US President Donald Trump celebrated the suspension of talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel from the airwaves and said TV broadcasters should lose their licenses over negative coverage of his administration, adding fuel to a national debate over free speech.
Kimmel was embroiled in the effort by Trump and his supporters to punish critics of assassinated right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot with a rifle from afar while speaking to a crowd at a Utah university on September 10. Since then allies of Trump and Kirk have warned Americans to properly mourn the divisive figure or face the consequences.
The broadcaster ABC announced on Wednesday that it was yanking the late-night comedy show “Jimmy Kimmel Live” indefinitely. Writers, performers, former US President Barack Obama and others condemned Kimmel’s suspension, calling it capitulation to unconstitutional government pressure.
The American debate followed Trump to Britain on Thursday, when during his state visit he said Kimmel had been punished for saying “a horrible thing” about Kirk.
Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has used his office and the courts to attack unflattering speech about him that he has called defamatory or false. Throughout both his terms, Trump has threatened to rescind licenses for local broadcast affiliates of the national networks – licenses that are approved by the Federal Communications Commission, a nominally independent regulatory body.
Kimmel’s suspension came after owners of local TV stations had said they would stop broadcasting his celebrity-filled late-night show, and the FCC Chair Brendan Carr threatened to investigate Kimmel’s commentary about Kirk.
Trump, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned to the US, complained about receiving bad publicity from broadcasters, saying, “That’s something that should be talked about for licensing. … All they do is hit Trump.”
“I would think maybe their license should be taken away,” Trump said, although federal law prohibits the FCC from revoking a broadcaster’s license for negative coverage or other speech disliked by the government. “It will be up to Brendan Carr.”
Kimmel, a comedian who frequently lampoons Trump, said during his nine-minute opening monologue on Monday that allies of Kirk were using his assassination last week to “score political points.” Kirk, 31, was shot onstage while holding one of his frequent public debates with students over his political views in an event organized by his pro-Trump advocacy group, Turning Point USA.
A 22-year-old technical college student from Utah was charged with Kirk’s murder on Tuesday.
“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 do everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said.
Trump countered that Kimmel was untalented, had bad ratings, and “said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk.”
“So, you know, you can call that free speech or not,” Trump said as he stood alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “He was fired for lack of talent.” ABC has not said that it fired Kimmel, who has not commented on his removal from air.
Viewership of late-night shows and traditional TV in general has declined as audiences shift to streaming and social media. “Jimmy Kimmel Live” averaged 1.57 million viewers per episode for the TV season that ended in May, according to Nielsen.
In the week since Kirk’s murder, Kimmel is the most famous American to face professional blowback for comments condemned by conservatives as disrespectful of Kirk, alongside media figures, academic workers, teachers and corporate employees.
Prominent Democrats said Trump was mounting an assault on free speech rights guaranteed in the US Constitution’s First Amendment. Republicans have said they are fighting against “hate speech” that can spiral into violence, and accuse some Kirk critics of trying to justify his murder.
OBAMA JOINS CHORUS OF CRITICS
Obama urged media companies not to capitulate to government coercion.
“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,” Obama said in a statement.
Writers’ and actors’ labor unions called the targeting of Kimmel an unconstitutional attack on the right to disagree. The American Civil Liberties Union called it an unconstitutional attempt by the Trump administration to “silence its critics and control what the American people watch and read.”
Kirk’s death spurred an outpouring of grief among fans who saw him as a staunch advocate for public debate and conservative values. Others have challenged or derided Kirk’s support for right-wing politics and Christian nationalism and derogatory comments he has made about immigrants, African Americans, leftists and transgender people.
Hours before Kimmel’s suspension on Wednesday, Carr urged local broadcasters to stop airing the show.
Following Carr’s comments on the Benny Johnson podcast, two of the largest owners of local broadcasters – Nexstar and Sinclair Broadcast Group, both of which have merger deals pending before the FCC – then announced they would preempt Kimmel’s show with other programming in response to Monday’s monologue.
ABC, owned by Walt Disney, announced it was suspending Kimmel’s show indefinitely. ABC owns eight local TV channels subject to FCC licensing, including broadcasters in the major markets of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and Philadelphia.
Disney CEO Bob Iger and Disney Entertainment Co-Chair Dana Walden made the decision to suspend Kimmel’s show, a source with knowledge of the matter said. — Reuters