let’s say Trump’s FCC does follow through on his threats. Democrats would only be suffering under the system they created.
Indeed, this is the peril of creating such a system of politicized punishments. “One day,” Ben Shapiro rightly notes, “the shoe will be on the other foot.” Maybe the better analogy is that the club will be in the other hand.
A final point about censorship: The only person who has been permanently silenced is Charlie Kirk, who died of a bullet through his throat.
