Jimmy Kimmel has been silenced. Let’s be clear. Jimmy Kimmel did not say anything disparaging about Charlie Kirk; he criticized the Trump administration and MAGA. The snowflake MAGA FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, did not like what he said, so he complained to ABC and Disney, who then felt boxed into a corner and suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s show indefinitely.
Carr appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show to praise Nexstar and Sinclair for pulling Jimmy Kimmel Live! from their ABC affiliate stations, after which ABC suspended production of the show indefinitely.
“Something’s gone seriously awry,” Carr said about late night shows like Kimmel’s. “They went from being court jesters that would make fun of everybody in power to being court clerics and enforcing a very narrow political ideology. And Nexstar stood up and said, ‘We have the license and we don’t want to run this anymore. We don’t think it serves the interest of our community.’ Sinclair did the same thing. There’s more work to go, but I’m very glad to see that America’s broadcasters are standing up to serve the interest of their community. We don’t just have this progressive foie gras coming out from New York and Hollywood.”
“This action today by Nexstar and Sinclair, frankly, is unprecedented,” Carr continues. “I can’t imagine another time we’ve had a local broadcasters tell a national programmer like Disney, ‘Your content no longer meets the needs and values of our community.’ So this is an important turning point.”
So yes, Mr. Carr. This is a turning point. No pun intended, at least on my part. If you think all the viewers of Jimmy Kimmel Live were offended by what Jimmy Kimmel was saying on a nightly basis, the show would have had zero viewers. It did not. So, there is going to be a revolt. A revolt like the TV industry has never seen before.
What Jimmy Kimmel Actually Said
The Industry Response
After ABC’s decision to pull Kimmel’s show was revealed, labor unions, including the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) spoke out against the network’s move:
“SAG-AFTRA condemns the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
“Our society depends on freedom of expression. Suppression of free speech and retaliation for speaking out on significant issues of public concern run counter to the fundamental rights we all rely on,” the statement added. “Democracy thrives when diverse points of view are expressed.”
“The decision to suspend airing Jimmy Kimmel Live! is the type of suppression and retaliation that endangers everyone’s freedoms,” the union continued.
“SAG-AFTRA stands with all media artists and defends their right to express their diverse points of view, and everyone’s right to hear them,” it concluded.
The Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) and Writers Guild of America East (WGAE) insisted the organization “stands with Jimmy Kimmel and his writers.”
The union said in a statement, “The right to speak our minds and to disagree with each other – to disturb, even – is at the very heart of what it means to be a free people. It is not to be denied. Not by violence, not by the abuse of governmental power, nor by acts of corporate cowardice.”
“As a Guild, we stand united in opposition to anyone who uses their power and influence to silence the voices of writers, or anyone who speaks in dissent,” the statement added. “If free speech applied only to ideas we like, we needn’t have bothered to write it into the Constitution. What we have signed on to – painful as it may be at times – is the freeing agreement to disagree.”
“Shame on those in government who forget this founding truth. As for our employers, our words have made you rich. Silencing us impoverishes the whole world,” it continued.
Sinclair’s Response
Even before the suspension, the company, which owns 30 ABC affiliates across the United States, had already announced alongside Nexstar that it wouldn’t air Kimmel for the foreseeable future over the remarks. Now the company says it plans to air a Charlie Kirk remembrance special on Friday in Kimmel’s usual time slot. And regardless, it said it won’t air Jimmy Kimmel Live again until certain conditions are met.
Among other things, those conditions include the demand that Kimmel apologize to the Kirk family — who, it should be noted, Kimmel did not joke about — and make an unspecified donation to their organizations as well as a donation to Turning Point USA.
So they are extorting Jimmy Kimmel. This is where we are, people. Take a long, hard think about that.
Just like Charlie Kirk was free to say what he said. Jimmy Kimmel and every other person in this country should be offered the same freedom, and not be silenced when what they say doesn’t align with your point of view.
And for those saying this is not cancel culture. No, it’s not. It’s pure censorship.
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