Below is my column in the Hill on the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel and how long advocates of censorship and blacklisting are suddenly alarmed over the threat to free speech. The greatest comedic relief came from Hillary Clinton, one of the most anti-free speech figures of the last decade. Without a hint of self-awareness or shame, Clinton expressed horror at a suspension over spreading disinformation.
Democrats were finally outraged this week. No, it was not about the murder of Charlie Kirk, but rather the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night comedy show.
Democratic leaders are taking to the airways to denounce the decision to take Kimmel off the air after he spread disinformation about Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer.
The same leaders and pundits who have for years fought for censorship in the name of combating disinformation are now making the very arguments they ridiculed just months ago. Democrats once wrote letters to Internet carriers suggesting that Fox News, the most popular cable news network, should be taken off the air in the name of combating disinformation. That was when the Democrats controlled the White House and were targeting conservatives.
Suddenly, now, disinformation is no longer a valid reason to censor and alleged government-corporate alliances are a menace to free speech.
After the tragedy in Utah, many on the left immediately tried to deflect responsibility for the murder by claiming that Kirk’s killer was actually a Trump supporter. On his show, Kimmel declared that “the MAGA Gang” was “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.”
The far-left motivations of the alleged assassin, Tyler Robinson, were already well known. His family confirmed that he had been radicalized with leftist ideology and cited pro-transgender views. This was not even a joke — it was just a false factual claim made by Kimmel on national television. And it came at a time when others were spreading this lie.
Despite stories to the contrary, many repeated the false claim. For example, Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe posted that “Kirk’s apparent assassin seems to have been ultra-MAGA, exploding the GOP/MAGA attempt to pin the blame for this tragedy on liberals.” (Previously, Tribe had claimed that the October 2023 massacre of Israelis by Hamas was a “wag-the-dog” operation to distract from corruption allegations against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu).
The disinformation took hold on the Internet and social media. One poll showed that a plurality of Americans think Robinson was a conservative.
Call it assassination denial. It is all the rage. Former MSNBC and ESPN host Keith Olbermann wrote after Kimmel’s suspension, “Burn in hell, Sinclair. Alongside Charlie Kirk.” He added that “nothing [Kimmel] said was untrue.”
Curiously, some of these politicians and pundits are claiming that, yet again, democracy will die if Kimmel is not allowed to spread disinformation. There are reports that Kimmel was refusing to apologize and planned to double down on the attacks on conservatives in his next show. Faced with a revolt by affiliates and a potential exodus of advertisers, Disney’s head, Bob Iger, pulled the plug. (By the way, Kimmel’s ratings had been falling for years, and he had a smaller audience than the Colbert Show, which was itself discontinued due to loss of money).
The hypocrisy was pure comedy. For years, these same voices demanded censorship of individuals deemed to be spreading disinformation, misinformation, and malinformation. The last category was used by the Biden administration to target statements “based on fact, but used out of context to mislead, harm, or manipulate.”
At the same time, they mocked claims that corporations were working with the government to maintain this censorship system.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) ran on a pledge to impose new criminal and civil penalties for anyone spreading disinformation. Now, however, censorship is intolerable. Warren told CNN “we know there was federal interference … We saw the government step up and give a hard shove and then we saw a compliant company turn around and suspend Mr. Kimmel.” She added that his collaboration with corporations “truly undermines the whole premise of the First Amendment.”
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) called the suspension one of “the most blatant attacks on the free press in American history.” Schiff had previously demanded that Twitter suspend an array of users and “reduce the visibility” of blacklisted individuals — including a journalist who held opposing views. When Elon Musk reduced censorship at X, it was Schiff who warned Facebook not to follow his example by restoring free speech protections. Schiff threatened legislative action if the company moved to “alter or roll back certain misinformation policies.”
This week, Schiff is outraged by a company’s decision to suspend a host who refused to correct a false story he had spread.
For years, I appeared before these same leaders in Congress as they defended corporate censorship and dismissed allegations of collaboration with the government. I would not cancel Kimmel so long as his show was profitable. But I have long maintained that companies can limit the free speech of employees at work. I do not believe Kimmel should be censored on social media for spreading false information. At the same time, ABC does not have to lose money or viewers because an employee attacks others with vile, false claims.
