Washington/Los Angeles:
ABC, owned by Walt Disney, said Wednesday that he was taking out “Jimmy Kimmel Live” from the air, after the comments of the presenter of the night program about the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk caused a threat of the head of the main communications regulator of the United States against Disney.
President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly pressed to the speakers to stop transmitting content that has found objectable, celebrated the news in a publication on social networks. Several Democratic legislators assaulted the decision, saying that freedom of expression was under attack.
The suspension of the Kimmel program marked the last action taken against media figures, academic workers, teachers and corporate employees about their comments about Kirk after their murder.
Republican leaders and conservative commentators have warned Americans to cry Kirk respectfully or suffer consequences, and some people have been fired or suspended after discussing online murder.
Kimmel, who has frequently attacked Trump in his night comedy program, took fire for the comments he made about the murder in his monologue on Monday. “We hit some new minimums during the weekend, with the Maga gang desperately trying to characterize this child who murdered Charlie Kirk as more than one of them, and doing everything possible to score political points of him,” Kimmel said.
Kirk, a 31 -year -old activist and Trump world celebrity known for his right -wing points and his struggle style, was filmed in his neck while talking at a Utah University a week ago. A 22 -year -old suspect has been accused of his murder, and his precise motive is still clear.
Kimmel’s comments led to a response from the president of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, who urged local broadcasting agencies to stop issuing “Jimmy Kimmel Live” in ABC. Carr suggested that the commission could open an investigation and that the issuers could be fined or lose their licenses if there were a pattern of distorted comments.
“This is a very, very serious problem at this time for Disney. We can do this in the easy or difficult way,” Carr said in a podcast interview with conservative commentator Benny Johnson who was broadcast on Wednesday.
“Disney needs to see some changes here, but the individual license stations that are taking their content, it is time for them to step forward and say this, you know, the garbage to the extent that this is what comes through the pipe in the future is not something that we believe that it meets the needs of our local communities.”
After Carr spoke, Nexstar Media Group Nxst.O said he would stop issuing the program about his 32 ABC affiliates, citing Kimmel’s comments. Nexstar, who needs the approval of the FCC for its $ 6.2 billion agreement to acquire smaller rival TGNA.N, praised Carr, who thanked Nexstar for “doing the right thing.”
Shortly after Nexstar announced his decision, ABC, which has licenses approved by the FCC for local transmission affiliates he owns, also said that Kimmel would be taken out of the air.
“‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ will be advanced indefinitely,” said an ABC spokesman, without elaborating.
Sinclair, the largest ABC affiliate group in the country, said it would not broadcast the Kimmel show, even if ABC decides to bring it back, unless “appropriate steps” were taken. Sinclair asked Kimmel to apologize and said he would broadcast a tribute to Kirk at Kimmel hours on Friday.
Kimmel, who was seen on Wednesday that he left the El Captain theater where his show was recorded, did not respond to a request for comments.
As the announcers took measures, Trump applauded the news in a publication about Truth Social and at the same time asked CMCSA.o NBC, owned by Comcast, to fire Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, the hosts of night comedy shows on the network that often make jokes at Trump’s expense.
“Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done,” Trump said.
The Democrats in turn criticized the elimination of Kimmel from the air, and Senator Ed Markey called him “censorship in action.”
The FCC commissioner, Anna Gómez, the only Democratic member of the FCC, said that American freedom of expression should prevent the FCC from telling the broadcasters what can be broadcast.
“This administration is increasingly using the weight of the government’s power to suppress legal expression,” he told CNN.
Trump has repeatedly sued, rebuked and threatened the media companies whose coverage dispute with legal action or another.
This week, Trump filed a defamation demand for $ 15 billion against the New York Times and Book Editor Penguin Random House, accusing them of treating it unfairly.
CBS-PARENT Paramount paid $ 16 million in July to resolve a civil lawsuit on what Trump claimed that it was the deceptive edition of the network of an interview with Presidential candidate Kamala Harris. In December, ABC paid $ 15 million to resolve a defamation demand presented by Trump on the description of the presenter George Stephanopoulos of the President’s behavior in the case of E. Jean Carroll.
After Kirk’s murder, political analyst Matthew Dowd was fired from MSNBC after he described the activist as a “divisive” figure that spread “hate speech” and added “hate thoughts lead to odious words, which leads to hate actions.”
The president of MSNBC, Rebecca Kutler, issued a statement that apologizes for Dowd’s comments, which according to her were “inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable.”
The Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah said on Monday that he was fired by the newspaper for a series of social networks that he did after Kirk’s murder, including one in which he pointed out Kirk’s previous comments about black women. The publication has said that he does not comment on personnel affairs and that the union of the newspaper condemned the dismissal.
