celebrated ABC\u2019s move<\/a> on the social media site Truth Social, writing: \u201cCongratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done.\u201d<\/p>\nEarlier in the day, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr called Kimmel\u2019s comments \u201ctruly sick\u201d and said his agency has a strong case for holding Kimmel, ABC and network parent Walt Disney Co. accountable for spreading misinformation. He said the comic appeared to be making an intentional effort to mislead the public that Kirk\u2019s assassin was a right-wing Trump supporter.<\/p>\n
During his Monday evening monologue, Kimmel suggested Kirk\u2019s alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, might have been a pro-Trump Republican. \u201cThe MAGA Gang (is) 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,\u201d Kimmel said. \u201cIn between the finger-pointing, there was grieving.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney,\u201d Carr said on the Benny Johnson podcast. \u201cWe can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Authorities say the 22-year-old grew up in a conservative household in southern Utah but was enmeshed in \u201cleftist ideology.\u201d His parents told investigators he had turned politically left and pro-LGBTQ rights in the last year. His voter status is inactive, meaning he did not vote in two regular general elections. He told his transgender partner that he targeted Kirk because he \u201chad enough of his hatred.\u201d<\/p>\n
The business landscape around late-night television<\/p>\n
Both Disney and Nexstar have FCC business ahead of them. Disney is seeking regulatory approval for ESPN\u2019s acquisition of the NFL Network and Nexstar needs the Trump administration go-ahead to complete its $6.2 billion purchase of broadcast rival Tegna.<\/p>\n
For both companies, reinstating Kimmel after a suspension would risk the ire of Trump, who has already claimed that the show has been canceled.<\/p>\n
While CBS said this past summer that it was canceling Colbert\u2019s show next May for financial reasons, some critics have wondered if his stance on Trump played a role. Both Colbert and Kimmel have made the president the frequent target of his jokes. Soon after the Colbert cancellation, the FCC approved CBS parent company Paramount\u2019s long-pending deal with Skydance.<\/p>\n
Trump similarly celebrated Colbert\u2019s impending exit. \u201cI absolutely love that Colbert got fired,\u201d Trump said then. \u201cHis talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next.\u201d<\/p>\n
Within the past year, both Disney and CBS parent Paramount chose to settle lawsuits brought by Trump against their news divisions rather than fight it out in court.<\/p>\n
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez criticized the administration for \u201cusing the weight of government power to suppress lawful expression\u201d in a post on X.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother media outlet withered under government pressure, ensuring that the administration will continue to extort and exact retribution on broadcasters and publishers who criticize it,\u201d said Ari Cohn, lead counsel for tech policy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. \u201cWe cannot be a country where late-night talk show hosts serve at the pleasure of the president.\u201d<\/p>\n
The scene outside Kimmel\u2019s studio after show was suspended<\/p>\n
Kimmel departed the Hollywood theater where his show is taped about three hours after ABC\u2019s decision. He was seen wearing a black hat, backpack and plaid shirt and kept his head down as he entered a waiting vehicle.<\/p>\n
An audience was lined up outside the theater where \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d tapes when they were told Wednesday\u2019s show was canceled.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were just about to walk in \u2014 interestingly enough, they waited to pull the plug on this right as the studio audience was about to walk in,\u201d Tommy Williams, a would-be audience member from Jacksonville, Florida, told The Associated Press outside the theater. \u201cThey didn\u2019t tell us what had happened. They just said that the show was canceled.\u201d<\/p>\n
More of what Kimmel said on his show<\/p>\n
Kimmel said that Trump\u2019s response to Kirk\u2019s death \u201cis not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend. This is how a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish, OK?\u201d He also said that FBI chief Kash Patel has handled the investigation into the killing \u201clike a kid who didn\u2019t read the book, BSing his way through an oral report.\u201d<\/p>\n
He returned to the topic on Tuesday night, mocking Vice President JD Vance\u2019s performance as guest host for Kirk\u2019s podcast.<\/p>\n
He said Trump was \u201cfanning the flames\u201d by attacking people on the left. \u201cWhich is it, are they a bunch of sissy pickleball players because they\u2019re too scared to be hit by tennis balls, or a well-organized deadly team of commandos, because they can\u2019t be both of those things.\u201d<\/p>\n
The move comes as the president, his administration and political party have stepped up their effort to police speech about Kirk\u2019s death. Vance earlier this week urged Americans to turn in fellow citizens who mocked the assassination. It is also the latest effort by the administration to use its power to lean on the media. Carr has launched investigations of outlets that have angered Trump and the president has sued numerous media organizations for negative coverage.<\/p>\n
Associated Press journalists Liam McEwan and Jaimie Ding in Los Angeles and Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed reporting.<\/p>\n
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\n Donate now<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s late-night show indefinitely beginning Wednesday after comments that he made…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-30016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}