First Amendment Strike Force – ABC NETWORK
The people who love censorship are sure upset.
So, the unavoidable news is that Jimmy Kimmel has, in the meantime, at least, been taken off the air. This springs from comments he made this week about Charlie Kirk actually being killed by a member of MAGA, and the accusations are flying.
The move by the network was provoked by a revolt against Kimmel by two affiliate corporations, Sinclair and Nexstar, each owning numerous local stations across the country and pledging to preempt his show.
The charge is being made that Brendan Carr, head of the FCC, had pressured ABC, or leveraged these affiliate companies, to take the action. This is so far unproven, but the big tell is that after years of enduring Joe Biden's efforts at silencing critics – from compelling social media to forming his own disinformation agency – hearing these complaints about state censorship is a bit hard to take.
People Who Want 'Misinformation' Regulated Are Mad Jimmy Kimmel Got Pulled Over Misinformationhttps://t.co/0zL1mYTBDr
— RedState (@RedState) September 18, 2025
Stealth Story Evolution – CNN
Recommended
How are you upset about this, Brian?!
One of the most intolerable voices lodging a complaint about the Jimmy Kimmel action is Brian Stelter. This is because the CNN media maven has been, bizarrely enough, one of the proponents of silencing voices in the media.
It was a few years back, during his initial run with the network, when Stelter was promoting the idea that Fox News should be stripped from the cable news channel packages. His justification was that, in his estimation, Fox delivered misinformation, and this was a danger to the airwaves or such.
Now, he is deeply bothered that a comedian is being punished for delivering…misinformation.
Brian, your concern about this is completely hilarious, given you have long championed to have silenced those delivering misinformation.
— Brad Slager: CNN+ Lifetime Subscriber (@MartiniShark) September 18, 2025
You lobbied to have an entire news network stripped from cable providers.
Kimmel delivered misinformation - you should be applauding. https://t.co/Oe2SlG8Ins pic.twitter.com/E3WxJZiH9s
Pathological Media Amnesia – MSNBC
Guess he forgot advocating for this very thing.
Chris Hayes is the next on the list of those confounded by their own past comments. As he was carping about the Kimmel potential firing, he seemed to be oblivious to the time he was braying about Tucker Carlson being fired, for the very same thing – things he said on the air that some did not like.
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes on Kimmel getting fired: This renders the First Amendment meaningless.
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) September 18, 2025
Chris Hayes on Tucker getting fired: He believed he could say anything no matter how disgusting and get away with it. Over time, that’s not going to work out well for you. pic.twitter.com/KOdROGvseE
Both Kinds of Standards – THE NEW YORK TIMES
Same network, same action, and even the same pundit – but the opposite reaction.
Leave it to David French to come out and complain acidly about the Kimmel cancellation and end up contradicting himself.
Seems that some time ago, the same network, ABC, canceled one of its stars, Roseanne Barr, over allegedly offensive comments she made, and there was David, gleefully commenting on what he saw as a justified firing.
The main difference was that Roseanne was dismissed for things she posted online, not spoken on the air at the network.
Yep🙄 pic.twitter.com/n9yLgPoWEz
— B (@Allin4Freedom) September 18, 2025
Gilded Reframe – THE BULWARK
The problem with “clown nose on” is that he needed to be playing the clown.
The geniuses at The Bulwark were attempting to recalibrate what Jimmy Kimmel was saying to condemn the move to silence him, and they fell back on the tired claim that he is being fired for telling a joke. The problem is that they are referring to a portion of Kimmel’s Monday monologue when he was clearly not telling a joke but delivering one of his patented hectoring monologues.
Here is all you need to see: If Kimmel claiming that the Charlie Kirk killer was a member of MAGA was a joke, please point out for us the punchline in his delivery. If you cannot do that, then guess what…?
Jimmy Kimmel wasn't being totally factually inaccurate, but more to he point, *he was telling a joke.* Censorship of comedians is pretty textbook authoritarian behavior.@Timodc and @samstein: pic.twitter.com/TbVWAo5pL9
— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) September 18, 2025