Additionally, two late night hosts have lost their slots, and the Trump administration is expanding the previous parameters of hate speech.
I find all of this disturbing, especially as a blogger, who scrutinizes local government. More disturbing is corporate America being intimidated by the government, against their employees and talent. Expect less jokes on your late night television.
The First Amendment is absolute. It exists to protect unpopular speech, not to regulate what is considred "socially acceptable" speech. The liberal terms 'hate speech', 'racist speech', 'vulgar speech' all come under the freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment.
ReplyDeleteYou are, however, responsible for what you say and the reprocussions for it.
The first ammendment protects speech by stating the government may not infring upon it. Employers may, they can fire employees for what they say. That is a private matter between employer and employee.
DeleteThe First Amendment is NOT absolute.
DeleteThe First Amendment allows one to make statements that are foolish, factual inaccurate, misleading, even outright lies, but if you do that on company time your boss has a right to give you paid time off, even fire you.
ReplyDeleteThe First Amendment protects your right to go somewhere else and repeat your misinformation, however distasteful, bile or flat out lies. You may or may not find an employer to pay for the second act. If you are phenomenally wealthy the First Amendment protects your right to purchase your own extravagant media megaphone. The First Amendment does not guarantee that you will find sponsors willing to pay big money for your content.
Jimmy Kimmel ain’t no Lenny Bruce.
ReplyDeleteLenny Bruce was arrested for profanity. Now we have a president who uses profanity, and has comics who criticize him fired.
DeleteKimmel’s vile lie had nothing to do with Trump in the remark in question. Moving the goal posts is a cheap, desperate tactic.
DeleteThe comparison between the heroic, groundbreaking, brilliant Lenny Bruce and the corporate late night “comic’ Kimmel is certainly a joke. We’re all left waiting for the punchline.
ReplyDeleteAm I the only person in the entire know broadcast/blogasphire waiting for someone, anyone, to bring up Alan Berg?
Colbert and Kimmel were fired because their rating sucked. Colbert’s show was losing $40 million per year, and Kimmel's ratings were behind even Colbert.
ReplyDeleteKimmel’s (and ABC’s) latest issue was that his comments lost him his affiliates in middle America. They were going to unilaterally take his show off the air on their stations until Kimmel apologized for his comments about Kirk. Kimmel refused, and is now getting the result of his refusal.
That’s Kimmel’s choice. The government is not censoring him, and he is free to go say whatever he wants on other venues.
I suspect that both CBS and ABC were happy to let Trump take the blame than to take the wrath of their viewers for what is ultimately a business decision.
anonymous@6:30: I don't have your inside media knowledge, but when a president publicly states at stations that criticize him may lose their license, we have a problem.
DeleteKimmel has not been “fired”, at least not yet.
DeleteMy favorite corporate, comedic mouthpiece Colbert, is still on the job. Can we sorta, almost, kinda get the facts straight?
“We”, and the network, had a problem before the President with the impulse control issue ever opened his big mouth.
DeleteI watched Carson and Leno for years and couldn’t say with any certainty what political party they belonged to.
ReplyDeleteThey regularly made jokes (not statements) about members of both political parties, and they were actually funny.
We could use a little bit of that right now.
Was there a joke? What did I miss?
DeleteJimmy Kimmel did not have his Right to Free Speech taken away. President Trump did not fire him.
ReplyDeleteJimmy Kimmel's product has caused concern for his employer, the television network who pays him to attract viewers. His television network asked for, and was awarded a federal broadcast license by an independent agency created to control the use of our public airways. That's the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
The FCC restricts content going out to certain standards of conduct. Failure to meet those terms can result in the loss of the privilege to use our airways. The network who hired Jimmy Kimmel did NOT lose its broadcast license.
No television network can profit without viewers, and product advertisers who pay the network to reach the greatest amount of viewers. Jimmy Kimmel's employer lost faith in his ability to produce significant advertising revenue for the network.
Jimmy Kimmel's television network made the decision to temporarily step back (suspend) from Jimmy Kimmel until it determines how best to handle what he is providing to them. That ability is waning. He might no longer be worth what he's being paid. This is all a strictly business move by Jimmy Kimmel's employer.
