Tipsheet

Here's the Line in the NYT Op-ed About Free Speech That Had People Rolling Their Eyes

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  September 20, 2025 6:50 AM

The suspension of Jimmy Kimmel has once again caused an uproar among liberal America. The late-night host got his show suspended indefinitely after he delivered a gross monologue about the suspected assassin of Charlie Kirk, claiming he was a MAGA supporter. Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA and one of the nation’s most influential political activists, was assassinated at Utah Valley University in Orem on September 10. Kimmel’s suspension comes after these remarks, his reported refusal to apologize, even going so far as to double down if his show wasn’t yanked last night, and dismal ratings. There is no evidence of government coercion, so this is a business decision. ABC can and does fire anyone if they please. But this opinion piece from The New York Times editorial board runs aground in the first graph:

A founding principle of the United States, enshrined in the Constitution’s opening amendment, is that our republic depends on citizens’ freedom to disagree with one another. They need to be able to do so intensely, on matters of life and death, including war and divisive modern issues like abortion, gun safety and health insurance. There are limits to free speech, yes, but they involve edge cases, like falsely shouting “Fire!” in a theater or inciting an imminent act of violence. If the American ideal of freedom means anything, it is that Americans can engage in an extremely wide range of political speech, including the tasteless and the offensive. 

President Trump is himself a purveyor of tasteless and even threatening language, speaking in ways that no previous president did. Yet his own exercise of his First Amendment rights has not stopped him from encroaching on those of others. He has punished universities, immigrants, law firms, federal prosecutors, military leaders, national security officials and others for voicing opinions with which he disagrees.

Now he is taking his campaign against free speech to a new level by using the assassination of Charlie Kirk as a justification to promise the repression of groups that he describes as liberal. Mr. Trump’s aides are drafting an executive order that could come as soon as this week, The Times reported, and it will most likely target left-leaning organizations. On Monday, Vice President JD Vance mentioned both the Ford Foundation and George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, saying that they benefited from “generous tax treatment,” the same tax treatment that benefits nonprofit groups like religious charities and the National Rifle Association Foundation.

Yeah, nix everything else—they repeated the ‘shouting fire in a crowded theater’ myth:

And please, he went after institutions that were discriminating and assaulting Jewish students, some even took over administrative buildings. He has the right to fire and reorganize his national security team and its related apparatuses. He’s deporting illegal aliens, many of whom have brutal rap sheets that could scale K2. Also, the institutional Left tried to jail him on politically motivated charges. I’d be combing through those areas if I had beaten the odds and retaken my old job as president of the United States. 

Also, everyone fired, including Kimmel, is still free. They’re not in camps. Kimmel is still rich, famous, and can say what he wants. And employers will remain free to fire whomever they want. He chose to run with knowingly false information about the assassination. 

Onward.

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