Its funny, in all of the reporting and acrimony and spleen-venting about this topic, nobody seems to have brought up that Jimmy Kimmel was supposed to be doing a COMEDY show. That just gets lost in the shuffle because he has been so utterly removed from comedy for years if not decades...
Smugly insulting strawmen caricatures of "Nazis" and "racists" gets laughs by letting Kimmel's audience feel superior to those they get to vicariously bully.
It's not a two-minute hate, it's 44 minutes of hate and 16 valuable minutes of advertising for anti-depressants and prescription obesity medicines.
So much of the Left is petty mean girls and beta boys virtue-signaling about how much kinder, smarter, and more sophisticated they are than those they point and laugh at.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought the same thing - we NEVER actually graduate high school. Or maybe it’s just that some of us don’t mature beyond all the superficiality and pettiness.
kimmel doesn’t get laughs. the laughter on his show has been pre-recorded for years.
there used to be lots of video of his audiences, show after show, sitting just stone-faced while the “laugh now” lights were flashing and the laughter sound track was playing.
oooh I wonder if we can find that on the Wayback machine. That would be hilarious to post and it would shut up all the Demwits who probably never watched his show even once...
The Greg Gutfeld show is pretty mean, too. Perhaps what makes people laugh is evolving or just re-calibrating back to the schadenfreude of seeing someone else being publicly stoned, a classic entertainment throughout history?
That is very true. However, late night television has traditionally been a place for light comedy and fluff interviews with celebrities with a new movie or book. If he wanted to go all political, that is his right. He just doesn't have the right to do it on television.
In another point, I saw someone say today that he will probably be on YouTube soon. Then, I'm not sure how you can say that his freedom of speech has been restricted. No one stopping his speech.
True enough in your first paragraph, however tradition, statute law, and FCC regulation are three entirely different things.
And I hope that "you" in your final paragraph is meant generically, because I specifically have not claimed that Kimmel's free speech has been infringed in any way (because it hasn't)
I had hadn't even known just how awful Kimmel was until Matt brought it up. Probably because I quit watching his show less than a minute into the first one I saw. What a tool.
Kimmel's monologue about the MAGA gang "desperately 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" must surely go down in history as the primo example that validates the conservative trope "if you want to know what the left is doing, listen to the accusations they make against conservatives."
It's actually quite funny, because Kimmel was desperately trying to characterize Robinson as a right-winger, and was lying about him in order to score political points -- which he JUST SAID was "the new low."
And thinking all the time that he’s the smartest guy in the room. That he thinks Robinson was right-wing reveal how shallow his understanding of the known facts of the case are, and from whom he gets his news. I daresay most leftists still think Robinson was a MAGA groupie (no such thing but ignorant leftists generalize anyone whom they don’t like as one). In fact, Robinson’s parents say his politics have changed a lot in the last few years but he is not registered in either party, and his attitudes are more aligned with the trans community than either political party narrative.
I have seen a photoshopped picture of Robinson with a pro-Trump t-shirt, along with the picture before it was altered. The alteration was presumably done by a dishonest leftist to provide evidence for leftists who want badly to believe it wasn’t another leftist shooter. Just like they did with Charlie Kirk, leftists take a quote out of context and by the time they’re done millions of leftists are reading and believing that Charlie Kirk thought gay people should be stoned to death. That false meme went around the world, and has been quoted by millions including journalists who don’t bother to check their sources. Why does the left intentionally do such things? To gain partisan advantage as if life was all a game.
Kimmel was paid to do a job using his employer’s resources and its name. If he wants to spread lies, let him do it on his own time using his own resources. Free speech doesn’t mean that somebody else has to provide you with a platform. Get a life.
I have literally never watched Jimmy Kimmel, except for clips posted on social media that ended up in my feed. I've never thought he was funny, and I always thought he was a democrat hack.
Like I said -- I don't watch the show, but I have seen enough clips to find him not funny at all. (I may be dating myself, but I remember the good ole days of Johnny Carson and when Steve Martin was on SNL.)
