Later, at a news conference as he visited England, Trump downplayed concerns about free speech. He said Kimmel was \u201cfired because he had bad ratings more than anything else\u201d, and added, \u201cYou can call that free speech or not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, many fellow comedians and Hollywood figures have accused ABC of caving to the Trump administration\u2019s pressure to censor any views of Kirk deemed as unacceptable by his supporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cJimmy Kimmel has been muzzled and taken off the air,\u201d comedian Marc Maron said in an Instagram video posted early Thursday morning. \u201cThis is what authoritarianism looks like right now in this country \u2026 This is government censorship.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump \u201cdidn\u2019t end the Ukraine war or solve Gaza within his first week, but he did end freedom of speech within his first year\u201d, comedian Wanda Sykes said on Instagram. \u201cHey, for those of you who pray, now\u2019s the time to do it. Love you, Jimmy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t right,\u201d actor and director Ben Stiller wrote on X.<\/p>\n
Kimmel has called Kirk\u2019s killing \u201csenseless\u201d and said he had seen \u201cextraordinarily vile responses to this from both sides of the political spectrum\u201d, including those he said were \u201ccheering\u201d Kirk\u2019s death. But the host angered some on the right in his opening monologue Monday night, when he said the \u201cMAGA gang\u201d was \u201cdesperately trying to characterise 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.<\/p>\n
He was referring to 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, the Utah man accused of shooting Kirk. Robinson grew up in a Republican household but had apparently become sympathetic to LGBTQ+ causes, according to Utah Governor Spencer Cox (R). Authorities have not announced a motive for Kirk\u2019s killing.<\/p>\n
As outrage at Kimmel\u2019s comments was building on the right, Carr, the Trump-appointed FCC chairman, threatened to target ABC if it did not punish Kimmel. \u201cWe can do this the easy way or the hard way,\u201d Carr told conservative podcast host Benny Johnson on Wednesday. \u201cThese companies can find ways to change conduct and take actions on Kimmel, or there\u2019s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hours later, Nexstar, which owns ABC stations in more than 30 markets, announced it would replace his show. Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar\u2019s broadcasting division, said in a statement that Kimmel\u2019s comments were \u201coffensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse, and we do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the local communities in which we are located\u201d.<\/p>\n
Notably, Nexstar is seeking the Trump administration\u2019s approval to acquire Tegna, another big group of US stations. The deal requires the FCC to loosen the Government\u2019s limits on broadcast station ownership.<\/p>\n
Minutes after the company criticised Kimmel, ABC said the show was being yanked nationwide.<\/p>\n
Later Wednesday evening, another big station group, Sinclair, announced it would air a one-hour special tribute to Kirk on Friday night in Kimmel\u2019s usual time slot.<\/p>\n
Sinclair issued a statement saying the late-night host\u2019s suspension \u201cis not enough\u201d and called on the network, the FCC and Kimmel to go further. It demanded Kimmel apologise to the Kirk family and make a \u201cmeaningful\u201d donation to his relatives and his organisation, Turning Point USA, the conservative youth organisation Kirk founded.<\/p>\n
Sinclair, too, has business pending before the Trump administration. It made a bid for Tegna a day before Nexstar stepped in with its bid.<\/p>\n
Kimmel\u2019s contract with ABC was set to expire next year, and there was speculation about whether it would be renewed, particularly after the announcement in July that CBS owner Paramount would cancel its top-rated late-night show, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, whose host has also feuded with Trump.<\/p>\n
The American Federation of Musicians, which represents the musicians on Kimmel\u2019s show, and the Writers Guild of America West and East, which represents its writers, expressed solidarity with Kimmel and the show\u2019s staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf free speech applied only to ideas we like, we needn\u2019t have bothered to write it into the Constitution. What we have signed on to \u2013 painful as it may be at times \u2013 is the freeing agreement to disagree,\u201d the writers guild said in a statement. \u201cShame on those in government who forget this founding truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lone Biden appointee on the three-person FCC commission, Anna Gomez, issued a strong dissent from her colleagues on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot allow an inexcusable act of political violence to be twisted into a justification for government censorship and control,\u201d Gomez said. Gomez cited ABC News reporter Matt Gutman\u2019s recent apology for his coverage of the Kirk shooting alongside the Kimmel decision as evidence of government pressure on media companies to punish speech it dislikes.<\/p>\n
Such actions, she said, \u201cput the foundation of the First Amendment in danger\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis FCC does not have the authority, the ability, or the constitutional right to police content or punish broadcasters for speech the government dislikes,\u201d Gomez added.<\/p>\n
Patrick Svitek contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor\u2019s Picks<\/a>, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week\u2019s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Later, at a news conference as he visited England, Trump downplayed concerns about free speech. He said Kimmel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[19053,74,696,1738,430,15308,5782,19765,29404,6097,156,4223,12022,29406,2454,1736,18152,29401,18153,4507,8526,111,139,69,29403,29402,29405,18938,6753,29407,12066,210,28050,6730],"class_list":["post-30468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-activist","tag-after","tag-announced","tag-campaign","tag-celebrities","tag-charlie","tag-comments","tag-conservative","tag-detractors","tag-down","tag-entertainment","tag-hollywood","tag-host","tag-indefinitely","tag-industry","tag-jimmy","tag-kimmel","tag-kimmels","tag-kirk","tag-late","tag-latenight","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-perceived","tag-rattles","tag-reverberated","tag-rightwing","tag-shut","tag-suspend","tag-suspension","tag-through","tag-thursday","tag-would"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30468","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=30468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}