To paraphrase Clint Eastwood, most Americans aren’t all broken up about that man’s rights because we live in a world where speech has consequences and sometimes you simply need to apologize.
Democrats and progressives have found a new avatar to express their outrage that President Donald Trump is leading America into a fascist regime, albeit a highly unlikely one: Jimmy Kimmel. Mr. Kimmel, known primarily as a crude comedian who exploited women to make a name for himself before rebranding as a woke progressive late night host with poor ratings, assumed this new role against his will last week when Disney suspended his program indefinitely after he accused half of the country of lying for political reasons by lying for political reasons, in what can only be seen as a monstrous smear if not an actual blood libel. Though there were multiple reports that Charlie Kirk was killed by a deranged progressive and no evidence whatsoever he was a supporter of President Trump, Mr. Kimmel told his audience last Monday evening, “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.” By Wednesday morning, Trump Administration Chair of the Federal Communications Commission Brendan Carr told podcaster Benny Johnson, ‘In some quarters, there is a very concerted effort to try to lie to the American people about the nature, as you indicated, of one of the most significant newsworthy public interest acts that we’ve seen in a long time.” “They have a license granted by us at the FCC,” he continued, “and with that, comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest. And we can get into some ways that we’ve been trying to reinvigorate the public interest and some changes that we’ve seen, but frankly when you see stuff like this, I mean, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.” After owners of several ABC affiliates announced they would no longer carry Mr. Kimmel, Disney quickly followed suit, effectively cancelling the show for the foreseeable future.
That the decision occurred after the Chairman’s comments prompted progressives to proclaim, definitively, free speech was dead in America. As NPR described it, “Kimmel’s suspension for Kirk comments sparks furor over free speech and censorship,” and at least some of the furor is coming from within the FCC itself. They quoted Anna Gomez, the only Democrat FCC Commissioner, who spoke to the Axios Media Trends Live Conference last week. “The FCC is weaponizing its licensing authority in order to bring broadcasters to heel, and to really think twice about what they say about this administration. It’s not because of the content of the broadcast, whether the Jimmy Kimmel show or CBS, is actually inciting violence or breaking the law when all they are doing is speaking about this administration in a way that it does not like. That is contrary to the First Amendment. It’s contrary to the Communications Act, which prohibits the FCC from censoring broadcasters. So, any pressure on these broadcasters to alter their broadcasts because of their content is in fact inappropriate. And this is important to keep in mind, the FCC doesn’t have the authority, the ability, or the constitutional rights to revoke licenses because of content.” Others were far more blunt. PEN America, a free expression advocacy organization claimed, it “marks a dark new level of capitulation and censorship of speech more redolent of autocracies than democracies.” Jameel Jaffer, head of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University insisted the Trump Administration “is becoming increasingly brazen in its abuse of government power to silence its critics” and that too many of the powerful institutions that could stand up to this thuggery are capitulating instead.” The notoriously anti-Trump The Bulwark covered it under their “Fall of the Republic” series, saying “First, they came for Jimmy Kimmel.” MSNBC’s Chris Hayes insisted the first amendment is now meaningless, California Governor Gavin Newsom said, “There is no such thing as freedom of speech under Donald Trump’s reign.” Some also insist FCC Chair Carr’s comments constitute a clear violation of the Constitution, citing an earlier case before the Supreme Court when the Justices ruled that the First Amendment bars government officials from relying on “the threat of invoking legal sanctions and other means of coercion…to achieve the suppression of disfavored speech.”