Now Disney is accused of killing democracy itself, in league with Trump. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) attacked Trump for “trying to destroy our democracy” and acting like “many would-be despots.” Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) used Kimmel’s suspension as evidence that “fascism is not on the way, it is here.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) insisted that suspending a host for spreading false information about a murder was “North Korea-style stuff” while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) insisted that it is “what Putin would do.” It is a curious spin, since Putin and Kim Jong Un value media figures who spread false information — particularly about murders.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) went so far as to compare Kimmel to Thomas Paine, the author of Common Sense and “Penman of the revolution.”
So Kimmel is now a hero of democracy — all he had to do was spread disinformation. That makes this the funniest joke that Kimmel never told.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of the bestselling book “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
Bag of money for trump official and the trump sycophants yawn.
trump makes money off of selling access, yawn.
trump says he hates anyone that doesn’t support him, yawn
prices go up because of trumps tariffs, yawn
trump says the Ukraine war will end on day 1, it goes on, yawn
Israel bombs a country we promised to help (Qatar), and they yawn.
Free enterprise is great, until trump puts federal money into Intel, yawn.
Soybean farmers will go broke because they cannot sell to China because of trump, yawn.
Foreign countries flee the U.S. when trump says they will flock here, yawn.
trump breaks everything he touches. How many bankruptcies has he had? Perhaps his final act will be to bankrupt the U.S.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Rassmussen has Trump at 53% – clearly much of the country sees things differently.
Given how wrong you were about Biden and Trump’s first term – I will trust those who were right in the past.
OT.
I caught bits of Mr. Kirk’s memorial. Huge turnout.
Personally, I appreciate Kirk’s political activism. He was smart. Tp was Kirk. He was making serious inroads into colleges and young people who wanted something decent. He was 31 years old with a wife and two babies. His murder is a tragedy.
On the otherhand Mrs. Kirk’s speech with the whispering Ala Biden was disconcerting. There was an air of Tammy Faye baker with the smoky eyes , whispers and paused – I forgive you.
Mam, what matters is does God forgive him. There’s no reason to think the killer is anything more than wolf who sees Mrs. Kirk’s pronouncement as anything mire than error, presumptuous and weakness and arrogance. Mrs Kirk’s forgiveness allows her to be rid of the toxicity of sorrow, anger, even hate for her own soul. Secondly, no one has the right of judgement in condemning another soul to hell.
Tammy Faye and now let’s hear the hissing of the vipers. 😏
Faye? I saw the same acting and the eye makeup is a bit too much.
If women want to be taken seriously, then look like a woman, not a doll.
I mourn the loss of Charlie Kirk.
*. ^^^ gosh, I didn’t proofread.
1. I’m not forgiving him nor am I carrying a murderer around in my head.
2. No, not sending money. Not buying any crazy. I’m all stocked up.
Matthew 18:21-22
“Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
We are required to forgive those who do us harm
Turley: Censorship of the media is ok if it is a liberal being censored, but a 1A violation if it targets Fox News or involves vaccines.
Fox is not an OTA broadcaster – Most FCC content rules do not apply.
Democrats made these laws.
So you are acknowledging the FCC forced Kimmel off the air.
Kimmel did not spread disinformation about Charlie Kirk’s killer and to claim he did is disinformation.
What he claimed was that MAGA representatives were desperate to prove the killer wasn’t MAGA (true, they were desperate to do that) and to show that Trump was unconcerned about Charlie Kirk’s murder (true, Trump was far more concerned about the new ballroom construction.)
If there is any other comment from Kimmel that was at play, be specific about what was problematic.
As to taking Fox News off the air – people can have an opinion. The false information from Fox News led to a nearly $1B judgement for damages and a second claim for nearly that same amount by another company. Proven in court.
More disinformation from Turley:
“His family confirmed that he had been radicalized with leftist ideology and cited pro-transgender views.”
First, I guess that a lifetime of being raised by devout conservatives, supporting Trump, and registering to vote Republican was so weak that momentary contact with someone outside the group was able to change them, like flicking a light switch, into a killer. Not sure why this form of zombie-virus hasn’t turned all the conservatives gay by now, but it’s worth considering why it worked here. Maybe conservatism is spineless and weak. Second, the family has a huge motive to disavow the raising of their child in these circumstances. It’s not possible for them to know what their child was thinking; obviously not if they did not know he’d gotten the rifle and planned the shooting, so any other claims are also not provable.
