Jimmy Kimmel, a failing late-night comedian, was suspended for lying about the beliefs of a political assassin, and suddenly, the Democratic Party shrieks that the First Amendment is being destroyed. The spectacle would be laughable except that when Democrats are in power, they have shown that they will use the levers of government power to silence opponents.

The truth in this case, however, starts with the fact that the Federal Communications Commission has taken no action against Kimmel or his employer, and both remain free to keep saying all the nasty things about President Donald Trump they’ve been saying nightly for years already.

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“There is no such thing as free speech under Donald Trump’s reign,” Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) posted on social media after ABC announced it had suspended Kimmel indefinitely for saying that Charlie Kirk’s murderer was “one of them,” by which he meant a Trump supporter, a group he has previously referred to as “MAGA mouth breathers.” Apparently, it was lost on Newsom that the continued existence of his very post criticizing Trump demonstrated his argument was completely false.

The most gallingly hypocritical commentary came from former President Barack Obama, who inserted himself into the issue by complaining on social media that “after years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.”

This is rich coming from a former president who routinely used government power to silence his opponents when he was in office. Obama famously directed the IRS to remove the tax-exempt status of nonprofit organizations he disagreed with. He used the Justice Department and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to target businesses he disapproved of, such as firearms retailers. He used the Espionage Act to spy on Fox News reporter James Rosen and the Associated Press. He used the Department of Education to silence opposition to the Democratic Party’s gender agenda. And he prosecuted an immigrant for making a YouTube video that Obama falsely blamed for inciting deadly attacks against Americans on the anniversary of 9/11.

The former president has never expressed an ounce of shame or regret for using government power to stifle his opponents’ speech rights. And former President Joe Biden was no different. He prosecuted social media users for making the same joke that late-night comedians tell about when to vote. He also used the State Department to fund bad actors such as the Global Disinformation Index that libeled conservative news organizations so they would lose money and be silenced because advertisers would be deflected from doing business with them. Their targets allegedly spread what Democrats wished to portray as “disinformation” but which were most often contrary opinions. This publication was attacked by the Biden-financed GDI for correctly reporting on a study that found conservative women are happier than liberal women. The Democrats’ censorship complex labeled this “misogynistic disinformation” and tried to demonetize this publication for reporting on it.

All this Democratic hypocrisy, however, does not justify the actions, or rather the words of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr in response to Kimmel’s deliberately misleading falsehoods. On a podcast on Wednesday, Carr said Disney should “find ways to change conduct to take action frankly on Kimmel or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.” 

This is being treated by critics of the Trump administration as a threat to revoke the licenses of broadcast stations that air ABC, and perhaps it was, in addition to being a characteristically unhelpful bit of chest thumping from a member of this administration. But revoking a station’s license is a long legal process that must start with announcing a hearing for the revocation, and that takes a full vote from the commission. No such action has been taken here. 

Nexstar, a conservative company that owns more than two dozen ABC affiliates, has made it clear that the FCC had nothing to do with its decision to tell ABC it would not insult its viewers any longer by continuing to air Kimmel in its markets. Advertisers with no business before the FCC were reportedly calling ABC executives and demanding action on Kimmel. Most importantly, it has been reported that the final decision to suspend Kimmel was not made because of Carr’s statements, but because an ABC executive met with Kimmel, asked him what he planned to say on his show in response to the controversy, and decided that Kimmel was intent on continuing to inflict reputational damage on a company that paid him $15 million a year.

Contrary to the hysterics of Obama, Newsom, and other Democrats, the First Amendment is doing fine. Log in to X, or YouTube, or TikTok, and you will find an infinite supply of voices attacking, criticizing, and making fun of Trump and the Republican Party. That was true Monday before Kimmel spoke, and it is true today. What is also true is that the late-night talk show format was dying before Trump was elected president and that Kimmel’s ratings are routinely lower than even Stephen Colbert, who was also recently canceled. Kimmel and those around him had expected, for the past year, to be canceled for financial reasons. One suspects that his egregious and distasteful falsehoods about the murder of a much-admired young conservative were a deliberate attempt to go out perceived as a free speech hero rather than a ratings failure. 

THE SOCIALIST FUTURE OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IS HERE

The Democratic Party’s selective outrage over free speech reveals what this debate is really about: power, not principle. When the Left controls the levers of government, it eagerly deploys censorship against enemies. When private businesses or audiences hold their allies accountable, they rediscover the First Amendment. 

Freedom of speech in America remains vibrant and robust and will continue to be so, but only if citizens refuse to be cowed by hypocritical scolds who cry “censorship” one day and cheer it the next. The danger lies not in Trump’s tweets or Carr’s braggadocio but in Democrats’ willingness to weaponize government against dissent.