Ja, Jimmy Kimmels Suspendierung war die Zensur der Regierung

Yesterday, Disney-owned ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live “indefinitely” for a comment Kimmel made about the response to Charlie Kirk’s death. The response from Republican commentators has been predictably gleeful. They’ve positioned the suspension as a reversal of “cancel culture,” a “deplatforming” that’s simply fair retaliation for antagonizing them. “Jimmy Kimmel does have Free Speech, he is free to speak just not on ABC,” posted comedian Terrence Kentrell Williams on X.

This framing is transparently false. ABC’s suspension of Kimmel was the result of an explicit threat from President Donald Trump’s Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, aimed at Disney and companies that worked with it. The move was effective because of the FCC’s authority to regulate broadcast TV and, perhaps more importantly, to approve communications mergers in a hyper-consolidated landscape. It was repeating a playbook Carr recently used on Disney’s fellow media giant Paramount. And it’s an unabashed attempt at the government dictating the speech of private TV networks and entertainers, as objectionable and un-American as a McCarthyist blacklist.

Under the First Amendment, a government official like Carr is allowed to call Kimmel talentless or unfunny. He’s allowed to say Kimmel shouldn’t be on the air. He’s not allowed to accompany this with a clear threat backed by government authority. “The easy way or the hard way” isn’t healthy debate, it’s gangster talk. Or more precisely, government jawboning.

Read more: [https://www.theverge.com/policy/781148/jimmy-kimmel-charlie-kirk-monologue-brendan-carr-censorship-first-amendment](https://www.theverge.com/policy/781148/jimmy-kimmel-charlie-kirk-monologue-brendan-carr-censorship-first-amendment)

Trump can literally label anyone including Biden, as an Antifa so he could jail anybody.

The end of our democracy is very near.

FCC head: „We can do this the easy way, or the hard way“, says it all.

For all its passion for free speech, censorship and ‘cancel culture’ has been around in the United States for far longer than most want to admit; and both political ‘sides’ have engaged in it.

Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Paul Robeson, Jim Morrison. Howard Stern (first by the left, then by the right), 2 Live Crew, Bill Maher, the Dixie Chicks. And the manic crackdown on ‘indecency’ after the Janet Jackson Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction.  

That’s just a fraction of the censorship and ‘cancelling’ that has ensued over the years. Lately Dave Chappelle, Gina Carrano, Rosanne Barr, and plenty of others have had their livelihoods impacted for their beliefs; whether I agree with those beliefs or not. Canceling is the reason we have a shitty opening to Monday Night Football now. And that’s only the high profile ones – thousands of average Americans have lost their jobs over a comment or statement they made publicly, usually on social media.

Over the last decade I have repeatedly warned my friends on the left about ‘cancel culture’.  Their response is often “Freedom of Speech does not mean Freedom from Consequences’ or as it relates to folks being silenced on social media “Terms and Conditions is not the same thing as the Constitution.” It is at best disingenuous for the left to claim censorship is a right-wing problem.  I’ll also point out that, through nearly all of these instances of censorship and silencing; its often the far-right (the Ron Paul / Goldwater right) that has spoken out against it in any form; holding firm to the concept of free thought and expression; no matter the message or messenger.

However, I respectfully point the critical difference in almost all of these examples. The ‘cancelling’ from the left is typically grass-roots pressure campaigns; while the canceling from the right is often imposed by the Government. And the latter is something we all should oppose.  

Nixon’s FCC against Carlin

Bush’s FCC pressure campaign against Stern and ‘indecency’ fines across the country in the shadow of the Super Bowl.

Trump’s FCC Chair explicitly threatening ABC and Disney over Jimmy Kimmel for a joke

Indeed, Freedom of Speech does not mean Freedom from Consequences; as so many are learning for their comments regarding the murder of Charlie Kirk. And even if I detest it; schools or corporations bowing to public pressure is a nature of the free market. But none of us should cheer government threats and pressure campaigns over speech they object to.

And for anyone who wants to mention the Biden administration leaning on social media companies to crack down on misinformation; even though the Supreme Court found no „concrete link“ proving that government communication directly caused the removal of specific posts or constituted coercion – I would agree with you.

We all should oppose government ‘canceling’ – left, right, and center.  The Jimmy Kimmel situation should alarm all of us.

Where are all the rightwing free speech and small government warriors at?

[Relevant xkcd](https://xkcd.com/1357/)

There’s already suit after suit against it. If it’s ruled in anything other than his favor things will escalate and the whole country is going to have to pay attention

We’re unfortunately at the point where truth and facts no longer matters.

Any sane, rational, reasonable person knows what happened here, anyone who denies it is too far lost and will never change their opinion.

Sorry sweaty.  freedom of speech doesnt mean freedom from consequences. 

Not really but go off

Posted this on other threads but I’ll post it here. This is absolutely just the beginning. Time and time again, Trump has said that he wanted these late night hosts gone. He is wielding the power of the state to do so. He has also mentioned that political candidates who win elections against his wishes will be „dealt with.“ Unfortunately, this is baby shit in comparison to the downfall we are about to experience when he inevitably denies the 2026 midterm results or makes them “illegal.“ Then the American experiment is truly over.

– „It’s still free speech, just because the President is insulting you it doesn’t mean there’s a threat“

– „It’s still free speech, just because a non-citizen got thrown into a van by masked men, it doesn’t mean that will happen to citizens“

– **YOU ARE HERE** – „It’s still free speech, just because you got removed from your show it doesn’t mean you can’t speak freely, just not there. Also, the government had nothing to do with it!“

– „It’s still free speech, just because you can’t say it in public it doesn’t mean you can’t say it in private, this is to prevent encouraging ANTIFA terrorism“

– „It’s still free speech, just because your hate speech is not allowed it doesn’t mean that real true free speech is infringed“

– „It’s still free speech, just not for you, because you’re an anti-American terrorist ANTIFA member and you don’t deserve it“

– „You are free to speak loyal speech at any time! Disloyalty to our President is treason!“

List of Charlie Kirk statements

On race

If I see a Black pilot, I’m going to be like, boy, I hope he’s qualified.

– The Charlie Kirk Show, 23 January 2024

If you’re a WNBA, pot-smoking, Black lesbian, do you get treated better than a United States marine?

– The Charlie Kirk Show, 8 December 2022

Happening all the time in urban America, prowling Blacks go around for fun to go target white people, that’s a fact. It’s happening more and more.

– The Charlie Kirk Show, 19 May 2023

If I’m dealing with somebody in customer service who’s a moronic Black woman, I wonder is she there because of her excellence, or is she there because of affirmative action?

– The Charlie Kirk Show, 3 January 2024

If we would have said that Joy Reid and Michelle Obama and Sheila Jackson Lee and Ketanji Brown Jackson were affirmative action picks, we would have been called racists. Now they’re coming out and they’re saying it for us … You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person’s slot to go be taken somewhat seriously.

– The Charlie Kirk Show, 13 July 2023

The snow flakes who cried about cancel culture are now gleeful about cancel culture. I wish those people were the ones being asked to self-deport.

MAGA = Christian Taliban