{"id":31518,"date":"2025-09-22T19:24:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T19:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/31518\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T19:24:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T19:24:07","slug":"howard-stern-backs-jimmy-kimmel-calls-abc-suspension-really-dumb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/31518\/","title":{"rendered":"Howard Stern Backs Jimmy Kimmel, Calls ABC Suspension ‘Really Dumb’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tHoward Stern<\/a> called ABC\u2019s decision<\/a> to suspend Jimmy Kimmel<\/a> \u201creally dumb and fucking horrible,\u201d and said he\u2019s cancelling his Disney+ subscription in protest.<\/p>\n

\n\tStern, who was off last week, addressed the still-simmering controversy<\/a> when he returned to his SiriusXM show Monday, Sept. 22, saying, \u201cWhen the government says, \u2018I\u2019m not pleased with you, so we\u2019re going to orchestrate a way to silence you,\u2019 it\u2019s the wrong direction for our country. It Isn\u2019t good\u201d (via Billboard<\/a> and USA Today<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\n\tJimmy Kimmel<\/a> Live is still off the air after being pulled \u201cindefinitely\u201d last Wednesday following an uproar from conservatives over a joke Kimmel made about the suspect accused of killing Charlie Kirk. Trump\u2019s Federal Communications Commission chairman, Brendan Carr, had called on licensed broadcasters to stop airing the show, and not long after, Nexstar and Sinclair \u2014 which own myriad ABC<\/a> affiliates around the country \u2014 announced that they would preempt his program. ABC made its decision to pull the show soon after.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou can\u2019t support this kind of a move,\u201d Stern said of Kimmel\u2019s suspension. \u201cI don\u2019t care whether you like Jimmy or not. It\u2019s about freedom of speech. If ABC wanted to fire Jimmy because they didn\u2019t like him, or he had low ratings \u2014 they didn\u2019t want to fire him. They\u2019re being pressured by the United States government. We can\u2019t have that, not if we\u2019re going to have a democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tStern said the situation was especially \u201cpainful\u201d because he\u2019s a longtime friend of Kimmel and his wife, Molly McNearney. \u201cI believe Jimmy is such a big talent, and quite frankly, so is his wife,\u201d Stern said. \u201cThey\u2019re two of the funniest people I have ever met.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe host also noted his own battles with the FCC during the early Nineties. At that time, the agency went after Stern over material they deemed indecent, as opposed to anything overtly political, though there are some echoes with the current situation. For instance, the FCC not only fined Stern\u2019s former parent company, Infinity Broadcasting, millions over the content of his shows, but threatened to revoke its broadcasting license, and even held up its acquisition<\/a> of three radio stations. (The sale ultimately went through.) Nexstar, the first company to say it would preempt Kimmel, is currently seeking to pull off a $6.2 billion merger with Tegna, which will require the FCC\u2019s approval.<\/p>\n

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\n\tStern went on to criticize ABC, universities, and other companies that have \u201call bent the knee\u201d to Trump. \u201cThe basis of this country is the government doesn\u2019t tell you what to say,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cSomeone\u2019s got to stand up and be fucking saying, \u2018Hey, enough, we\u2019re not gonna bow.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tKimmel has received support from an array of friends and peers, including his fellow<\/a> late-night hosts<\/a>, both<\/a> past and<\/a> present<\/a>. In an op-ed for Rolling Stone, comedian Billy Eichner<\/a> wrote, \u201cJimmy Kimmel\u2018s suspension under these circumstances is a fundamental attack on each individual American, regardless of party affiliation, regardless of whether or not you even vote. It affects every single American\u2019s ability to lead the life they want to lead, to think whatever they want to think. I truly believe it is that fundamental. That might sound hyperbolic to some people, but I don\u2019t think it is.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Howard Stern called ABC\u2019s decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel \u201creally dumb and fucking horrible,\u201d and said he\u2019s cancelling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[10046,54,146,26818,85,46,4176,4177,411],"class_list":{"0":"post-31518","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-abc","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-howard-stern","12":"tag-il","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-jimmy-kimmel","15":"tag-jimmy-kimmel-live","16":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}