I remember when Chevy Chase, John Belushi, and Dan Aykroyd were on SNL, along with Gilda Radner and Jane Curtin. Great talents, all, and able to mock politicians of all stripes. Those were the days.
So great. Remember Akroyd and Curtin doing “Point, Counterpoint.” (Was it Shana?) “You ignorant slut.” I am laughing at the memory. We live in a world of thin skin.
Because of the way they did it. It wasn't veiled hatred. You can tell when a comedian is an equal opportunity comedy writer. In the last 10 years, the Left has just been mean spirited. Bullying comedy is not funny except to bullies.
Yes, I did see the Man Show. I found it relatively sophomoric, but nonetheless it was a creative, if silly, concept. You may find his talent level mediocre, judging by your "hack" description, but I feel safe to assume he has achieved levels of success by many different standards that are substantially greater than yours.
This is the main point to me. If Disney "WOKE" up and realized that what Kimmel said was wrong and decided to suspend him fine. We all know that's NOT what happened here as Disney encourages what is being said on this show.
I have a GREAT deal of issue with the FCC getting involved on Trump's word for this. Instead of mocking more idiocy around the clueless yet "highly educated" class of our society now we give them an angle to push back with.
Trump needs to back off and let the left eat their own. My greatest fear right now is the absolute opportunist that is my governor Shapiro is just one Trump admin overreach from actually taking us to Authoritarianism.
A). You have no proof FCC got involved "on Trump's word." B) There are rules about companies who are on publicly provided airwaves and Kimmel has repeatedly violated them. C) Trump is going to Trump and most of his supporters understand that and can tell the difference between a policy statement and trolling. D) The Left is just pissed because the Right has been too polite over the years to push back. Trump is an Alpha male and decided to even the playing field. His comments are far more tame and fair than the kind of bloviating Chuckles Schumer does. (Shouting at SCOTUS that they will reap the whirlwind comes to mind.) E) We suffered years of Covidiots calling for the death penalty and prison and losing one's children over daring to question BigPharma's covid death shot. They wanted all of us who have reasons to not take the shot to lose our livelihoods, our children, our lives, and more because we dared to challenge the Overlords. We already HAVE authoritarians. And they are LIBERALS. The party that wants to be America's HOA.
I would agree. Greg Gutfeld dishes out major shillage. The show does have a sprinkling of good jokes by funny writers, like the Leftovers segment. In fairness, preaching to the choir takes less creativity and effort. If the audience eats it up, why not go there?
It's a real contest between Kimmel and Colbert as to who is the most deeply deeply obnoxious and unfunny. I would probably go with Kimmel but man is it close. I do not want the FCC involved or even to exist but I really hope the pendulum starts to swing away from giving millions of dollars to unfunny assholes to preach pablum to a tiny audience night after night on netwrok tv. And for that matter for people to think its perfectly ok to punlicly call for someone's death and report to school to teach your class the next day. It has to stop.
Be careful what you wish for: an unregulated RF spectrum would be a very bad thing.
But while there definitely is a scarcity of frequencies on which to broadcast for a given purpose, we now have additional ways of immediate information transfer that don't involve physical broadcast ing You can be glad that the FCC has gotten rid of things like the fairness doctrine as a result.
I am in agreement that the FCC has no need to try to regulate content for political balance, but that's not what you said. Here are your exact words: " I do not want the FCC involved OR EVEN TO EXIST [emphasis added]".
I am telling you that the FCC has plenty of justification for existence completely apart from any content regulation.
True. A radio wild west would have led to massive interference and rural people not even getting radio at night. However, in 1934 the FCC gained broad powers that went beyond regulating traffic on the frequency lanes of what was then the information highway. Some of the language is downright unconstitutional.
Colbert is such a conundrum to me. He was generally funny as John Stewart's mockingly Republican sidekick. Now he's just stupid and really a **ick....