The point isn’t what motivated the killer – the point is that MAGA spent their time, before Kimmel aired, trying to prove he wasn’t one of them. Kimmel didn’t say he was; he said they were desperate to prove he wasn’t.
“Many on the left.”
Let’s consider that many on the right are pedophiles – convicted pedophiles. Making a “many” argument to characterize “all” would suggest that all on the right are pedophiles. Is that true, based on the vague accusation over “many on the left”? Think about that argument.
This all makes me think that grad students must be writing these columns as a way to make up for otherwise poor grades and lackluster classroom performance. A true constitutional scholar would not be making these simple mistakes and needs to check their work before hitting the publish button.
Um… grad students. So sez the guy who won’t ID himself. You write like grad student with poor grades and taking your frustration out on Turley. Sure does look that way.
He’s not wrong. Turley’s claims along with MAGA’s are not true. Nobody, including Turley posts the whole Kimmel statement because it does not show he lied or made the claims Turley falsely claims.
Professor Turley is avoiding a reason to criticize Trump or MAGA for the obvious anti-speech tactics that he’s spent years writing against. Now that it’s Trump and MAGA who are doing these anti-free speech moves he’s really reluctant to even mention the names, Trump, MAGA, or Carr.
Nobody has been able to point out what Kimmel said that was a lie.
Maga was indeed desperate to blame the left and avoid any connection to the right. Trump’s DOJ has just released a statement saying there are no clear links to the left or that he was influenced by the left, but those on the right are refusing to believe their assumptions and speculation, and conspiracy theories they dived into well before any facts came out. That is how Trump got in trouble with the Epstein files scandal. They became victims of their own conspiracy theories.
“He’s not wrong.”
In fact, he sounds a lot like you.
Is he the one who gives you your singular upvote within minutes of you posting?
Or are you giving him your upvote?
What “whole statement” corrects the part where he lied that Kirk’s assassin was part of the maga crowd? That’s the lie. And it wasn’t just a small lie. It’s the sort of thing that is closer to a blood libel than simple lie.
He didn’t claim Robinson was part of MAGA. Where did he say that?
For the 6th time – the VERY FIRST sentence in the monologue.
“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”
X this “Where did he say that” nonsense is just crazy lying.
George Svelaz is dumb, then doubles down by playing himself.
“Nobody, including Turley posts the whole Kimmel statement”
False
I have done so atleast 5 times – as well as linking to the entire transcript.
In the transcript there is a long nasty riff on Trump that is mostly false,
but Presidents are fair game and defamation lawsuits by presidents are going to get dismissed.
A recent Trump defamation lawsuit was just dismissed. Trump is about as big a public figure as you can get.
The problem is NOT about Trump.
Kimmel defames half the country, Kirk’s widow, Robinson’s mother.
The defamation if very much like Alex Jones defamation at Sandy Hook that resulted in a near 1B verdict.
The very first sentence of Kimmel’s monolog.
The rest is equally bad – but these words alone are enough.
“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 ”
Remarks later in the monologue make it clear – he had seen Robinson’s mother and the Utah Gov. on TV and therefore KNEW the remarks above were FALSE.
Aparently you live in an alternate reality.
People on BOTH sides – but especially the left sought to blame one side or the other.
I say the left was most vigorous – for good reason.
MOST on the right dialed back responses until the evidence was clear.
The first clue was the leaked writings on the shell casings – which despite efforts to rewrite history did actually prove Robinson was a creature on the left.
Then leaks about Robinson’s texts came out – further identifying him as a left wing nuts.
Then the leaks were confirmed.
Then Robinson’s family – and particularly his mother confiremed that Robinson had move far left starting when he was 17, and the Utah Gov. Released the text messages between Robinson and his trans lover – that confirmed Robinson’s motives and left orientation.
All this happened more than 24hrs before Kimmel’s show.
Yes most everyone not on the far left were going to blame the far left.
Were GOING to – most were waiting for evidence they KNEW was coming.
From the moment the bullet was fired – the odds were – mentally unstable, or left wing nut, in that order.
Left wing nut won the day.
The most damning to the left aspect of this was NOT – that Robinson was on the left.
The most DAMNING was the hate filled responses of those on the left immediately afer.
The next mos DAMNING was the extreme effort of those on the left – INCLUDING KIMMEL,
To manufacture a false narative – ANY false narative that blamed someone else.
