Wednesday's decision by Disney / ABC to fire late-night host Jimmy Kimmel for lying about the suspect in Charlie Kirk's assassination, the left (the architects of cancel culture) exploded with rage - saying that Kimmel's firing was because the Trump2 White House is firing comedians, destroying freedom of expression and taking away democracy. I am surprised and disappointed to see many in the British media, who I thought were slightly more sane, falling for the same hogwash.
The fury of the left has focued on their trying to defend Kimmel's insane assertion that the suspect in the assassination of conservative influence Charlie Kirk is a MAGA (Trump) supporter when all the available evidence (and there's a lot,) shows him to be a far left Trans activist with links to several left wing activist groups. Kimmel's false assertions on this alone are indefensible.
Jimmy Kimmel, one of that new breed of 'woke' (i.e. not in the least funny unless you think calling people who hold different views to your idiots is scintillating wit,) comedians, has hosted a daily late-night show on ABC for the last ten years, during which time his ratings have dropped steadily, which is not surprising as he has rountinely insulted half of the voting punlic of the USA night after night.
His suspension (de facto firing,) was announced after three days of mocking relentlessly and making sick jokes on air about the assassination of Charlie Kirk. According to the mainstream media commentariat, this is dangerous censorship, an attack on free speech, state control of the media, blah, blah. Such claims expose a total ignorance of what has been going on in the US.
None of that is true.
Kimmel’s ‘sacking’ was a business decision, pure and simple. Anybody who is aware of the output from the left-wing US media such as ABC, CNN and MSNBC, will know that they still devote every hour of the day to virulent anti-Trump propaganda while for four years he could hardly find anything to criticise a senile, barely sane Democrat president for. The idea that their bosses now want to suck up to the President by firing someone who opposed him is beyond ludicrous. The cancelling of Jimmy Kimmell is purely a business decision, nothing at all to do with Donald Trump and very little to do with free speech.
The reality is that Kimmel’s unhinged rants over the last week and his claims that "The MAGA crowd are trying to score political points off the assassination," led to many of ABC’s affiliates pulling Kimmel Live from their channels – in the US, large TV companies such as ABC rely on these affiliates to carry broadcasts to local cable viewers. One of the largest affiliates cited a ‘breach of journalistic standards’, while Sinclair’s executive chairman David Smith called the remarks ‘divisive and irresponsible’.
"Mr. Kimmel’s comments about the death of Mr. Kirk are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse, and we do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the local communities in which we are located, Continuing to give Mr. Kimmel a broadcast platform in the communities we serve is simply not in the public interest at the current time, and we have made the difficult decision to preempt his show," said Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar's broadcasting division.
Put simply, theses affiliates do not want to piss off half of their subscribers who happen to think Kimmel is a far - left dickhead.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr blasted Kimmel on Wednesday, telling podcaster Benny Johnson that Kimmel's comments were "truly sick," and that there's a "strong case" for legal action against both ABC and Disney (ABC is a Disney subsidiary). "This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney," said Carr. "These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead."
With this wholesale loss of syndication, coupled with advertisers also pulling ads from Kimmel's timeslot, and the threat of sanctions from the Federal regulator, ABC had little choice but to dump the show. Executives from Disney, who own ABC, including CEO Bob Iger and co-chair Dana Walden, cited a surge in ‘advertiser calls’ as a primary factor in suspending the show. These calls reportedly started rolling in after Kimmel’s September 15 monologue, with brands expressing concerns over the ‘insensitive’ remarks about Charlie Kirk’s death potentially damaging their reputations amid national tensions.
As far as I am aware, Kimmel remains free to continue voicing his opinion about Trump, Charlie Kirk or anyone else therefore his right to free speech has not been infringed. He has not been silenced or censored. He hasn't been arrested or jailed. Nobody has put a gagging order on him. He still has his right to free speech, together with his right to find another platform that will have him. Or indeed to create his own platform out of his own pocket as others have done (e.g Graham Linehan's substack,) all that has happened is his client (I assume his contract is as a freelance broadcaster,) has decided the product he is delivering in not fit for purpose by virtue of the fact that it is damaging their revenue stream. He is free to schlepp his schtick around medialand and hope to find somebody willing to pat for it. Welcome to reality Jimmy.
All that has happened to him is that his employers have terminated his contract, as they are entitled to do, because he has not been successful at his job. It happens to millions of people. And just like those millions, he is free to ply his trade elsewhere.
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