Just a few days ago, the bright and joyful world of late night American television suffered an unspeakable tragedy. After a historic run that I am sure few people will look back on with fond memories, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” has been suspended indefinitely from ABC’s network.
Kimmel’s cancellation came after he made disdainful remarks on his show about President Trump’s response to a reporter’s question about his emotional state following the shooting of Charlie Kirk. The late night host said that President Trump’s response was equivalent to “how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish”. He further insinuated that Kirk’s shooter was in fact a Right-wing Trump supporter, claiming: “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately 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”.
I must admit that the news of his indefinite removal from live TV was uplifting to me. Kimmel is not simply unfunny – he is, and has been for many years now, anti-funny. However, I have some concern over the motivation behind his firing.
It has been reported that Disney and its subsidiary ABC had come under fire from the FCC (Federal Communications Commission), which might have prompted them to give Kimmel the axe.
Let us be perfectly clear: it is perfectly acceptable, and in my opinion commendable, for the public to voice its disgust or intolerance for people or ideas being given airtime. With the dawn of the internet, anyone can say whatever they want whenever they want to, but there is still a difference between posting divisive tweets and shamelessly publishing your unwanted political opinions on live television. When someone like Jimmy Kimmel is hired to host a late night talk/comedy show, he should do what the job entails: get other interesting people to talk, and crack the occasional joke. That is all that is asked, and that is all he or anyone in his position should do.
The issue is that Kimmel – and many like him in the bleak world of American late night TV – seem to have forgotten the job description, and have instead used their shows over the past ten years or so to mock, berate, and rave against their political adversaries. The like of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have done nothing other than constantly criticise President Trump for years, despite the fact that the divide in support for President Trump has been roughly 50-50 in the US for a long time now.
Kimmel has arguably been responsible for the worst of this, utilising his platform to call the US President “callous, racist, sexist, and most of all… stupid”. Strange for him to call a man callous, when we can see from the above quotes – in which he compares the assassination of a 31-year-old father and husband to the death of a goldfish – that Kimmel himself is hardly a paragon of compassion. As for calling President Trump a racist, the irony is that Kimmel himself performed several blackface sketches in his early career in which he impersonated Snoop Dogg, Oprah Winfrey, and Karl Malone. Regarding the “sexist” label, just take a short look at this clip of Kimmel from his earlier years.
This is all to say that Kimmel has been a hypocritical and hyper-political trainwreck for a long time now, and his show had it coming. I would be perfectly happy to hear that ABC has cancelled his show as a result of backlash from the general public or falling viewership. However, the suggestion going around is that the media company was put under pressure by the FCC to remove Kimmel because of his disparaging remarks against President Trump and the conservative movement in general.
The fact that Nexstar Media (an ABC affiliate owner) is also currently trying to push a multi-billion-dollar merger through the FCC thickens the plot. Many suggest that Kimmel was fired to placate the FCC and allow Nexstar to complete its deal. On top of this, FCC Chair Brendan Carr suggested a review of the broadcasting licences of TV networks may become necessary in similar situations.
The Right has been condemning cancel-culture for some time now, and I believe that, generally speaking, they are right to do so. A person should not be cancelled for banal or even divisive comments, as long as they are made within reason, and most importantly in an appropriate situation. Kimmel never chose an appropriate context in which to push his views. If he wanted to voice his dissatisfaction on X, that would be one thing. However, a late-night talk-show on the public airways is not the proper venue for repeated Trump-related rants. This is meant to be a comedy show, not a political podcast. Kimmel deserved to be cancelled, but by the public.
It cannot be stated for certain that Kimmel’s removal came as a result of ABC’s merger deal, but the possibility cannot be ruled out. Therefore, it should be made perfectly clear that, while it is acceptable to use social leverage to influence ABC or any company like it, the government should not take a hand unless something specifically illegal has been done. Otherwise, it is merely the kind of assault on free speech that the Right has complained about for so long.
Being insensitive and generally unamusing is not a government concern, and should not be handled as one. I won’t miss Jimmy Kimmel – I suspect few will – but I hope that the conservative movement will not make the mistake of stooping to the level of the Left’s cancellation.
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Patrick Vincent writes from Dublin