Most of us KNEW where the responsibility lied and quitely waited for the evidence.
It is not the right that was trying to manufacture a false narative – to the extent the right said anything – what they said proved correct.
“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”
This is one of MANY things Kimmel said – one of the first.
Later he noted remarks by Robinson’s mother and the Gov. of Utah – proving that he was AWARE of the facts that established that he was wrong.
And Megan Kelley ran an excellent clip of an earlier Kimmel where he says that his show does not get sued because every word in his monologue is meticulously fact checked before he is allowed to say it on the air.
MAYBE Kimmel could have plead ignorance of develoing information – EXCEPT that – it was clear he had heard Robinson’s mother AND the Utah Gov.
Robinson is NOT MAGA – he is antiMAGA and that was Well Known before Kimmels monologue.
The remarks were NOT opinion, they were KNOWINGLY false, and they were defamatory.
And when Iger demanded that he apologize – he refused.
Iger had ZERO choice but to keep him off the air.
For get the FCC, Forget Sinclair and Nexstar.
If Iger had put Kimmel back on the air after knowingly false and defamatory claims,
without Kimmel apologizing to mitigate damages – the defamation lawsuit would be gargantuan.
Did the FCC factor in ? Possibly – but we have no evidence that Iger was even aware of Carr’s remarks – he was busy in a heated meeting with Kimmel when they were made.
Did Nexstar and Sinclair pulling the show factor in – possibly – and they spoke out because of viewer complaints and long before Carr weighed in.
Did Kimmel’s declining ratings and money losing show factor in – certainly.
But the largest factor was that Kimmel made a false and defamatory remark and refused to appologize. Putting Kimmel back on the air was an invitation to a multi-billion dollar lawsuit.
I had been hoping that Prof. Turley would comment on Jimmy Kimmel and I am glad he finally did. Regrettably, he failed the test, in my opinion. He focuses almost exclusively on the hypocrisy of those who have curbed free speech before and who now see it threatened. While that is indeed a giant hypocrisy, it is not the issue. Personally, I disliked Kimmel as much as I had admired Johnny Carson before him. Not only because he was so extremely liberal but, above all, because he was so one-sided. So disrespectful of others not sharing his opinions. But the critical issue here is the question whether it was a political hit-job or not. The cancellation of Colbert’s show was not a political hit-job. The owners had come to the conclusion that to continue throwing good money after bad was not an attractive business proposal, they gave due notice and cancelled the show. There is no way that one could call Colbert’s cancellation as an infringement on free speech. It took at least 48 hours until the principal actors in the Kimmel affaire gave rational business/economic explanations. Before then, there were only political justifications, the most aggressive ones coming from the head of the FCC and from President Trump himself. Someone must have told them that this was a dangerous tack to take and then they suddenly came up with all those explanations which should have been given in the first place if the accusation of a political hit-job was to be avoided (like protests from affiliates; like losing money; etc). I remember many instances where Kimmel made comments about President Trump where I wondered why Trump did not sue him for slander. He made many comments which, in my opinion, crossed a red line but the issue at hand did not. Kimmel’s words were: “The Maga gang [is] 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.” If it was meant to be a joke, it was a lame joke. No one should expect a comedian to be a factual news reporter but if one reads this sentence carefully, one cannot help but conclude that this was a fairly accurate description of the first 24 hours after Kirk’s murder: Democrats immediately focused on the “Republican Kirk family” and Republicans took pains to unearth how a former Republican had become radicalized at college. And, please, there can be no question at all that, to this day, the MAGA crowd is scoring political points. I wish Prof. Turley would have focused on that. He hasn’t and this confirms the impression I have had of him for quite some time now. During the years of liberal predominance, I looked to Prof. Turley as a fair and objective arbiter of opinions. Frankly, I now consider him as hypocritical as those whom he has blamed for hypocrisy in the past. Frankly, that has made me sad and extremely disappointed.
Huh?
generouslybf8cfd29cb
Your time line is wrong.
First – there was reporting that Sinclair and Nexstar would not air the next Kimmel within hours of the show running.
Next – Iger Met with Kimmel the next day – Before FCC’s Carr appeared on the podcast.
There was reporting that Kimmel left the meeting and headed directly to his lawyers – again before Carr said anything.
We did not learn that Nextstar and Sinclair had contacted Disney/Iger until later – but just because we did not learn it does not change that it HAPPENED BEFORE the Carr remarks.