Whether, or not, Jimmy Kimmel's show returns, his contract renewed, etc. is after his network determines the liability he presents to those who pay him. It will not be the FCC, nor Donald Trump, who terminates him.
anon@6:30 and again at 6:38: I don't want to censor comments on a post about censorship, but your revision of the situation has now been presented twice, but will not appear for a third time. The networks and affiliated stations report fear of the FCC and threats against personnel, but not low ratings.
DeleteSometimes information has to be repeated several times before those who block facts with preconceived bias have even the slightest possibility of understanding the reality of the situation.
DeleteWhy use censorship when you can simply twist the narrative?
DeleteAs a longtime active Democrat I am proud that my party has refrained from the potty mouthpiece behavior of this President.
ReplyDeleteMM - I suggest that you look up Kimmel’s ratings.
ReplyDeleteIt’s not “inside media knowledge”.
It’s simply another fact that the news sources you use choose to ignore.
Commercial television is ALL about ratings. TV, radio, etc. are in business to sell products. To succeed in that they need viewers (customers).
DeleteIt’s clear that MM is doing a version of virtue signaling to appeal to a select few in his personal life.
ReplyDeleteThe obvious concern here is the federal government’s use of its power to pressure a private corporation’s ability to conduct business simply because they do not like what they are saying about the government.
ReplyDeleteHis commenters extremely mild - he simply said the Republican Party is doing everything they can to prove the shooter was not one of them and they are using the tragedy to score political points.
7:13 - Kimmel repeated the lie that the shooter was somehow a Trump supporter.
ReplyDeleteI suppose he can say that, but a good chunk of ABC affiliates didn’t like it and were going to bail on his show. Kimmel was given the opportunity to apologize but he refused.
That left ABC/Disney in the precarious place of continuing to overpay a late night host with declining ratings to what would have been an even smaller audience, or take his show off the air. They chose the latter.
Sacking people for their opinions is nothing new for Disney/ABC. They previously fired both Gina Carano and Roseanne Barr for comments they made, with the latter being on a top-rated network show at the time.
Kimmel is not a comedian, he is a political commentator who presents his point of view using his brand of humor. In my opinion, his is the type of commentating that continues to divide our country into tribes and builds walls of hatred among brothers, sisters and friends. Both sides are driving wedges into our united states with what will be horrifying results. We need healers not haters. We will either wake up and grow up or be driven to our own destruction.
ReplyDeleteWhen I watch television, I want to relax and be entertained when I watch entertainment. I do not want to be lectured to or have to listen to politics.
DeleteDespite Trump's claims of having won the election by a landslide, the country is very much divided. Late night audience is comprised of late night people of all political persuasions. New hosts are introduced as guests, and cultivated over numerous appearances. This abrupt suspension was political. Among other factors in play, is two large ABC affiliates are looking to merge, and need FCC approval.
ReplyDeleteKimmel is a liar. His employer took issue with his lying and suspended him.
DeleteAh, Mike, so you do indeed have insight into insider corporate media affairs. Aren’t you deep?
Deleteanon@9:11: deep enough to use my name
DeleteMM @ 8:51 - You make it sound like it’s a fair process.
DeleteWhere are the conservative hosts, actors, actresses and others in the entertainment industry? Those that won’t remain quiet are routinely rooted out by those running Hollywood, and are seldom even welcomed as guests, yet alone replacements, for the liberal hosts that hold the three major late-night spots.
Jimmy Kimmel became a mouthpiece for the democrats, welcoming a majority of democrat political figures as guests on his show, and his ratings suffered accordingly. Yet that was not enough to get him off the air.
That it took insensitive comments in the wake of a political assassination for Kimmel to lose his show shouldn’t be the question. We should be asking why it took so long.
Good Lord! The very people who invented and master to a fine art "Cancel Culture" are now screaming mad that it is being applied to them? The temerity is astounding. How many people lost their jobs, positions, good reputation because they, often inadvertently, violated the newly invented speech codes of the left? The number is countless. Might as well make Democrat the definition of Hypocrisy.
