As US President Donald Trump has backed up US broadcast regulators over the suspension of ABC host Jimmy Kimmel, some television networks have proposed “removing” their licenses.
The Disney-owned network announced Wednesday evening that it had been pulling the comedian into the sky “indefinitely” amid backlash over his remarks about the murder of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk last week.
On Monday, Kimmel suggested the suspect was a Maga Republican, but Utah officials said the shooters were “indoctrinated as left-wing ideology.”
ABC has won Jimmy Kimmel live! It aired after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) threatened a lawsuit over his remarks.
Trump spoke to reporters on the issue Thursday in Air Force 1 when he returned from a national visit to the UK.
“I've read that the network is 97% against me, and again I won all seven swing states (in last year's election), although 97% negative,” the president said.
“They give me only bad publicity, reporting. I mean, they have licenses. I think they should probably remove their license.”
Kimmel, 57, said in his monologue on Monday that the “Magagang” is “deeply trying to characterize the child who killed Charlie Kirk as something other than them,” and “trying to score political points from there.”
He also compared Trump's reaction to the death of his 31-year-old political confidant to “the way a four-year-old child laments goldfish.”
After filming, Kimmel condemned the attack and even went to Instagram to send “love” to the Kirk family.
Speaking to Fox on Thursday, FCC Chairman Brendan Kerr said Kimmel's suspension was not “the last shoe to drop.”
“We will continue to hold these stations responsible for the public interest,” he said.
“And if the station doesn't like that simple solution, they can submit their license to the FCC.”
FCC is often an affiliate of major networks such as ABC and has regulatory power over licensed local broadcasters that can punish such outlets for serious regulatory violations.
However, agents have limited authority over cable channels such as Fox and MSNBC, and do not have authority over podcasts or most streaming content.
Jurisprudence says the first amendment to the US Constitution protecting freedom of speech would prevent the FCC from legally revoking its license based on political inconsistencies.
Joe Strazullo, a late-night writer who worked on Jimmy Kimmel Live! From 2015-21, he told the BBC in Los Angeles that there was an atmosphere of terror in the writer's room.
“It's heartbreaking to see the threat of them losing their jobs,” he said. “I touched the base, but no one knows exactly what's going on yet. They're working things behind the scenes.”
Kimmel's suspension was announced Wednesday evening after Nexstar Media, one of the largest owners of US television stations, said he would not air his show “for Foreseable Future.”
Nexstar called his remarks about Kirk “aggressive and insensitive at a critical period in our national political discourse.”
Carr Apriaded Nexstar – is currently seeking FCC approval for a $6.2 billion (£4.5 billion) merger with Tegna – and said other broadcasters hope to follow that lead.
Sinclair, the largest ABC affiliate group in the United States, said it will air a special memory program dedicated to Kirk during the original time slot of Kimmel's show on Friday.
Kirk, a well-known conservative activist and father of two, was injured in a gunshot wound to the neck while speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem on September 10th.
His widow, Erica Kirk, was appointed Turning Point USA on Thursday, the new head of the organization her husband co-founded.
The 22-year-old man was charged with aggravated murder on Tuesday, and prosecutors say he is seeking the death penalty.
Writer, actor, former US President Barack Obama, and other prominent Democrats have denounced Kimmel's suspension.
Obama said the incident represents a new and dangerous level of cancellation culture.
“After years of complaining about the cancellation culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by threatening regular threatening behavior against media companies, unless they dislike muzzle, firefighters and commentators, so that they don't like it,” he posted on X.
Actor Ben Stiller said it was “not right”, but hacking star Jean Smart said she was “terrified of cancellation.”
“What Jimmy said was free speech, not hate speech,” she added.
The two Hollywood Workers Union, the American Writers Guild and the Screen Actors Guild, condemned the decision as a violation of the constitutional right to free speech.
But others argued that Kimmel's suspension was accountability rather than canceling the culture.
“If many people say something offensive, rude, or stupid in real time, they're punished for not canceling the culture,” said Dave Portnoy, who founded media company Barstool Sports.
“It's the result of your actions.”
Late-night Fox host Greg Guffeld claimed that Kimmel “mistakes and false threats that he had deliberately and mistakenly killed Kirk, the activist 'alms and friends'.”
British presenter Piers Morgan said Kimmel “lied about Charlie Kirk's assassin being a Maga,” and his comments sparked “an instinct that can be understood across America.”
“Why is he being told as a martyr of some sort of freedom of speech?” he added.
But Commissioner Anna Gomez, one of Carr's FCC leadership colleagues, criticised the regulator's stance on Kimmel.
She said, “The unacceptable conduct of political violence by one disturbed individual should never be exploited as a justification for broader censorship or domination.”
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