We did not learn that Iger demanded an on air apology from Kimmel and that Kimmel not only refused but actively proposed to make things even worse until after,
but that does not change the FACT that it occured before.
The FACT that we did not learn things in the order they occured does not change the FACT that Sinclair and Nexstar contact Iger to try to fix this – BEFORE Trump or FCC’s Carr said anything.
Next ABC’s and specifically Kimmels financial and rating woes are very old news.
Kimmel’s ratings have been in the tank for several years. I suspect ABC held out when Trump was elected hoping – as happened in 2017 that Trump as president would BOOST ratings of left wing content. But 2025 was NOT a repeat of 2017 – Kimmel’s ratings Dropped further after the election and are now half what they were a year ago.
Disney/ABC/Nexstar/Sinclair may not have SAID that until recently – but the data has been available for the past 2 years. Kimmels ratings are worse than Colberts and his show is atleast as expensive.
Kimmels firing NOW is a result of his remarks.
But he has been a dead man walking for months.
Every single month – sometimes every week we hear of one left network or another cancelling shows or cutting staff. This is because ratings are in the tank and did not jump up with Trump as president like they did in 2017.
It is unlikely we are close to done the cutbacks.
The bloodletting will stop when the red ink stops.
That happens when the left MSM figures out how to attract more viewers or to live on the revenue from the viewers it does have.
Kimmel was a dying man who committed suicide with his remarks.
One way or the other he was still dead.
Thank you for your long explanation. We are in agreement that Kimmel’s show was so extremely one-sided liberal that it lost a broader appeal. The timeline I have in memory is different from yours but I think we can both agree that if Disney had handled it the way CBS had handled Colbert, one couldn’t have argued. In the case of Colbert, there was no government official who said “we can do this the easy way or the hard way” and that is the line which should not have been crossed.
The double standard Trump brings to “free speech” is obvious to everyone except himself. Is that what you want? What about the next President? What if someone like AOC gets elected?
This is where we better think about preserving norms and institutions. They protect us when the opposing party has executive power. That eventually will occur.
“What if someone like AOC gets elected?” ….
O.M.G. more like, What if someone like Taylor Swift gets elected?
or Britney Spears,
or Cher,
or Rosie O’Donnell
or Martha Stewart … well on second thought Martha would be terrific (Stewart| Dogg Tix.)
BTW, you missed the Kardashians. Lay off the goissip columns.
Excuse me, but first they have to be primaried and then nominated. Seems you missed Politic 101.
I ❤️ Martha
Martha you can leave your Sketcher’s on °❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･.𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚
OH! Babyeeeee One more time °❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･.𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚ Oh là là!
Luv Joe cocker
After reading this well documented and timeline of many people, from lawmakers, to professor’s, MSM pundits, celebrities, by Just The News, and if Kimmel only read those outlets, Xs, listen to MSM, I could see where he may of truly believed in what he said.
He, like many people, got duped by their own echo chamber.
How a conspiracy theory about Charlie Kirk’s killer being ‘MAGA’ spread online to Kimmel and beyond
“All credible first-hand evidence points to Charlie Kirk’s assassin being a leftist. That has not stopped prominent Democrats and media celebrities from trying to claim the shooter was a far right “Groyper.”
https://justthenews.com/accountability/media/how-conspiracy-about-charlie-kirk-shooter-being-rightwing-spread-online-kimmel
It is funny how there were some who were claiming it was irresponsible to make assumptions as real facts and evidence began to come out about Robinson, like his own family said in the past year or so he was very leftist, while the left was doing it almost from the very beginning.
Keep shoveling shite Farmer.
Upstatefarmer, everyone including the left was jumping to conclusions, assumptions, speculation, and buying into rumors spread by idiots online. Those on the right were already blaming and making claims before his body was even cold. The hysterical calls for vengeance and accusations of the left were at a fever pitch. Kimmel was not wrong in pointing out that MAGA was desperate to characterize the killing as the fault of the left. Even Professor Turley bought into the BS and started claiming ANTIFA over incriptions on the bullet casings which were falsely saying one thing and then another later. MAGA was desperate and angry. Turley is just as guilty of buying into the rumors and speculation before any facts came to light.
The free speech lovers here sure do like to justify silencing someone as
readily as any censorship bureau.
