Former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann ignited backlash on social media over his response to Jimmy Kimmel’s show getting pulled off air over remarks he made about the suspect accused of murdering Charlie Kirk.
On Monday's broadcast, Kimmel said “the MAGA gang (is) desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
“In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving,” he added.
[Criticism of those remarks] crescendoed on Wednesday when Brendan Carr, the F.C.C.’s outspoken chair, said on a podcast that Kimmel’s remarks were part of a “concerted effort to lie to the American people” — and that his agency was “going to have remedies that we can look at.”
Then Nexstar and Sinclair, two big owners of local TV stations, said they would suspend “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (Of note: Nexstar is seeking to buy a rival, Tegna, for $6.2 billion, a deal that needs F.C.C. approval; Sinclair is known for its conservative leaning.)
The decision to take Kimmel off the air came from the top at Disney. Bob Iger, the company’s C.E.O., and Dana Walden, its television chief, made the call, according to The Times. Disney’s relations with important affiliate owners were reportedly a factor: The Wall Street Journal adds that Nexstar’s announcement weighed on executives’ deliberations. (NYT)
Responding to Sinclair's statement about their decision on X, Olbermann told them to "Burn in hell...Alongside Charlie Kirk."
Burn in hell, Sinclair.
— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) September 18, 2025
Alongside Charlie Kirk. https://t.co/VjRfmUKXXK
While most of the responses include language not appropriate for these pages, one of the more popular (and polite) ones reminded Mr. Olbermann why this is not a cancellation similar to those in recent years.
Recommended
Hello Mr. Olbermann,
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) September 18, 2025
This is going to be a different "Hello" than usual.
I cannot bring myself to do a snarky post, not when you have revealed yourself to have so much hatred in your heart.
Let me try and explain to you in a way that you can accept this, if there is any…
[...] Let me try and explain to you in a way that you can accept this, if there is any room in your heart for openness.
I accepted Jesus Christ right before COVID-19 happened. I was a workaholic in Big Tech, a politically correct industry. And I knew enough about Christianity to know that its Great Commission would come to a head with my identity as a software executive pretty quickly.
I had a dream -- which I've described elsewhere -- which cemented my decision to evangelize no matter the cost.
By 2020, we were getting fired everywhere -- not for, but for basic things such as accidentally making an OK sign or misgendering someone. We had to stop attending churches in the name of spreading COVID-19.
We had to live in fear and terror for years as the country spiraled into riots, censorship, and repression, which culminated in 2022 when the President of the United States told the nation that Trump supporters were the biggest threat to the Republic.
Thankfully, the Republicans flipped the House a couple of months later and this was all stopped. But the memory is still seared in our minds. We know the darkness that is lurking in the hearts of our fellow countrymen, even as we love them.
Simply put: we think you will snitch on us and jail us on a dime because you already have proven ourselves now.
The 2024 election gave us a bit of reprieve, hope that our country had gone back to what it was supposed to be: everyone peacefully co-existing.
But ... here's what you don't grasp.
Charlie Kirk was our lamb.
He built an entire career on talking to college students, peacefully. On preventing nonviolence. And on engaging others in constructive dialogue.
For that, he got the most gruesome death possible.
And we watched masses of Democrats dance gleefully on his grave. And the media gaslight us into thinking that it's our fault somehow that he died. In short, pulling all the same tricks we saw which oppressed us in 2020.
He was the best of us. What does that say about the rest of us?
Our Takeaway: You Want Us To Die.
At some point, we have to draw a line.
We aren't cancelling you for the same arbitrary reasons you cancelled us in 2020. We are cancelling you because if we don't, then you actually will kill us, and the country is going into civil war.
In short, we are cancelling you to save you.
You will hate my words. I know that. But I am speaking the truth.
Please repent and come to accept the grace of Jesus Christ. Please stop hating us.
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