The news of Charlie Kirk’s death by assassination on September 10 was still fresh when the progressive left revealed its true nature. Across the media and online, left-wingers couldn’t contain their glee. But among the ghoulish celebrations, another pattern emerged. Some progressives have been promoting the bizarre idea that the man accused of assassinating Kirk was a “MAGA Republican.”
Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel promoted this falsehood on the air, and it could have landed him and his employers in hot water with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). But, as it turns out, the government watchdog wasn’t the only one to take issue with it. Nexstar, which runs 32 ABC affiliate stations, refused to broadcast the show. A few hours later, ABC yanked Jimmy Kimmel Live! off air indefinitely.
Maybe it was inevitable. ABC would obviously have cut him loose in a heartbeat rather than face the possibility of losing its FCC license.
There is practically no reasonable doubt that the shooter, a 22-year-old male from Utah, is on the political left. A lot of people who know him, including family members, have described him as someone who, over the past year, had drifted further to the left, disliked Trump, and referred to Kirk as a “fascist.”
There’s also plenty more circumstantial evidence that points to him being a supporter of the “transgender” movement and someone who considered himself anti-fascist, as many politically active progressives do – ironically.
During his opening monologue on September 15, Kimmel said: “The MAGA gang desperately [sic] 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.”
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr was incensed. “This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney,” Carr told conservative commentator Benny Johnson on September 17, referring to ABC’s parent company. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action on Kimmel or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.” The FCC boss went on: “They have a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest.”
It sounds as if Carr may have been putting pressure on ABC and Disney to force Kimmel to retract what he had said about the shooter, which would, of course, be highly embarrassing for the talk show host. But he was perhaps serious about exploring ways to penalize Kimmel and one or both companies. Carr elaborated on what “operate in the public interest” means for licensed TV stations:
“The public interest means you can’t be running a narrow partisan circus and still meeting your public interest obligations. It means you can’t be engaging in a pattern of news distortion. We’ve a rule on the book that interprets the public interest standard that says ‘news distortion’ is something that is prohibited.”
Nexstar Media Group, which owns some ABC-affiliated stations, also said it would pre-empt Kimmel’s show, and that was almost certainly factored into ABC’s decision. In a statement, the company said: “Nexstar strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk and will replace the show with other programming in its ABC-affiliated markets.”
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Many on the left reacted to the firing by saying the Trump administration’s “pressure campaign” to get Kimmel and others like him fired amounts to an attack on free speech. California Governor Gavin Newsom said Wednesday evening that the Republican Party “does not believe in free speech. They are censoring you in real time.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said “everybody across the political spectrum should be speaking out to stop what’s happening to Jimmy Kimmel.”
The First Amendment does protect broadcasters from publishing inaccurate news reports. In fact, the Supreme Court’s 1964 ruling in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan established that even false statements about public official or public figures are protected unless made with “actual malice.” That said, the FCC can usually act when a broadcaster knowingly airs false information in a hoax regarding a crime or catastrophe.
So, whether the FCC could have penalized ABC or not in this case specifically is up for interpretation. But the First Amendment does not protect an employee from being fired by a company for saying something the company doesn’t want to be associated with or which might cause a consumer backlash.
Trump’s re-election and the subsequent cutting off of public money that was feeding the left-wing media beast have sent shockwaves across what was essentially the progressive/Democratic Party propaganda apparatus. There have been firings, resignations, and retirements, along with reorganization and rebranding. For media darlings like Kimmel, this is a threat to their lavish lifestyles, fame, and fortune. Out of sheer spite and personal bitterness toward all things Trump, Kimmel perhaps decided to lash out by making the preposterous claim that the man who killed Charlie Kirk was MAGA.
Did Kimmel think he was untouchable? Maybe he just couldn’t help himself. There is a certain irony to it all, even born out of the tragedy of the murder of Charlie Kirk. Progressives created “cancel culture” and embarked on an orgy of punishing individuals and businesses for not sharing leftist ideology. Advertisers were harassed, teachers, actors, and athletes were essentially blacklisted, and small businesses were hounded. Now, unable to curb their worst impulses, the loudest voices on the left are themselves being canceled – not for their opinions but for their sheer lack of humanity.