It’s like when an manager wants to fire you for being black or female,
but they can’t do that, so they blame it on your job performance, which is good, but they make
it look bad in bad performance reviews as part
of an orchestrated termination campaign against you.
WOW talk about weird, just maybe you should stay from drugs
Dustoff, you’re late this morning, at the psychiatrist office? How’d it go. You still crazy?
Hoping to stop the bleeding after millions boycotted its products, Disney announced on Monday that it was launching a new late-night comedy show on ABC starring Kash Patel.
Patel received a ringing endorsement from Disney CEO Bob Iger.
“We’re confident that all of Kash’s jokes will be acceptable to the president, especially since his head writer will be Stephen Miller,” Iger said.
Urging viewers to “give Kash a chance,” Iger added, “If he’s even half as funny as he was at the Senate last week, this show is going to be huge.”
Hilarious!!!!
I’ve noticed that for awhile now (coinciding with rising desperation on the left) we are getting very classic troll bombing here, rather than just contrariness, in which trolls post in such quantity and in a manner that pushes salient points to the bottom where many will likely never see them, and gives them the illusion of appearing to dominate the conversation. The only solution is to refute them and post further salient points later on.
Trolling huh? And rightfully so. 99% of what is commented is garbage. Its up toi Turley to setup accounts with peoples’ real names. All for it. But watch the comments drop to near zero. BTW, Turley brags about the numbers of visitors to this blog. So go figure.
James,
I noticed the same. As always, just scroll past all the annony comments to get to real people’s comments.
Hey farmer, just keep shoveling you shite. Have a nice day!
Even the least talented writers, artists, and musicians should still have the freedom to express themselves without the governement telling them that they cannot.
ANO
It wasn’t the government you fool.
Now when O-dumber was the prez, he in fact used the power of government to (IRS) to shut down the Tea Party
Trump is in the government. Did you know that?
Not Dustoff. He’s stoopid. The “government” folks, is the President and the Cabinet. Good one anon 952.
WOW… Just maybe you should go lay down
Maybe you should just go away.
That’s why he didn’t try to overthrown the government on Jan. 6. He was the bloody president!
Oh oh, dustoff has awaken! Folks, just look at the clarity and brevity of his comment. Complete garbage. Crawl back under your rock.
Kimmel does. Just potentially not with Disney. He’s still free to squawk wherever else he likes or will have him. Weak sauce.
The opposite was true 2020-2024 with the left; it still is across the pond.
At least you tried. 🥲
That’s what YOU think…
Did you read the discoveries in Missouri v. Biden? The Twitter Files? I did, so my thinking the same has legs.
Waa? A thinking that can walk?
It’s not Kimmel’s speech that being infringed, it’s ABC’s through jawboning.
Pressuring the media company via a threat to revoke its license is the issue….
Has any license been revoked?
Nope.
Jawboning!
UniParty/Monoparty it has become ‘One Big Beautiful PsyOps.’
Classical conditioning
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_conditioning
Evidence AI is flawed. DJT got arsenic Hall fued, Conan and Leno…
Kimmel wasn’t fired for statements. An opportunity to be rid of him for cause was seized.
The media sewage. It’s actually torture. Funnyman
Turley’s telling of events is largely inaccurate. His sources are not even news articles, but commentary that does not provide links to any insiders within ABC. If Turley is writing these articles, he needs to make sure he cites news, not opinion. Pretty basic error.
https://pagesix.com/2025/09/18/entertainment/jimmy-kimmel-future-at-abc-was-up-in-air-before-charlie-kirk-uproar/
According to Page Six, although ABC may not have renewed Kimmel’s contract after it expired (largely due to fear of Trump reprisal), it was NOT going to remove Kimmel last week. And THAT is the main issue here. Trump and Carr were the proximate cause for removing Kimmel last week.
This means that we have an administration that is coercing regulated entities to terminate a business relationship in order to censor its speech.
This is exactly the type of government coercion that we saw in NRA v. Vullo, which held that the NRA plausibly alleged that the government violated the First Amendment by coercing regulated entities to terminate their business relationships with the NRA in order to punish or suppress gun-promotion advocacy.
Turley, you once cared about content-based discrimination by government agencies: https://jonathanturley.org/2024/01/04/gunning-for-free-speech-civil-libertarians-and-gun-right-advocates-join-to-oppose-new-yorks-attack-on-free-speech/
Why the about face?