What people keep missing in the Colbert cancel decision is that it's not just his salary, but his fleet of unfunny, unknowledgeable writers that cost the network twice what they can bring in from advertising.
I think Stuart Thompson made at least one accurate point. The people on the right will have to learn about late night bias via a person who tracts late night shows. That's because most people on the right have better things to do than watch Kibble & the rest of them; clipping toenails is an example of better time usage.
I agree. I used to get beers with 2 guys who watched John Oliver and when they let it slip they watched Oliver, I kinda let them have it. That is cult level indoctrination and othering. It's disgusting.
Disney also owns Hulu.. FCC doesn’t regulate it.. if Disney Really wanted to keep Kimmel they could push his show off ABC and on Hulu.. this could be done in a day IF they wanted to
Democrats: "We make the rules. And the first rule is that we are entitled to do things that others are not. And the second rule is that we can change the rules whenever we want."
BTW, that claimed asymmetry in ethics is real, including among left wing academics. They call it critical theory.
Amazing! So if I'm hearing this right, conservatives weren't outraged by what Kimmel had said until they found out about it. And that makes it illegitimate. Like, if it were real organic legitimate outrage, it would have emerged naturally, without anyone needing to know about the actual incident.
Come to think of it, maybe that isn't that crazy of a thought. Because most of the progressive outrage that I hear about is over things that never actually happened. So perhaps that actually is a thing after all.
A reminder to all those leftists thinking there's an equivalent in what they did with their cancel culture over this: The key fact is that freedom of speech allows you not to be arrested, imprisoned, or possibly executed. It does not guarantee you freedom from repercussions in public forums for vile drivel you exude.
Sure, but the accusation is the repercussions were government mandated loss of work. Left or right, we should all be against that.
Kimmel sucks and negative response to his bad comedy is not a freedom of speech issue, but losing his job right after the FCC chairman goes on air and public insinuates that he was going after him for his comments about Kirk is a freedom of speech issue.
Matt laid this out in another article, but there's strong case precedence for *not* intervening like this. Even if you disagree, this wasn't a result of formal FCC actions, but rather informal coercion by a government that holds merger approval rights for the very companies that it is coercing.
You don't have to be liberal to think that this is bad.
"The FCC prohibits broadcasting false information about a crime or a catastrophe if the broadcaster knows the information is false and will cause substantial “public harm” if aired." Setting a bunch of lunatics on the trail of MAGA people for supposedly murdering someone might fall under that.
No, it is not. Kimmel's show is carried on public airways, owned by the American public, licensed to the OVER THE AIR networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX). The license contain requirements the network must adhere to. These requirements don't apply to cable news or YouTube as they are not carried over the airways and are not regulated by the FCC.
If Trump had demanded that Morning Joe be taken off, I agree that would be 100% wrong and I'd be calling the White House.
Jimmy Kibbles violated one of the fundamental tenets of the FCC in that he did not act in the public interest. The fact that he got away with it for years doesn't mean he was not in violation. Oh, and by the way, you pretty much just identified your politics.
Yes, and late night TV IS A BUSINESS. As Cuomo said, this was a business decision by ABC and Disney because it appeared Jiminy Kibble was about to make it worse. Cancellation HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH TRUMP OR THE FCC. They may have commented, but they made no declarations or policy decisions. That was on the businesses that owned that particular show. And once again we are reminded that the Left doesn't understand basic running of a business.
100%. Colbert Report was top tier satire for its day. Great writing and delivery. To realize the real person behind the character was such an indoctrinated imbecile was a shocking letdown.
Kimmel has the right to do this. As does Colbert, Stewart and every other other TV comedian.
Charlie Kirk had the right to do this, too.
Pulling his show is massive threat to the first amendment. Pretending to be all butt hurt because comics make jokes about conservatives is an incredibly weak argument.
Meanwhile a Fox News anchor, Brian Kilmeade said homeless people should be killed and he was not fired. Where's your outrageous over that?
