{"id":13422,"date":"2025-09-18T18:47:23","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T18:47:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/kimmels-suspension-set-off-furious-debate-over-free-speech\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T18:47:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T18:47:23","slug":"kimmels-suspension-set-off-furious-debate-over-free-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/kimmels-suspension-set-off-furious-debate-over-free-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Kimmel\u2019s suspension set off furious debate over free speech"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension from the late-night airwaves has thrust lawmakers, government officials and the president to the forefront of the debate over free speech while also deepening the partisan divide amid the fallout over conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s killing.<\/p>\n

Since Disney announced Wednesday night that it would pull Kimmel’s show indefinitely over the comedian’s comments about Kirk’s slaying, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr \u2014 who last night pressured ABC and local broadcasters to “to take action” against Kimmel \u2014 on Thursday morning defended his decision and accused the late-night show host of misleading Americans; House Democratic leadership in turn called on him to resign; and President Donald Trump told reporters in the U.K. that Kimmel was fired over bad ratings.<\/p>\n

“They should have fired him a long time ago,” Trump said. “You can call that free speech or not. He was fired for lack of talent.”<\/p>\n

Even former Vice President Mike Pence weighed in during an early Thursday morning appearance on CNBC to chide Kimmel for his comments while also expressing discomfort with Carr’s pressure campaign.<\/p>\n

“The First Amendment doesn’t protect entertainers from being fired by their employers,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cI would have preferred that the FCC didn’t weigh in in the wake of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The furor over Kimmel’s comments highlights how deeply divided America has become and how somewhat insensitive or even offensive remarks by public figures \u2014 and even the general public \u2014 have become fuel for those seeking to quelch opposing views.<\/p>\n

Carr on Thursday accused Kimmel of upsetting \u201clots and lots of people\u201d and hinted at going even further though, telling CNBC \u201cwe\u2019re not done yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in the midst of a very disruptive moment right now, and I just, frankly, expect that we\u2019re going to continue to see changes in the media ecosystem,\u201d Carr said.<\/p>\n

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Thursday was among those demanding Carr resign.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t think of a greater threat to free speech than Carr in many, many years,\u201d Schumer told POLITICO<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s despicable. He\u2019s anti-American. He ought to resign, and Trump ought to fire him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump Wednesday night celebrated Kimmel\u2019s show being pulled before calling on NBC to cancel \u201cThe Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon\u201d and \u201cLate Night with Seth Meyers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former President Barack Obama on Thursday called the administration\u2019s involvement in Kimmel\u2019s cancellation \u201cdangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn\u2019t like,\u201d Obama said in a post on X<\/a> on Thursday.<\/p>\n

His comments follow remarks he made on Tuesday night during an event in Pennsylvania, where the former president called Kirk\u2019s killing \u201chorrific,\u201d<\/a> though he added that he disagreed with many of the conservative activist\u2019s statements.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can also, at the same time, say that I disagree with the idea that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a mistake,\u201d Obama said. \u201cI can say that I disagree with the suggestion that my wife or Justice Jackson does not have adequate brain processing power. I can say that I disagree that Martin Luther King was awful.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has also faced backlash from Democrats and some conservatives after Attorney General Pam Bondi proposed the idea of cracking down on \u201chate speech\u201d in the aftermath of Kirk\u2019s shooting.<\/p>\n

Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker accused the administration of trying to \u201cintimidate\u201d companies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got the Trump administration literally targeting individuals \u2014 you saw it with [Stephen] Colbert, now you\u2019re seeing it with Kimmel \u2014 anybody that\u2019s criticizing this administration,\u201d Pritzker said. \u201cThey\u2019re using the power of government to intimidate companies to fire people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back in Washington, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) said her Republican colleagues have \u201cselective outrage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRepublicans scream ‘free speech’\u2026 until the truth hurts their fragile politics,\u201d she wrote on X<\/a>. \u201cJimmy Kimmel gets suspended, but hate, lies, and conspiracy theories run free.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension from the late-night airwaves has thrust lawmakers, government officials and the president to the forefront of the debate over free speech while also deepening the partisan divide amid the fallout over conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s killing. Since Disney announced Wednesday night that it would pull Kimmel’s show indefinitely over the comedian’s comments […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13422\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}