Um… so you’re saying page 6 is your source? Wanna buy a bridge?
When it comes to Hollywood, yes.
Can you point to a single insider source Turley cited to that backs up his claim that Disney had decided to pull the plug before Carr/Trump pressured them to do so?
From everything I’ve seen, what happened was that the largest affiliate of ABC declared that they were no longer going to carry Kimmel first. Then, two things happened about the same time: an FCC commissioner mentioned that Kimmel’s lie could get him into serious regulation hot water and Disney announced they were canceling the show. I believe the commissioner interview was just hours before the Disney announcement, I’m not sure. I don’t know whether the commissioner’s statement had anything to do with Disney’s decision. I’ve read that Disney had already made the decision, but hadn’t sent out the announcement yet at that time. These sorts of decisions are rarely made so quickly, so I doubt an FCC commissioner’s vague statement would have this much impact.
Regardless, the affiliate’s decision to yank Kimmel seems to be the prime motivator of Disney’s cancellation, and I’ve seen no evidence that the government had anything to do with the affiliate’s decision. And my read of the situation is that Kimmel’s poor ratings and high cost had him on thin ice before all this, so him pissing off the biggest affiliate was enough for them to yank the show entirely.
Always the same thing….Rules for thee but not for “D’s”! Leftists are a big smoldering pile of evil, hippocritic trash.
Somebody wash out that anons mouth with soap.
Free Speech Champion Kimmel and his Leftist defenders are consistent in their delusional conclusions; anyone engaged in public acts of violence are directly or indirectly Radicalized by Rightwinger MAGA types or at minimum triggered by them. So they choose to see only some MAGA-family kid who later goes extreme Left then kills a MAGA figure…It’s ALL due to MAGA no matter any other contributing factors. The summation of blame and guilt is perfectly in line with convoluted Communist reasoning and works to further provocation of Reactionaries and justifies Leftist ideology for the masses. No misinformation to see here.
I find it amusing that Professor Turley is going to great lengths to avoid criticizing Trump and the FCC’s comments which, even Ted Cruz says were really bad.
Trump is going after his critics using government pressure to cancel or silence those who mock him daily. I thought MAGA was against using the government to coerce, pressure, and/or threaten private companies if they don’t silence those who are mocking or criticizing the President.
Now they are embracing it because one conservative influencer got killed and is immediately a saint of some sort? Wow. Over the last few days, I have seen and read so much pearl-clutching and manufactured outrage over offensive comments, mockery, and celebration of Kirk’s murder. Even though it’s all free speech, and yes it also brings consequences, it also brings up the sheer irony of Republicans and MAGA taking the same position not too long ago were clearly against. Consequences of exercising free speech. But it’s more than that, now they are openly embracing cancel culture, some are avoiding calling it that and choosing to call it, “consequence culture” which sounds pretty stupid.
Professor Turley is not addressing the hypocrisy surrounding he right’s new embrace of anti-free speech and cancel culture in the aftermath of Kirk’s murder. Democrats were denouncing the killing and the celebration of his death by online influencers, but the right was too busy raging and losing their minds, and blaming the left before his body was even cold. Some, predictably, chose to take the opportunity to raise funds for MAGA and TPUSA, before he is even in the ground. Wow. That’s some hard-core grifting.
Professor Turley’s focus, for some weird reason, on Clinton who has no relevance at all to the issue of censorship coming from Trump is really strange. It seems he’s just throwing it out there to keep the anger and attention on the left because Trump’s clear anti-free speech actions are embarrassingly hard to defend, even for Professor Turley. He is clearly at odds with the tactics of the Trump administration. He just doesn’t want to criticize because he knows MAGA will eat him alive. So much for standing up for his principles. Even Fox News has been making comments and parsing out violent rhetoric like calling for war against the left and such nonsense and we don’t see Fox News firing or suspending anyone for it.
The Republican outrage and making Charlie Kirk a martyr will fade away like everything else these days. Trump’s assassination attempt barely gets mentioned. The school shooting in Colorado is already a forgone memory. Kirk will be just another statistic in a long line of statistics involving guns and violence in this nation. Because it’s normal.
You must have been working on that comment all weekend. Now that you’re sober, do you regret it?
Wyoming Traders
Now it’s guns.. You are right george. Libs should not be allowed to have guns. We see what they do!
I’m all for guns, as long as they’re pointed at dustoff. And used.