I disagree re: the 1A argument. However - That Matt and most others, including Greg, have entirely ignored the inconvenient truth of the Fox and Friends real time endorsement of exterminating genetically/mentally disadvantaged Americans in 2025 speaks volumes. https://x.com/AFpost/status/1966965977381564557
The best part is where the other two "patriotic, all-lives matter Americans" just nod when Kilmeade advocates the executions of the imperfect citizen specimens - an episode from our time which perfectly encapsulates the actual Holocaust. That we don't notice and don't care is the real horror. Yawn.
Where was your outrage when Roseanne got pulled from her show over a tweet?
We're not playing by one rule for you and a different rule for us. That isn't being principled, it's just being stupid. Would I prefer to live in a world where no one gets canceled for political speech? Absolutely. But that isn't a live option anymore, and hasn't been for about ten years now. Surely you've noticed.
If the FCC had actually taken action against ABC for its political content, you'd have a stronger case, but that's not what happened. Carr shooting his mouth off didn't matter at all. ABC faced a revolt from their affiliates, asked Kimmel to apologize, he refused and said he was going to double down.
I barely remember that, as I was never really a fan. However, I don't agree with it, so don't assume otherwise.
What happened is that the current administration does not want anyone speaking out against it. Trump has said so multiple times on camera, go look it up. He's sued CBS and the Des Monies register was sued because he did not like a poll result. The man has no ability to hear anyone speaking out against him - this is authoritarianism.
A lot of people did not agree with many of Kirk's takes - myself included. But I would never, ever want him to have been censored or muted. What Trump is doing is to media is literally the antithesis of what Kirk stood for.
If you think what happened is okay I am sure you would have been just fine if Obama had pulled Tucker Carlson or Dennis Miller, right?
So, what you’re saying is the right did what the left has been doing to them for a decade now? And they don’t like it? You’re saying he was cancelled for saying something? Karma is a bitch ain’t it. Kimmel deserves all of it too.
Do you think all speech on a NETWORK t.v. show - that falls under FCC purview and enforcement - is guaranteed? Such as profanity, racist comments, or "doing the Toobin"?
Its funny, in all of the reporting and acrimony and spleen-venting about this topic, nobody seems to have brought up that Jimmy Kimmel was supposed to be doing a COMEDY show. That just gets lost in the shuffle because he has been so utterly removed from comedy for years if not decades...
Smugly insulting strawmen caricatures of "Nazis" and "racists" gets laughs by letting Kimmel's audience feel superior to those they get to vicariously bully.
It's not a two-minute hate, it's 44 minutes of hate and 16 valuable minutes of advertising for anti-depressants and prescription obesity medicines.
So much of the Left is petty mean girls and beta boys virtue-signaling about how much kinder, smarter, and more sophisticated they are than those they point and laugh at.
Sounds like high school.
That’s cuz it is. It’s all they know. They’ve never been in a place where they’ve needed to know people & support them if needed.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought the same thing - we NEVER actually graduate high school. Or maybe it’s just that some of us don’t mature beyond all the superficiality and pettiness.
If you mean the left has to 'evolve' - you're correct. Their behavior over the assassination swings from juvenile to insane.
kimmel doesn’t get laughs. the laughter on his show has been pre-recorded for years.
there used to be lots of video of his audiences, show after show, sitting just stone-faced while the “laugh now” lights were flashing and the laughter sound track was playing.
oooh I wonder if we can find that on the Wayback machine. That would be hilarious to post and it would shut up all the Demwits who probably never watched his show even once...
💯
The Greg Gutfeld show is pretty mean, too. Perhaps what makes people laugh is evolving or just re-calibrating back to the schadenfreude of seeing someone else being publicly stoned, a classic entertainment throughout history?
It's not lost on anyone. I think most of us don't care. He could have been holding a live rendition of 12th Night and it would not have mattered.
Supposed to be doing a comedy show?
Isn't it entirely between him and ABC What genre of show he puts on?
That is very true. However, late night television has traditionally been a place for light comedy and fluff interviews with celebrities with a new movie or book. If he wanted to go all political, that is his right. He just doesn't have the right to do it on television.
