ABC Pulls JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE! ‘Indefinitely’ Following Threat From TV Station Giant Nexstar

Every week, the United States gets worse for people who value free speech, fair elections, and any kind of respite from terrible rhetoric. We’re getting closer and closer to heavily censored, State-run media where no one dares to question those in power. Stephen Colbert, as one of President Trump’s most vocal critics, found out CBS would cancel his show next year. At least he gets a year. Variety has just reported ABC will pull Jimmy Kimmel Live! from its lineup immediately and indefinitely at the behest of anti-free speech groups.

Kimmel is another and perhaps even more incendiary critic of the current administration and its supporters, and used his monologue on Monday’s show to criticize the right for using the public murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk for political gain. During the monologue, Kimmel said, “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 and doing everything they can to score political points from it.” He also made jokes about Trump dodging questions from Fox News hosts about how he plans to mourn Kirk’s death.

You can watch the monologue in question below.

In response to these comments, Nexstar Media, one of the country’s biggest owners of TV stations, said it would preempt airings of Jimmy Kimmel Live! in its markets. ABC then issued the statement saying it was canning Kimmel’s show “indefinitely.”

We here at Nerdist don’t tend to veer into politics, though none of us individually hide our ideals. We would first like to say that we condemn violence of any kind against anyone, and certainly against people on the basis of disagreeing with their own ideals and beliefs. But for a massive media organization to block a major network TV show because it disagrees with statements from that show’s host is a horrible precedent and detrimental to a functional democracy.

ABC

This is what stifling free speech looks like. It’s not people getting mad that you said cruel words or continue to make poor-taste jokes at the expense of the Trans community. It’s a mega media corporation refusing to allow criticism to air in a country where freedom of speech is part of its very constitution. It can be said that Kimmel’s “comments” about Charlie Kirk were in poor taste, but that’s all they were, comments. Pointed jokes from a late-night talk show host. Kimmel also didn’t say anything about Charlie Kirk himself; he merely pointed out how people were choosing to characterize the suspect in custody for his murder.

In the face of these kinds of actions, it becomes incredibly difficult to remain impartial. We’re disappointed in anyone who does not defend and protect the ideals at the heart of this country or believes anyone should be above criticism.

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