Poor child, mom not like you?
Would Jimmy Kimmel have been fired anyway, regardless of who the president is, or is there a correlation between Kimmel’s firing and Trump’s presidency? If Kimmel is so talentless, would Kimmel have still been fired anyway while President Harris were president?
No. Kimmel’s comments were not controversial. Even ABC’s execs did not see his comments as crossing the line. It was Trump’s threats and the FCC’s following Trump’s demands that Kimmel be removed because he didn’t like what he was saying. Kimmel stated an opinion and that is protected speech. Some claim he lied, but never point out exactly what is the lie?
So, lets get this straight, Carr (one of 7,235 viewers) was watching Kimmel that night, became enraged, then called Trump at 2am Washington time, then they both called Disney, Sinclair and whoever, they all decided to get rid of Kimmel. Don’t ta love democracy.
No. The Project 2025 team was watching; they alerted up through the ranks to Trump, who called Carr what spin the Project 2025 team had developed to fabricate a false narrative to torpedo Kimmel. Otherwise conservatives don’t watch Kimmel the way that I don’t watch arch conservatives Alex Jones or Steve Banon, both of whom could say horrific things and I would never know unless someone closer to the center bragged about it.
Trump essentially told Project 2025 to go after Kimmel because those on the right alerted Trump to the very effective messaging from Kimmel in pointing out the flaws and failures in the current Trump term.
It also takes heat off the refusal to release the Epstein files which Trump had demanded in order to attack the Clintons. Many conservatives were on board about the release of the files, yet Trump refuses to do so after reports that hundreds of FBI agents were combing and redacting mentions of Trump in those files. Democrats, the ones Trump says are in those files, are calling for the release of the files.
Bull
His fallacious lies have been clearly revealed for all to hear and see. Apparently you think the rest of us are as dumb as yourself. Get a life, Fredo. Denial is not a river in Africa.
The people in Kimmel’s writer’s room did not see the statement as controversial because they live in a leftist bubble. The executives hadn’t seen the statement, they normally don’t do script-reads. Moreover, your timeline is wrong. The largest ABC affiliate had already dropped Kimmel before the FCC commissioner’s vague statement.
Also, if Trump didn’t like being made fun of, Kimmel has been doing that every day for 10 years. Why now?
I guess that it depends on what your definition of “disinformation” is? The Dems define disinformation as anything derogatory about the Dem party. And the “truth” is anything derogatory about the Republican Party.
Over the weekend, I became aware of a Dark Net closed, private enclave called “734”. The depraved, misanthropic (and young male) people who belong use social media to lure naive teens and then encourage them toward self-destruction, up to and including suicide. Participants earn status by successful harms they foster….the more outrageous and creative, the more notoriety earned.
This Cybersecurity article that calls “734” very dangerous to children: https://www.uscybersecurity.net/the-darkest-of-the-dark-the-764-network/
Prof. Turley, I’m wondering if you would label what these deranged men are doing “speech I don’t like”??
Would you cede to such evil-doers the right to amplification their voices in the public square? Would you cede to them “free speech” rights to influence teenagers? How about your children?
Professor, isn’t there a category of speech well beyond “speech I don’t like” — “utter depravity that I won’t tolerate”?
If we repeal Section 230, then we’ll be able to hold people responsible for operating servers who host this thrill-seeking anarchy. Not government prosecution, but civil torts (with fast due diligence)? Would you please start to admit that there are forms of internet speech that don’t bear any resemblance to “speech I don’t like”?
Would you “defend to the death” the right of these psychopathic misfits to “speak” in this manner?
And who will be the judge between speech I don’t like and evil speech? Well of course, the Dems, haha.
Who will judge? With Section 230 gone, and anyone can sue, it will be a Jury of 12 Americans using their common sense.
Dark net huh? So you’re into kidde porn then?
No, I read an article about it. What’s with the personal inuendo? You could learn a lot from Charlie Kirk. He was the real thing. You’re an anonymous coward.
So you stole the content and posted it here. Plagiarism or theft?
Learn from… you could too. Sounds like your pulling the Charley Kirk card. That a new thing?
You’re an anonymous coward and a thief.
I posted a link to the published article on “734”. Charlie brought lightness and comity to discussion of controversial issues. All you bring is lame accusations. You are capable of more. Contribute ideas, not ad-hominem putdowns.