The FCC, however, is empowered to ensure the public airwaves are used in the public interest including preventing the broadcasting of known falsehoods and the broadcasting of information that will cause the public harm, meaning the legal authority is far from clear, even assuming Chairman Carr’s comments constitute a threat of legal sanctions. Anyone who disagrees is certainly welcome to take the Trump Administration to court, as they have over and over again since he resumed office on January 20. Simultaneously, Disney has claimed that the show’s suspension was not prompted by comments from the government. Instead, they identified Mr. Kimmel’s proposed response to the criticism of his initial statement that the shooter was MAGA, a response as revealing and awful in its own way as the initial statement. According to The Hollywood Reporter, “execs wanted to know: How was Kimmel going to address the situation on Wednesday night’s show?” “Disney wanted Kimmel to address the situation in a way that ‘would take down the temperature,’” they continued, “but what he had planned was ‘going to fan the flames with the MAGA fan base,’ the source says.” While another source inside the show itself claimed this wasn’t strictly true, that Mr. Kimmel was not set on “making it worse,” even this source acknowledged he “wasn’t kowtowing” to the outrage and would be “defending what he said [as] being grossly mischaracterized by a certain group of people.” In other words, Mr. Kimmel had no plans to offer even a basic non-apology apology for being misunderstood or taken out of context, a fact supported by additional reporting that he has refused to do so even after being suspended. Rather than expressing the slightest regret at openly smearing half the country in their time of mourning, he was described as “incredibly pissed” and “still balking at their push for him to publicly apologize for his Charlie Kirk remarks” to use The New York Post’s phrasing. While Disney executives have been trying to figure a way forward for the show – despite declining ratings and mounting losses, “neither side could reach an agreement, according to sources and Puck News, which first reported the meeting.” As for the potential future, the source claimed that even should he be reinstated, Mr. Kimmel might quit anyway, saying “I think they will reinstate him, but Jimmy could quit.”
Two conclusions come to mind before then, one big, one small. First, Jimmy Kimmel is a small, pathetic man that no one will cry for for obvious reasons. While progressives are eager to transform him into an avatar for free speech, claiming somehow that what happened to him could happen to any of us, he remains an unlikeable figure that began his career relentlessly exploiting women on The Man Show followed by preening about his moral superiority as a woke warrior on late night. The results, so far, have been good for him more so than anyone else: Before the suspension, he earned around $15 million per year for a show with terrible ratings, netting barely a million viewers per episode last month, continuing a long decline, and has somehow managed to amass a net worth of about $50 million. Faced with losing that for an obvious smear, a statement that no one objectively believes he should have made and once made should have been followed by an immediate apology, he continues to exhibit contempt for half the country, believing that he is somehow entitled to his wealthy perch without being accountable to anyone for anything. Personally, I would encourage everyone to simply think about the sort of person who would behave this way, both by kicking half the country when they are down with an obvious falsehood, then by refusing to express the slightest bit of remorse for doing so. Whatever your politics, this isn’t a very sympathetic position and I find it hard to believe anyone outside of progressive media cares about the career pitfalls of yet another wealthy elitist talking head drowning in a controversy of their own making.
Second, the same is true for the free speech arguments being made by progressives in general, where what they are really referring to is not speech for you and me and the rest of the great unwashed, but instead are special accommodations for their preferred voices. Setting aside that they were either completely silent or active participants in the firing of Roseanne Barr and other celebrities they didn’t like, that they collectively demanded speech suppression for even reputable media companies on social media, that they sought to limit and suppress the speech of a sitting then former US President by barring him from social media, the argument is not that Mr. Kimmel didn’t have the right to make his vile comments. He did; he has not been arrested or charged, fined, taxed, or punished by the government in any way. Like you or me, he can continue to make these comments on X, TikTok, YouTube, or he can start a blog as your humble author. The real question is whether that right entitles him to a platform upon which to broadcast the comment to a large audience, that is the belief he can do or say whatever he wants on broadcast TV and is guaranteed protection from consequences for any and all things. Obviously, he is not. A position of power and influence comes with certain obligations and responsibilities. He failed to meet them and then refused to apologize. To the average person, this is probably common sense and why I am reminded of Clint Eastwood’s memorable quip in Dirty Harry, “I’m all broken up about that man’s rights.” As most of you, I have free speech rights in principle, but in practice, I certainly can’t say whatever I want in an office setting and hide behind the First Amendment. My boss is, in fact, entitled to fire me for speech he doesn’t approve of, exactly as happened to Mr. Kimmel. While I would never refer to myself as brave, I have a real job and at times worry if I am putting my own livelihood at risk by being politically active and engaged. People, including Roseanne Barr can even be fired for comments made outside the workplace. This is the world the rest of us live in. Mr. Kimmel is learning he doesn’t live in a different one even as progressives pretend otherwise, which is yet another reason no one will cry for him.
Confessions of a Conservative Atheist 