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Jimmy Kimmel pulled indefinitely by ABC for Charlie Kirk comments.
Late night talk show hosts have waned from their glorious Letterman days, but boomers still care about then enough that they're still a scalp worth scraping off the skull. It's hard to think of a prominent figure on the right that would be equal in stature - Gina Carano? Piers Morgan? Roseanne Barr? nothing like him - if only for the fact that the entertainment industry is so aligned to the left. Indeed, even during the height of the progressive cancel culture era, it was liberal icons like Louis CK and JK Rowling that felt the heat.
If such a big figure can fall, who will be next?
With Colbert going off the air, and with the upcoming FCC hearings on Twitch, Reddit, Discord, and Steam, one can only anticipate the prizes that are coming. Destiny and Hasan are obvious trophies that the right would love to claim, but I have no doubt that the powerjanitors of Reddit are quaking in their boots. How many leftist/liberal commentators have made snarky comments on social media, as of late? This is the reddest of the red meat, dripping with blood, raw. The long march through the institutions has only just begun, and for the populist right base, it'll be a enjoyable hike indeed.
That's it? He didn't even, like, celebrate his death.
Seems like Nexstar is trying to butter up Trump for some deal that needs governmental approval in the future.
I actually think celebration would be less cancel-worthy than blatantly spreading misinformation like that. I don't know if there's enough leeway in judgment calls to say that Kimmel really believed that the murderer was a MAGA, or that this being a comedy show meant that it was not meant to be taken seriously (really, I don't know the laws around this - does the fact that the joke relies on an implicit statement of fact play into it?), but it looks like FCC pressure just from public comments may have played into the decision, which is the part I find troubling. I'd hope the owners would have enough decency to do this independently, but we'll never know, I suppose. But celebrating his death, that I'd see as simple edgy comedy like Maher saying the 9/11 hijackers were the brave ones, which got his Politically Incorrect show canceled, IIRC, unfairly, IMHO.
His statement seems literally true: many MAGA-types were indeed desperately trying to portray the murderer as having anti-MAGA, pro-trans politics. Just because they were likely correct doesn't mean this couldn't be an interesting observation about the need to tribalize; us-versus-them; one of you did a bad thing. Kimmel wasn't making this criticism and was instead implying likely false things of the shooter, but I don't think the FCC should be pressuring Disney here. I think both Kimmel and Carr displayed poor judgment. There's some more context of the segment described at https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/national-international/what-did-jimmy-kimmel-say-jimmy-kimmel-live-pre-empted/3989961/
"Confidently and furiously" != "desperately". We assessed that the overwhelming likelihood was that this was a leftist with a strong likelihood of a side of anti-Christian bigotry, and we were correct. This was not a hard guess to make; I would estimate the likelihood as north of 90% simply based on the target, venue, and nature of the attack, and upwards of 98% once we had initial reporting of the messages scratched on the cases. The claims that the shooter was a Groyper or "one of his supporters firing a gun in the air in celebration" were the desperate ones, even more desperate because they were doing so amid an inescapable wave of leftist and notably LGB/Trans celebration of the murder. We knew that subsequent revelations would turn our opponents' position into a rhetorical kill-zone, and so we engaged with enthusiasm.
This statement demonstrates either complete lack of knowledge, or appalling dishonesty. I'm honestly not sure what the proper response should be. I could list off numerous previous incidents, both where Blues leaped immediately to tribalizing, us-versus-them, one-of-you-did-a-bad-thing even when the supposed wrongdoing was a hoax, and where Blues leaped immediately to how-dare-you-politicize-this even when the actions very clearly came from their side and when the harm was extremely serious. And this is how it works: When Blues are at fault, we all need to come together and rise above this petty tribalism. When Reds or even pseudo-reds are accused, then our irrational hatred and bigotry is threatening the foundations of our democracy. If any disagree that this is a well-established pattern at this point, by all means say so, and we can tally up examples and see what sum we arrive at.
In any case, I decline to play your shell game. I know my side will be blamed for anything that can even remotely be attributed to us, and for even more that is simply made up. Given this obvious fact, I hold that we should tally the cases as they come.
Why not? I have heard for a decade how dangerous misinformation is, and how necessary it is to crush such misinformation with the full might of the federal government. Numerous previous examples are ready at hand. Grassroots blues have been actively spreading misinformation on this event. Kimmel used his platform to spread that misinformation much, much further. By torching his career, we also place a large spotlight on the fact that he and his allies were lying, and we put significant pressure on a hostile institution.
Kirk was murdered because of a dedicated, well-financed hate campaign that Blue Tribe has been running nationwide for decades now. Why should people like me cooperate or deal gently with that campaign in any way?
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I think you are trying to make an argument that solely focuses on the literalness of his words which ignores all inflection and context of who he is and why he said it that way. When Kimmel filmed this episode, the "MAGA gang" didn't need to desperately distort the truth because the truth was already out there. Also, a private company firing someone for saying something was heavily weaponized by the left for years, and it was done for much more innocuous things.
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