By Dawn Chmielewski and Jonathan Allen
(Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday celebrated the suspension of talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel from the airwaves, inflaming a debate over whether Trump and Republicans are infringing free speech as they sought to punish some critics of murdered right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
Trump, speaking during a state visit to Britain, said Kimmel had been punished for “saying horrible things” about Kirk, a close political ally of the president who is credited with building support for Trump among young conservative voters. The broadcaster ABC announced on Wednesday evening that it was yanking “Jimmy Kimmel Live” indefinitely.
Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has increasingly sought to use his office and the courts to attack critical speech against him that he considers to be defamatory or false.
Kimmel’s suspension came after at least two major owners of local TV stations had said they would replace the celebrity-filled late-night show on their airwaves, and the nation’s top communications regulator threatened to investigate Kimmel’s commentary about Kirk.
Kimmel, a comedian who frequently lampoons Trump, said during his nine-minute opening monologue on Monday that allies of Kirk were using his assassination last week to “score political points”. Kirk, 31, was shot onstage as he debated students at a university in Utah on Sept. 10, an event organized by his student political advocacy group, Turning Point USA.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and do everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said. MAGA is an abbreviation for Trump’s slogan: Make America Great Again.
Kimmel also mocked Trump’s responses to Kirk’s death: “This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend. This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish.”
Trump said at a press conference on Thursday that Kimmel was not talented, had bad ratings, and “said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk.”
“So, you know, you can call that free speech or not,” Trump said as he stood alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “He was fired for lack of talent.” ABC has not said that it has fired Kimmel, who did not respond to a request for comment.
In the week since Kirk’s murder, Kimmel is the most famous American to face professional blowback for making comments seen by conservatives as speaking ill of Kirk, alongside media figures, academic workers, teachers and corporate employees.
A 22-year-old technical college student and videogame-enthusiast from Utah was charged with Kirk’s murder on Tuesday.
Prominent Democrats said Trump and his Republican Party were mounting an assault on free speech rights guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. Republicans have said they are fighting against “hate speech” that can lead to violence.
Former U.S. President Barack Obama, who was succeeded by Trump in 2017, said media companies must not capitulate to government coercion in violation of the free-speech rights of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.
“After 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’t like,” Obama said in a statement.
Writers’ and actors’ labor unions said the move amounted to an attack on the First Amendment and the right to disagree.
“Shame on those in government who forget this founding truth,” the Writers Guild of America said in a statement. “As for our employers, our words have made you rich. Silencing us impoverishes the whole world.”
FREE SPEECH, PUBLIC INTEREST
Kirk’s death spurred an outpouring of grief among fans and some critics alike, who saw him as a staunch advocate for public debate and conservative values. Others have derided Kirk’s support for right-wing politics and Christian nationalism and derogatory comments he has made about immigrants, Black people, leftists and transgender people.
Long before Kirk’s murder, Trump has repeatedly threatened to pull licenses from television stations and has pressured broadcasters to stop airing content he finds objectionable. He has also trained his ire on print media with the filing of a $15 billion defamation lawsuit against the New York Times.
Hours before Kimmel’s suspension, Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, had urged local broadcasters to stop airing the show.
ABC, owned by Walt Disney, pulled the show after Nexstar, which owns 32 ABC local TV affiliates, said it would stop airing the show following Kimmel’s monologue. Sinclair Broadcast Group, another major owner of local TV stations, also issued a statement that it was suspending broadcasts of the show until Kimmel apologizes to the Kirk family.
Shares of Disney traded down nearly 1% after the market opened on Thursday, suggesting investors did not think the Kimmel news would damage the company’s financial prospects.
“This is a very significant moment, because local broadcasters are now pushing back on national programmers for the first time that I can think of in modern history,” Carr, the FCC chairman, said in an interview with CNBC. He said the FCC would defend the principle that licensed broadcasters must act in the “public interest.”
It is unclear what legal remedies Kimmel might pursue. He could sue ABC and the FCC for violating his constitutional right to free speech, but would likely face a high bar in proving those claims. The U.S. Constitution protects speech, including what is sometimes called “hate speech,” but only against actions or “tangible” coercion by the government, according to U.S. Supreme Court precedent.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who was friends with Kirk, weighed in on Kimmel’s suspension on social media in what appeared to be a Trump-world in-joke about the unusual number of different Trump administration job titles held by Secretary of State Marco Rubio: “Everyone please congratulate @marcorubio, the new host of ABC’s late night show!”
(Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles and Jonathan Allen in New York; Additional reporting by Steve Holland in Chequers, England, Dave Shepardson and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington and Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; writing by David Gaffen and Jonathan Allen; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Alistair Bell)
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Reuters news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.