In another point, I saw someone say today that he will probably be on YouTube soon. Then, I'm not sure how you can say that his freedom of speech has been restricted. No one stopping his speech.
True enough in your first paragraph, however tradition, statute law, and FCC regulation are three entirely different things.
And I hope that "you" in your final paragraph is meant generically, because I specifically have not claimed that Kimmel's free speech has been infringed in any way (because it hasn't)
And advertisers...whom he managed to piss off with his "comedy" routine. Anyone really think the advertisers didn't call ABC after that sh!tshow?
I had hadn't even known just how awful Kimmel was until Matt brought it up. Probably because I quit watching his show less than a minute into the first one I saw. What a tool.
"What's your favorite Jimmy Kimmel joke?"
*crickets*
Answer: Jimmy Kimmel.
Kimmel's monologue about the MAGA gang "desperately 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" must surely go down in history as the primo example that validates the conservative trope "if you want to know what the left is doing, listen to the accusations they make against conservatives."
It's actually quite funny, because Kimmel was desperately trying to characterize Robinson as a right-winger, and was lying about him in order to score political points -- which he JUST SAID was "the new low."
And thinking all the time that he’s the smartest guy in the room. That he thinks Robinson was right-wing reveal how shallow his understanding of the known facts of the case are, and from whom he gets his news. I daresay most leftists still think Robinson was a MAGA groupie (no such thing but ignorant leftists generalize anyone whom they don’t like as one). In fact, Robinson’s parents say his politics have changed a lot in the last few years but he is not registered in either party, and his attitudes are more aligned with the trans community than either political party narrative.
I have seen a photoshopped picture of Robinson with a pro-Trump t-shirt, along with the picture before it was altered. The alteration was presumably done by a dishonest leftist to provide evidence for leftists who want badly to believe it wasn’t another leftist shooter. Just like they did with Charlie Kirk, leftists take a quote out of context and by the time they’re done millions of leftists are reading and believing that Charlie Kirk thought gay people should be stoned to death. That false meme went around the world, and has been quoted by millions including journalists who don’t bother to check their sources. Why does the left intentionally do such things? To gain partisan advantage as if life was all a game.
Kimmel was paid to do a job using his employer’s resources and its name. If he wants to spread lies, let him do it on his own time using his own resources. Free speech doesn’t mean that somebody else has to provide you with a platform. Get a life.
The parents tricking their kids on Halloween was/is funny.
He tells jokes?
He identifies as a joke teller.
I have literally never watched Jimmy Kimmel, except for clips posted on social media that ended up in my feed. I've never thought he was funny, and I always thought he was a democrat hack.
Allison -- You seem to have a strong opinion of him for someone who has "literally never watched" him before.
Like I said -- I don't watch the show, but I have seen enough clips to find him not funny at all. (I may be dating myself, but I remember the good ole days of Johnny Carson and when Steve Martin was on SNL.)
I remember when Chevy Chase, John Belushi, and Dan Aykroyd were on SNL, along with Gilda Radner and Jane Curtin. Great talents, all, and able to mock politicians of all stripes. Those were the days.
I rewatched the first few seasons of the show when they were released in their entirety a few years ago.
A lot of the political humor was extremely intelligent and still stands up today.
So great. Remember Akroyd and Curtin doing “Point, Counterpoint.” (Was it Shana?) “You ignorant slut.” I am laughing at the memory. We live in a world of thin skin.
Because of the way they did it. It wasn't veiled hatred. You can tell when a comedian is an equal opportunity comedy writer. In the last 10 years, the Left has just been mean spirited. Bullying comedy is not funny except to bullies.
It just takes a few clips to see who he is
He's a hack and a hypocrite.
Ever hear of The Man Show?
Yes, I did see the Man Show. I found it relatively sophomoric, but nonetheless it was a creative, if silly, concept. You may find his talent level mediocre, judging by your "hack" description, but I feel safe to assume he has achieved levels of success by many different standards that are substantially greater than yours.