ReplyDeleteCharlie Kirk and Jimmy Kimmel both had their First Amendment rights curtailed.
ReplyDeleteOn the whole the situation is equal.
You comment is disgusting! Charlie Kirk was the victim of a political assassination, he had a wife and family. He was shot in front of a horrified audience by a man who murdered him merely because he hated him and his message. Kimmel was fired by his employer, Disney, by all accounts one of the Wokest corporations in the world. See the difference. By the way, Kimmel still has his Free Speech rights. Kirk is dead. Naturally, you didn't even have the guts to sign your name to your very ugly message. No surprise there.
DeleteKeep those goal posts moving Mike.
ReplyDeleteSo, here we are . . .
ReplyDeleteTelevision stations are fully free to continue offering the Jimmy Kimmel Show. As they should be.
(I never watched it, anyway)
I do believe it was based on a business decision. Just as one TV commentator stated it was a business decision akin to the band leader in The Godfather releasing Johnny Fontaine from his contract. And I do find it hysterical that the party that was decrying how the left was absurd in its use of "cancel culture" has no problem when it is enacted by our actual government. Fascism 101: shut down those critics.
ReplyDelete9:44 - Thank you for admitting that the left has been using “fascism” for decades.
DeleteKimmel and the corporate “comedian” late night crowd have been mocking The Orange One for years and years. The lie about the Kirk murder is an entirely different thing, obviously.
DeleteI should point out, the government did not, and I expect, will not be the one who will decide the future of Jimmy Kimmel's employment contract.
DeleteTotal fascism will not come to America for at least the next 3 1/2 years. After that, who knows?
DeleteSo you must think Colbert and Kimmel are Funny? Gimme a break.
DeleteI'll miss the very funny SNL political skits that are now bound to be eliminated. Its going to be like Cuba and N. Korea in this country soon. Can't wait to see Trump's image on banners, murals and billboards all across America.
ReplyDeleteAre you referring to Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Roseanne Barr, etc or the more recent comedians Colbert, Meyers and Kimmel ?
DeleteWho need SLN when you have CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, and NPR?
DeleteSNL hasn’t been funny since long before you were born.
Delete10:08
DeleteThere was nothing funny about blatant lies regarding the murder of Charlie Kirk.
The commentors who fear the current administration would be able to pressure the networks to say only nice things about them are living in a state of self delusion. They can't and the networks won't. This said, at the same time, they conveniently forget that they tried to shut down FOXNEWS repeatedly through various lawsuits and highly successful commercial boycotts. They also forget how Biden's FBI, amongst many other other lies, told media outlets the Hunter Biden laptop story was to be reported as Russian. Don't get me started on covid. The Left also took down Parler, the conservative social media alternative to Twitter by first, slandering them, then blocking them from app stores. They launched smear campaigns and filed civil false charges against popular conservative radio and TV hosts... The left has been very successful in all this until recently. So of course they are now acting like victims and screaming Fascists! Fascist! Fascist! We are to forget all they, themselves have done and be as outraged as them, all because a comedian who, in their minds, hated all the right people was fired by his Woke employer. What are we to make of such people?
DeleteWhat to make of these radical Democrats is this. They are liars and hypocrites who when challenged to defend their views and actions come to realize they can't. They lack the facts. So they change the subject, blame their opponent of doing what they are actually doing themselves.
DeleteThe Radical Democrats will try to intimidate their opponent by shouting, calling names, claim racism, etc. If none of that works some will resort to vandalism and even violence.
Going on for years, and getting worse.
Jimmy Kimmel is the woke Lenny Bruce.
ReplyDeleteTrump trolls the network media - MOLOVINSKY on ALLENTOWN bites.
ReplyDeleteVolokh has it right- if the government coerced ABC to take this action then the coercion is unconstitutional, based on last year's NRA case. https://reason.com/volokh/2025/09/18/jimmy-kimmel-the-nra-and-the-first-amendment/
ReplyDeleteNo doubt another lawsuit will be filed by the Lawfare crowd. We'll find out then if there was any substantive coercion. I highly doubt it.
Delete@12:13 PM
DeleteI blame the Russians.