Jimmy Kimmel Removed for Telling Truth
Many people don’t watch or know much about the new Italian citizen, Jimmy Kimmel. Wait, the Man Show guy? One online comment seemed to confuse him with Jimmy Fallon, another late-night host, who has less of an edge.
Jimmy Kimmel, whom I don’t watch, is not really new to some biting commentary. I recall him having Senator Bill Cassidy (Mr. Concerned About Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but quite willing to vote for him) on and then sparring with him after Kimmel believed he was being a phony on health care. The issue hit home since Kimmel’s son had to have expensive surgery. Kimmel has also been consistently anti-Trump.
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. In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving. On Friday, the White House flew the flags at half staff which got some criticism but on a human level you can see how hard the president is taking this.
Kimmel, as Jen Psaki noted last night, made a mistake regarding the “one of them” part; at least we are not completely sure about his true feelings. Some might push back on even that, but it is at best a small exaggeration, which is typical in comedy.
I think very good. And by the way right there you see all the trucks, they just started construction of the new ballroom for the White House which is something they’ve been trying to get as you know for about for 150 years and it’s gonna be a beauty
The wider message is correct, including playing a segment about Trump being more concerned about trucks than Charlie Kirk when asked about how he was feeling. Kimmel was commenting on the cynically bullshit response to the murder.
Kimmel was suspended indefinitely. This has been correctly attacked as an act of cowardice, as well as perhaps a sign that the ownership simply supports Trump. Nonetheless, it is not just a private matter.
On the podcast of right-wing influencer Benny Johnson on Wednesday, chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Brendan Carr said that Kimmel’s words were part of a “concerted effort to try to lie to the American people” and that the FCC was “going to have remedies that we can look at.” “Frankly, when you see stuff like this,” he said, “I mean look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Mob boss talk. Brendan Carr has also gone after Stephen Colbert. Carr has been an FCC commissioner since 2017, but has gone to the next level as a right-wing troll lately. He worked with the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025. Attacked DEI (which again is a good thing; diversity, equity, and inclusion are good things).
As Heather Cox Richardson noted:
The largest operator of ABC affiliates, Nexstar—which needs FCC approval for a $6.2 billion merger—said it would stop airing Kimmel’s show from its stations. Then ABC suspended Kimmel’s show.
The Sinclair Broadcast Group, which pulled his show from its affiliates, called for Kimmel to issue a direct apology to Kirk's family and to make a personal donation both to the family and Kirk's organization, Turning Point USA.
Kimmel did not insult the family. If anything, the family should thank him for criticizing the cynical and phony reactions. Also, making a bad statement in a monologue sometimes warrants an apology. It doesn’t require you to donate to an organization that you strongly oppose. For a good reason.
Let’s say Sinclair is not talking from a neutral position here. Meanwhile, we have the likes of Tucker Carlson and Karl Rove being upset at censorship concerns. Yes, I am not going to “give it” or anything to those clowns. It does show how far we are going.
Trump’s war against the press continues:
Having successfully extorted $15 million from ABC and $16 million from CBS through absurd lawsuits that most legal experts say would never have held up in court, Trump now feels free to sue any media outfit he believes has not shown him proper reverence. He filed suit against the Wall Street Journal in July for $10 billion after they published an exclusive report that he had sent the deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein a lewd birthday message. On Tuesday he filed a defamation suit against the New York Times for $15 billion, citing their critical coverage.
Charlie Kirk was big on cancel culture — he wished to cancel those he didn’t agree with. Others and I have provided links for this. Yes, that might sound strange, since some people are putting him out as some big positive “let’s debate” guy, but yes.
"Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done," Trump wrote. "Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible. That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!! DJT"
Seth Meyers has been quite critical of Trump, too. Is he next? Will Jimmy Fallon only get to stay on the air if Fallon has Trump back on and rubs his hair again?
“She’ll probably go after people like you, because you treat me so unfairly,” Mr. Trump said. “You have a lot of hate in your heart. Maybe they will come after ABC.”
The inability to take criticism is a sign of weakness. The cowards are lashing back. The hypocrisy from the anti-woke brigade is not surprising. It might allow you some pleasure to point it out. But it is far from news that the other side here is not consistent. We can easily hang them by their own petard. Not literally.
The answer should be that we are not shutting up, you cowards, and those with resources should fight back. And, good luck, Jimmy Kimmel.
ETA: I was glad to see a good reply from Stephen Colbert, including a warning about first steps, reminding us about the “Gulf of Mexico” b.s.
I was going to add something else (thus the original subtitle), but I focused on this instead.