Decision raises questions of censorship
When the news hit that “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” was being taken off the air “indefinitely,” it shocked audiences everywhere and a mix of opinions came rolling in.
The famous late-night show was a comfort to many given that it had been running for over 20 years.
The decision to cancel the show came from the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Brendan Carr, after he said Kimmel made inappropriate comments about the assassination of Charlie Kirk, allegedly with pressure from President Donald Trump.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang trying to characterize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them,” Kimmel said in his Sept. 15 monologue.
Kimmel also made comments comparing Trump’s way of mourning Kirk to “a four-year-old mourning a goldfish.”
There were mixed emotions on whether what he said was as “misleading” as they made it seem.
Trump commented on the whole situation while on a trip to the UK saying Kimmel was fired because he had bad ratings and no talent, which some people have said is a cover up for the fact that Kimmel was really being censored.
In retaliation, people protested the decision to remove Kimmel from the air by cancelling their Hulu and Disney+ subscriptions, severely dropping their numbers.
Kimmel’s fellow late-night hosts also spoke out about the situation on their own shows in solidarity with him. Stephen Colbert called the suspension “blatant censorship” and emphasized that he stood with Kimmel.
Other hosts like Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show” and Seth Meyers of “Late Night with Seth Meyers” jokingly praised Trump in ways that were clearly satire before explaining the issues with suspending someone from their show for his use of free speech.
On “The Tonight Show,” Jimmy Fallon started his monologue by showing his support for Kimmel and then went on to jokingly censor himself with a voiceover complimenting Trump’s actions.
This was a very scary time for people who really paid attention to what this kind of decision truly meant for our rights and government censorship, but we can always count on the late-night hosts to ease the tension with some humor.
First, Trump cut PBS funding, claiming it was “extremely liberal” and biased. Then, it was rumored that CBS felt politically pressured to cancel Stephen Colbert’s “The Late Show” even though the official explanation said it was a “purely financial decision.”
The decision to cancel “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” wasn’t sitting right with a lot of people. It felt like Kimmel was being silenced and it posed lots of questions.
A lot of people have expressed their concerns about the government trying to censor us. What about the First Amendment?
How can we feel safe with our rights to free speech if our own government won’t protect us from the consequences?
Even though Kimmel’s show has officially returned after ABC and Disney received backlash, Nexstar and Sinclair, two of the largest television station owners, have said that they will continue to preempt the famous late-night show.