McDonald’s dwarfs any fine dining establishment in terms of success. Is that really your point?
That may be so, I have no idea, but I’m gonna guess, SyberPhule still has their dignity intact.
Haven't watched broadcast television for 15 years. It's unnecessary these days for most consumers. Last funny guy was Jay Leno.
This is the main point to me. If Disney "WOKE" up and realized that what Kimmel said was wrong and decided to suspend him fine. We all know that's NOT what happened here as Disney encourages what is being said on this show.
I have a GREAT deal of issue with the FCC getting involved on Trump's word for this. Instead of mocking more idiocy around the clueless yet "highly educated" class of our society now we give them an angle to push back with.
Trump needs to back off and let the left eat their own. My greatest fear right now is the absolute opportunist that is my governor Shapiro is just one Trump admin overreach from actually taking us to Authoritarianism.
A). You have no proof FCC got involved "on Trump's word." B) There are rules about companies who are on publicly provided airwaves and Kimmel has repeatedly violated them. C) Trump is going to Trump and most of his supporters understand that and can tell the difference between a policy statement and trolling. D) The Left is just pissed because the Right has been too polite over the years to push back. Trump is an Alpha male and decided to even the playing field. His comments are far more tame and fair than the kind of bloviating Chuckles Schumer does. (Shouting at SCOTUS that they will reap the whirlwind comes to mind.) E) We suffered years of Covidiots calling for the death penalty and prison and losing one's children over daring to question BigPharma's covid death shot. They wanted all of us who have reasons to not take the shot to lose our livelihoods, our children, our lives, and more because we dared to challenge the Overlords. We already HAVE authoritarians. And they are LIBERALS. The party that wants to be America's HOA.
can’t be funny and be a partisan shill—gotta choose one or the other. kimmel was far more invested in shilling than comedy.
I would agree. Greg Gutfeld dishes out major shillage. The show does have a sprinkling of good jokes by funny writers, like the Leftovers segment. In fairness, preaching to the choir takes less creativity and effort. If the audience eats it up, why not go there?
It's a real contest between Kimmel and Colbert as to who is the most deeply deeply obnoxious and unfunny. I would probably go with Kimmel but man is it close. I do not want the FCC involved or even to exist but I really hope the pendulum starts to swing away from giving millions of dollars to unfunny assholes to preach pablum to a tiny audience night after night on netwrok tv. And for that matter for people to think its perfectly ok to punlicly call for someone's death and report to school to teach your class the next day. It has to stop.
Be careful what you wish for: an unregulated RF spectrum would be a very bad thing.
But while there definitely is a scarcity of frequencies on which to broadcast for a given purpose, we now have additional ways of immediate information transfer that don't involve physical broadcast ing You can be glad that the FCC has gotten rid of things like the fairness doctrine as a result.
You should work on your reading comprehension.
I am in agreement that the FCC has no need to try to regulate content for political balance, but that's not what you said. Here are your exact words: " I do not want the FCC involved OR EVEN TO EXIST [emphasis added]".
I am telling you that the FCC has plenty of justification for existence completely apart from any content regulation.
True. A radio wild west would have led to massive interference and rural people not even getting radio at night. However, in 1934 the FCC gained broad powers that went beyond regulating traffic on the frequency lanes of what was then the information highway. Some of the language is downright unconstitutional.
Again there is no need for an FCC to regulate three networks out of the literal hundreds available not even including interest content.
Colbert is such a conundrum to me. He was generally funny as John Stewart's mockingly Republican sidekick. Now he's just stupid and really a **ick....
What people keep missing in the Colbert cancel decision is that it's not just his salary, but his fleet of unfunny, unknowledgeable writers that cost the network twice what they can bring in from advertising.
John Oliver?
He's bad but he's like Alister Cooke compared to those two.
I think Stuart Thompson made at least one accurate point. The people on the right will have to learn about late night bias via a person who tracts late night shows. That's because most people on the right have better things to do than watch Kibble & the rest of them; clipping toenails is an example of better time usage.
