LOS ANGELES: US President Donald Trump on Thursday celebrated the suspension of talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel from the airwaves and said TV broadcasters should lose their licenses over negative coverage of his administration, adding fuel to a national debate over free speech.
Kimmel has been embroiled in the effort by Trump and his supporters to punish critics of assassinated right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot while speaking to a crowd at a Utah university on September 10. Since then, allies of Trump and Kirk have warned Americans to properly mourn the divisive figure or face the consequences.
The Walt Disney-owned broadcaster ABC announced on Wednesday that it was yanking the late-night comedy show “Jimmy Kimmel Live” indefinitely following conservative uproar over his Monday monologue. Writers, performers, former US President Barack Obama and others condemned Kimmel’s suspension, calling it capitulation to unconstitutional government pressure.
About 150 demonstrators gathered on Thursday outside the Hollywood studio where “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” is recorded to protest the decision to suspend the show. Some raised signs saying, “Don’t Bend a Knee to Trump,” “Resist fascism,” “Douse the mouse” and “Cancel Disney+.”
The debate followed Trump on his state visit to Britain on Thursday.
While standing alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Trump called Kimmel untalented and denounced him for saying a “horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie 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 to “score political points.” He also poked fun at Trump after the president turned a question about his personal mourning of Kirk into promotion for his new White House ballroom.
“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,” Kimmel said.
A 22-year-old technical college student from Utah was charged with Kirk’s murder on Tuesday.
Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has used his office and the courts to attack unflattering speech about him that he has called defamatory or false.
Throughout both his terms, Trump has threatened to rescind licenses for local broadcast affiliates of the national networks — licenses that are approved by the Federal Communications Commission, a nominally independent regulatory body.
Kimmel’s suspension came after FCC Chair Brendan Carr threatened to investigate Kimmel’s commentary about Kirk, and owners of local TV stations had said they would stop broadcasting his celebrity-filled late-night show.
Trump, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned to the US, complained about receiving bad publicity from broadcasters, saying, “That’s something that should be talked about for licensing. ... All they do is hit Trump.”
“I would think maybe their license should be taken away,” Trump said. “It will be up to Brendan Carr.”
Federal law prohibits the FCC from revoking a broadcaster’s license for negative coverage or other speech disliked by the government.
In the week since Kirk’s murder, Kimmel is the most famous American to face professional blowback for comments condemned by conservatives as disrespectful of Kirk, alongside media figures, academic workers, teachers and corporate employees.
Prominent Democrats said Trump was mounting an assault on free speech rights guaranteed in the US Constitution’s First Amendment. Republicans have said they are fighting against “hate speech” that can spiral into violence, and accuse some Kirk critics of trying to justify his murder.
Obama joins chorus of critics
Obama urged media companies not to capitulate to government coercion.
“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 called the targeting of Kimmel an unconstitutional attack on the right to disagree. The American Civil Liberties Union called it an unconstitutional attempt by the Trump administration to “silence its critics and control what the American people watch and read.”
At the Hollywood demonstration, motorists honked their horns in support as protesters spilled out from the busy sidewalk and into the streets.
“This country is going in a really wrong direction,” protester Laura Brenner said. “When people can’t make fun of the administration, you know that we’re really going down a dark road.”
Kirk’s death spurred an outpouring of grief among fans who saw him as a staunch advocate for public debate and conservative values. Others have challenged or derided Kirk’s support for right-wing politics and Christian nationalism and his derogatory comments about immigrants, African Americans and transgender people.
Hours before Kimmel’s suspension, Carr, while speaking on the Benny Johnson podcast, urged local broadcasters to stop airing the show.
Two of the largest owners of local broadcasters — Nexstar and Sinclair Broadcast Group, both of which have merger deals pending before the FCC — responded by announcing they would stop airing Kimmel’s show.
ABC said it was suspending Kimmel’s show indefinitely. ABC owns eight local TV channels subject to FCC licensing, including broadcasters in the major markets of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and Philadelphia.
Disney CEO Bob Iger and Disney Entertainment Co-Chair Dana Walden made the decision to suspend Kimmel’s show, a source with knowledge of the matter said.
