I wish I could say this unbelievable, but we are living in Donald Trump's America.
ABC has pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live! indefinitely amid threats from FCC Chair Brendan Carr to revoke the network's broadcast license because of a small portion of his monologue on the assassination of Charlie Kirk on Monday night:
[This] appears to be an action by Jimmy Kimmel to play into the narrative that this was somehow a MAGA or Republican-motivated person. What people don’t understand is that the broadcasters … have a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest. When we see stuff like this, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.
In case you want to know what Kimmel specifically said which drew the ire of Carr, er, President Trump well here it is:
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, but in between the finger-pointing, there was grieving.
If you haven't seen the full monologue, you can still watch it on YouTube and decide for yourself - for now. Kimmel's comment above comes about 2 minutes into the video.
Now one may dispute the veracity of what Kimmel said or not find it very funny. After all, this is a comedy show. But it is none of the government's goddamn business what "narrative" Jimmy Kimmel says during his monologue. If Brendan Carr doesn't like it, he can change the channel or turn off the TV. But the Trump Administration cannot turn the other cheek. Here is more of Carr:
The FCC could make a strong argument that this is sort of an intentional effort to mislead the American people about a very core fundamental fact, a very important matter.
And what exactly is the core fundamental fact? That Charlie Kirk's murder was a result of "left-wing extremism" as claimed by Vice-President Vance?
That might be Vance's claim and a view that Carr might share, but it is not a fact. Not yet anyway. Unless, of course, there has already been a trial held against the person who stands accused of assassinating Kirk and we just haven't been told anything about it.
Until there is a public, fair, impartial trial we will not know with any degree of certainty what motivated the man accused of killing Charlie Kirk to act as he did. While it is certainly possible that the accused came from a MAGA household and then embraced left-wing extremism, Kimmel is entitled to his point of view - right or wrong. It isn't for the Trump Administration to dictate what can and cannot be said over the public airwaves.
I would be remiss if I did not take Disney/ABC for capitulating to the Trump Administration yet again as it did last December when it had to make a $15 million donation to the Trump Presidential Library in order to settle a defamation suit over comments made by George Stephanopoulos over the E. Jean Carroll trial. In which case, would Kimmel be allowed to return to the airwaves if Disney/ABC made a donation to Turning Point USA?
Of course, President Trump is delighted with this turn of events stating on Truth Social, "Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done."
But then Trump revealed the real agenda here by calling upon NBC to fire both Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers.
Forcing ABC to pull Jimmy Kimmel off the air has absolutely nothing to do about what he said concerning the Charlie Kirk assassination. Rather, it has everything to do with President Trump dictating what can and cannot be said and who can and who cannot be on the air. That is it.
Charlie Kirk himself told the Oxford Union earlier this year, "You should be allowed to say outrageous things." The actions of the FCC are anathema and Trump's praise of their actions are anathema to Kirk's credo.
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