Or sleep!
That's a favorite of mine too. 🍺
I agree. I used to get beers with 2 guys who watched John Oliver and when they let it slip they watched Oliver, I kinda let them have it. That is cult level indoctrination and othering. It's disgusting.
Disney also owns Hulu.. FCC doesn’t regulate it.. if Disney Really wanted to keep Kimmel they could push his show off ABC and on Hulu.. this could be done in a day IF they wanted to
The denial of what he said is peak 1984.
Democrats: "We make the rules. And the first rule is that we are entitled to do things that others are not. And the second rule is that we can change the rules whenever we want."
BTW, that claimed asymmetry in ethics is real, including among left wing academics. They call it critical theory.
Democrats: “The Truth is whatever I want to believe”…
🎯
Amazing! So if I'm hearing this right, conservatives weren't outraged by what Kimmel had said until they found out about it. And that makes it illegitimate. Like, if it were real organic legitimate outrage, it would have emerged naturally, without anyone needing to know about the actual incident.
Come to think of it, maybe that isn't that crazy of a thought. Because most of the progressive outrage that I hear about is over things that never actually happened. So perhaps that actually is a thing after all.
A reminder to all those leftists thinking there's an equivalent in what they did with their cancel culture over this: The key fact is that freedom of speech allows you not to be arrested, imprisoned, or possibly executed. It does not guarantee you freedom from repercussions in public forums for vile drivel you exude.
Sure, but the accusation is the repercussions were government mandated loss of work. Left or right, we should all be against that.
Kimmel sucks and negative response to his bad comedy is not a freedom of speech issue, but losing his job right after the FCC chairman goes on air and public insinuates that he was going after him for his comments about Kirk is a freedom of speech issue.
Do you know the purpose and function of the FCC?
Yes -- not to be arbiters of truth.
Matt laid this out in another article, but there's strong case precedence for *not* intervening like this. Even if you disagree, this wasn't a result of formal FCC actions, but rather informal coercion by a government that holds merger approval rights for the very companies that it is coercing.
You don't have to be liberal to think that this is bad.
"The FCC prohibits broadcasting false information about a crime or a catastrophe if the broadcaster knows the information is false and will cause substantial “public harm” if aired." Setting a bunch of lunatics on the trail of MAGA people for supposedly murdering someone might fall under that.
No, it is not. Kimmel's show is carried on public airways, owned by the American public, licensed to the OVER THE AIR networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX). The license contain requirements the network must adhere to. These requirements don't apply to cable news or YouTube as they are not carried over the airways and are not regulated by the FCC.
If Trump had demanded that Morning Joe be taken off, I agree that would be 100% wrong and I'd be calling the White House.
Jimmy Kibbles violated one of the fundamental tenets of the FCC in that he did not act in the public interest. The fact that he got away with it for years doesn't mean he was not in violation. Oh, and by the way, you pretty much just identified your politics.
A law unenforced is just a suggestion.
Yes, and late night TV IS A BUSINESS. As Cuomo said, this was a business decision by ABC and Disney because it appeared Jiminy Kibble was about to make it worse. Cancellation HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH TRUMP OR THE FCC. They may have commented, but they made no declarations or policy decisions. That was on the businesses that owned that particular show. And once again we are reminded that the Left doesn't understand basic running of a business.
Like the rest, when Kimmel began taking himself seriously, it was just a matter of time. Comedians are paid to be funny. Comedy 101.
Woody Allen begs to differ…
Huh? I've always thought Woody was hilarious.
I’m beyond irate about Kirk’s assassination. But construction as the 4th stage of grief is HILARIOUS!
I agree the main part of the joke was funny. It wasn't necessary to say the MAGA stuff to pull it off.
Proof the Democrats are hypocritical assholes. A review of any single man show should have cancelled him for life. But the Dems love him.
Do you mean not everyone loves "Girls on Trampolines?"
