Late Night host Jimmy Kimmel’s indefinite suspension following inflammatory comments about Charlie Kirk’s assassination has driven polarized reactions, with supporters decrying the move as “cancel culture” and opponents celebrating it as a justified response.
During his show on Monday, Kimmel briefly spoke about the MAGA movement’s reaction to Kirk’s murder, implying, against evidence, that the assassin was a fellow conservative.
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“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang trying to characterize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said, then criticized Trump’s deflection of answering how he was holding up after his close friend’s death.
After pressure from the Trump administration’s Federal Communications Commission, on Wednesday Disney decided to “indefinitely” suspend Kimmel’s show. The move was immediately interpreted by Kimmel’s Left-wing allies as caving to pressure from President Donald Trump’s FCC. Many interpreted the suspension as effectively a direct edict from Trump himself.
“This administration is systematically killing free speech, and these capitulating media companies are acting as willing accomplices. Frightening and shameful,” journalist S.E. Cupp said.
“In Donald Trump’s America, your right to free speech doesn’t exist. Trump, Bondi, Patel, have all made it clear that they will come after people who dissent. Another dark day in this country,” influencer Harry Sisson said.
Atlantic writer David Frum attempted to make an allegory, saying he was “Trying to imagine the reaction if the Biden administration had demanded that Fox fire Greg Gutfeld because he wasn’t sufficiently sad about the assault on Paul Pelosi.”
His comments were flooded with criticism, with users pointing out that Kimmel was suspended over making a false claim about the assassination, not insufficient mourning.
MSNBC host Chris Hayes alluded that Kimmel’s cancellation meant the country was now effectively a dictatorship.
“The countries where comedians can’t mock the leader on late-night TV are not really ones you want to live in,” he said.
Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) arguably went the furthest, suggesting that Kimmel’s cancellation was the first step on the path of an authoritarian regime or the beginning of another Holocaust, citing his construction of a Holocaust museum and reading of authoritarian regimes.
“This is the playbook, folks. If you’re not paying attention now and doing something about it, well then you’re going to have to sit down the rest of your life, because democracy is being taken away,” he said in an appearance on MSNBC.
On the other side, plenty of users believed Kimmel’s suspension was justified. Trump led the celebrations.
“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. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible,” President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!!”
The most popular reason for supporting Kimmel’s suspension was the belief that he violated the law through his comments. The commission prohibits broadcast licensees from “broadcasting false information concerning a crime or a catastrophe” if the licensee knows the information is false, if it is foreseeable that broadcast of the information will cause substantial public harm, and if the broadcasting of the information does cause substantial public harm.
“Jimmy Kimmel lied about Charlie’s assassination and used the opportunity to defame Charlie’s own friends and allies. He deserves to be fired for it. These are the repercussions that conservatives have been experiencing for years for infractions not nearly as egregious. Good riddance, Kimmel, you disgusting scumbag,” Daily Wire host Matt Walsh said.
“Jimmy Kimmel lied about Charlie Kirk’s assassin being MAGA. This caused understandable outrage all over America, prompted TV station owners to say they wouldn’t air him, and he’s now been suspended by his employers. Why is he being heralded as some kind of free speech martyr?” anchor Piers Morgan said.
In another post, he noted that Kimmel has “celebrated endless conservative stars’ cancellations… with savage glee,” along with a clip of the host celebrating Tucker Carlson’s firing from Fox News.
Barstool President Dave Portnoy argued that the suspension wasn’t cancel culture, as is commonly believed.
“To me Cancel culture is when people go out of their way to dig up old tweets, videos etc looking for dirt on somebody they don’t like in an effort to get them fired. Like if Kimmel got canceled for s*** he did on the Man Show that would be cancel culture. But when a person says something that a ton of people find offensive, rude, dumb in real time and then that person is punished for it that’s not cancel culture. That is consequences for your actions,” he said, regarding the debate on the “hypocrisy of cancel culture.”
Journalist Megyn Kelly, a close personal friend of Kirk’s, made a lengthy post excoriating Kimmel and justifying his suspension.
“Jimmy Kimmel got on the air and falsely stated as a fact that Charlie Kirk’s killer was MAGA, smearing an entire movement and Trump in particular with a vile disgusting lie — and at a time when the threat against those on the right is at an all-time high,” she said, noting that his statement came days after officials established that assassin Tyler Robinson had subscribed to a left-wing ideology.
“This was an intentional lie to GIN UP HATRED toward the very group of ppl most suffering in the wake of our devastating loss of Charlie and Kimmel did it willfully and even gleefully to a cheering complicit audience,” Kelly added. “ANY EMPLOYER IN MEDIA WOULD SEE HOW DEPRAVED AND SICK THIS WAS.”
Comedian and Fox News host Greg Guttfeld went on the offensive against those portraying the suspension of Kimmel as an attack on free speech.
“I have friends who will be performing in front of live audiences that number in the thousands. They aren’t worried about being fired; they’re worried now about being fired upon. CNN hacks cannot grasp that because they’ve never had to worry about such threats, or an audience,” he said.
Other commentators straddled the line. Some were fine with Kimmel being suspended, but were against the move if it was due to FCC pressure.
KIMMEL CANCELLATION CONTINUES TREND OF TRUMP VICTORIES AGAINST LEGACY MEDIA
Fox News analyst Brit Hume said the “First Amendment does not protect performers like Jimmy Kimmel from being cancelled by their private sector employers. But I would have liked the outcome a lot better if the chairman of the FCC had not involved himself in it.”
The Young Turks host Ana Kasparian said she would favor Kimmel’s suspension if it were an independent decision by ABC, but would oppose it if it were due to the FCC’s intervention.