In my opinion, what happened to Jimmy Kimmel with him being taken off the air for his comments surrounding Charlie Kirk in his opening monologue is alarming because it will suppress comments of other late night and daytime talk show hosts and comedians in so far as pressuring them not to say anything that is or can be construed as critical of the current Presidential administration because there may be severe personal and business repercussions for doing so. This is bad for America's Democracy because if suppression of political speech which this is in at least a broad sense is allowed to exist in one sector of society it will have a contagion to suppress political speech in other settings and this will result in our government not being as good as it should because avoiding legitimate criticism motivates people in government to act in a good and best manner. This action against Jimmy Kimmel is simply an intolerable assault on our Democracy and our way-of-life!
What Jimmy said in his monologue was not encouraging or supporting political violence they were attempts to find humor in the situation, one may find it tasteless and not funny but nevertheless it was speech whose only purpose was to try to be humorous! Supporters of this outcome say there was nothing wrong here Jimmy's employer ABC is free to fire and hire who they want and they chose to fire Jimmy. No No No this is not the whole story government action inappropriately got involved in this situation. Brendan Carr, Chairman of the FCC which regulates TV stations, publicly essentially said that the TV station needs to act in this situation and discipline Jimmy Kimmel or the FCC will commence an investigation and bring sanctions against this late-night talk show employer over this matter. In essence what the chairman of the FCC did in this instance is that it suppressed political speech on this late-night talk show program and this is a dangerous precedent that should not be able to stand!
Before suggesting what America should do to stop this assault on political speech it really bears mentioning what is going on here. President Donald Trump our current President has a major flaw in his character in so far as he uses the levers of power of the Presidency to penalize people and organizations he doesn't like.
In the instant case he is using the FCC to penalize a late-night comedian that criticized him and got under his skin. This is just speculation on this writer's part gleaned from videos of Trump and Charlie Kirk together but I think Jimmy hit a nerve implying President Trump wasn't too affected by Charlie's assassination because I don't think President Trump really liked Charlie the President doesn't like people to tell him what to do and Charlie because of his popularity amongst America's youth could to a large degree tell the President he shouldn't do this or should do that and Charlie was ultra-Conservative, deep down President Trump isn't an ultra-Conservative he is a real estate and marketing mogul Playboy from New York!
This definitely won't happen because President Trump is President but what America should do is pass a law that says any radio, TV and video outlet that receives a fine and/or sanctions by the FCC that penalizes an entity over political speech that entity has the right to sue the FCC to block it and whether or not it goes to court or is settled before hand the suing organization will get all its legal and defense fees paid for if the case goes to trial and the plaintiff prevails the entity will get ten million dollars or three time the financial penalty the FCC was seeking up to fifty million dollars. The law should also explicitly say that grounds for impeachment for the Chairperson and any member of the Commission of the FCC are if they support an investigation and/or vote for penalties against a business that is about suppressing political speech. What the American people should do to fight this suppression of political speech is call for the removal from their jobs of three people in authority in ABC and Nextstar that are highly culpable in this hit job on Jimmy. These three cowards should not only lose their jobs but should be blackballed in corporate America the message should be sent to executives in the media industry that you have a civil duty to stand up for free speech especially political speech and there will be grave consequences to caving to bullies in Washington D.C.!
Republicans in Congress are cowards and won't stand up to President Trump and call for this type of legislation. But Democrats should call for this legislation and commit that once they get control of Congress and the White House they will enact it so to stop any future President that wants to be an authoritarian President like Donald Trump from being able to do so! On a separate subject it has been reported in the media that the Democrats are prepared to shut down the government over the funding of the government bill if it does not contain provisions extending the enhanced health insurance premium subsidies for individual health insurance that are set to expire this year. I think this is an outstanding right move by the Democrats with the one proviso; Democrats don't make this stand on the seven week continuing resolution bill Republicans are pushing. Shutdowns are very painful for the nation let the Republicans postpone the fight for seven weeks in November of this year Americans will still be getting the enhanced premium subsidies then. It is an extremely righteous cause fighting for the enhanced premiums this affects twenty-two million Americans and if the subsidy isn't continued the average health insurance premium will be going up seventy-five percent, to be candid many of these American families just won't have the money to pay this higher health insurance bill! The political realities highly favor the Democrats goal here some Republicans have voiced support for the continuation and the closer we get to January 1, 2026 more Republicans will come aboard because that is what their constituents want!
Jimmy Kimmel's late-night television show has been taken off the air "indefinitely" after the host was criticized for comments about the motives behind the killing of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, US network ABC said Wednesday. The stunning decision to suspend one of the United States'...
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