I would watch a show that was nothing but a half hour of girls on trampolines, as long as Kimmel wasn't anywhere near it.
Actually, he was funny on that show. and "The Man Show Boy" was hilarious.
Colbert was hilarious on the "Colbert Report," too. Ironic that turning into the real Steven Colbert was the biggest downgrade in late-night history.
100%. Colbert Report was top tier satire for its day. Great writing and delivery. To realize the real person behind the character was such an indoctrinated imbecile was a shocking letdown.
What about his skits...in blackface?
Like Troodo of Canada?
MAGA talking points! He was playing John Finley Horton.
Exactly.
And no one cares he's gone other than Dims.
So just sit back and laugh.
Babylon Bee nailed it: https://babylonbee.com/news/people-okay-with-murder-outraged-by-tv-show-cancellation
Spot on.
Fuck all Dims. They're filth.
Kimmel has the right to do this. As does Colbert, Stewart and every other other TV comedian.
Charlie Kirk had the right to do this, too.
Pulling his show is massive threat to the first amendment. Pretending to be all butt hurt because comics make jokes about conservatives is an incredibly weak argument.
Meanwhile a Fox News anchor, Brian Kilmeade said homeless people should be killed and he was not fired. Where's your outrageous over that?
I disagree re: the 1A argument. However - That Matt and most others, including Greg, have entirely ignored the inconvenient truth of the Fox and Friends real time endorsement of exterminating genetically/mentally disadvantaged Americans in 2025 speaks volumes. https://x.com/AFpost/status/1966965977381564557
The best part is where the other two "patriotic, all-lives matter Americans" just nod when Kilmeade advocates the executions of the imperfect citizen specimens - an episode from our time which perfectly encapsulates the actual Holocaust. That we don't notice and don't care is the real horror. Yawn.
But hey, let's talk about Jimmy!
Wild that neither of his co hosts called him out about it. He was smart enough to get a quick apology out for it after the blowback started to hit.
Sure kimmel can do it on his you tube channel not a network
That's not a real argument. He hosts a late night TV show.
not anymore
Where was your outrage when Roseanne got pulled from her show over a tweet?
We're not playing by one rule for you and a different rule for us. That isn't being principled, it's just being stupid. Would I prefer to live in a world where no one gets canceled for political speech? Absolutely. But that isn't a live option anymore, and hasn't been for about ten years now. Surely you've noticed.
If the FCC had actually taken action against ABC for its political content, you'd have a stronger case, but that's not what happened. Carr shooting his mouth off didn't matter at all. ABC faced a revolt from their affiliates, asked Kimmel to apologize, he refused and said he was going to double down.
I barely remember that, as I was never really a fan. However, I don't agree with it, so don't assume otherwise.
What happened is that the current administration does not want anyone speaking out against it. Trump has said so multiple times on camera, go look it up. He's sued CBS and the Des Monies register was sued because he did not like a poll result. The man has no ability to hear anyone speaking out against him - this is authoritarianism.
A lot of people did not agree with many of Kirk's takes - myself included. But I would never, ever want him to have been censored or muted. What Trump is doing is to media is literally the antithesis of what Kirk stood for.
If you think what happened is okay I am sure you would have been just fine if Obama had pulled Tucker Carlson or Dennis Miller, right?
So, what you’re saying is the right did what the left has been doing to them for a decade now? And they don’t like it? You’re saying he was cancelled for saying something? Karma is a bitch ain’t it. Kimmel deserves all of it too.
It's so much fun to watch people clap as the first amendment gets dismantled
If you think this is a first amendment issue I suggest you follow the money first.
Couldn't it be both? I've already read the background on the merger issue. I know that's part of it.
Do you think all speech on a NETWORK t.v. show - that falls under FCC purview and enforcement - is guaranteed? Such as profanity, racist comments, or "doing the Toobin"?
Kimmel did none of those things
Sinclair said if Kimmel apologized on air they’d pull their ban and let him back on their regional airwaves. That was never going to happen so…