Washington / Los Angeles:
ABC, belonging to Walt Disney, said on Wednesday that she had fired “Jimmy Kimmel Live”, after the comments of the host of the late evening show on the assassination of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk sparked a threat by the head of the high regulator of American communications against Disney.
President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly put the radiudiffusers to stop broadcasting content he found reprehensible, celebrated the news in an article on social networks. A number of democratic legislators have assailed the decision, saying that freedom of expression was attacked.
The suspension of Kimmel’s show marked the latest measures taken against media personalities, academic workers, teachers and business employees about their comments on Kirk after his assassination.
Republican leaders and conservative commentators have warned the Americans to cry Kirk respectfully or suffer consequences, and some people were dismissed or suspended after discussing the online murder.
Kimmel, who frequently targeted Trump in his late evening comedy show, fire for remarks he made on murder in his monologue on Monday. “We have struck new stockings during the weekend, the Gang Maga trying desperately to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as something other than one of them, and do everything they can to score political points,” said Kimmel.
Kirk, a 31 -year -old activist and celebrity of the Trump world known for her right -wing views and her pugnacious debate style, was filmed in the neck while he was speaking at a UTA University a week ago. A 22 -year -old suspect was accused of his murder, and his precise reason remains uncertain.
Kimmel’s comments led to a response from the president of the Federal Communications Commission Brendan Carr, who urged the local broadcasters to stop broadcasting “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on ABC. Carr suggested that the Commission could open an investigation and that the broadcasters could potentially be condemned to a fine or to lose their license if there was a deformed comments model.
“This is a very, very serious problem at the moment for Disney. We can do it the simplest way or the hard way,” said Carr in an interview with Podcast with the conservative commentator Benny Johnson who broadcast on Wednesday.
“Disney needs to see a change here, but individual approved stations that take their content, it is time for them to intensify and say that, you know, garbage to the extent that this is what descends the pipe in the future is not something which, in our view, responds to the needs of our local communities.”
After Carr spoke, Nexstar Media Group NXST.O said he would stop the program on his 32 ABC affiliates, citing Kimmel’s comments. Nexstar, who needs the FCC approval for his 6.2 billion dollars agreement to acquire a smaller rival Tegna.n, praised Carr, who thanked Nexstar for doing the right thing “.
Shortly after Nexstar announced its decision, ABC, which holds licenses approved by the FCC for the affiliates of the local distribution it has, also said that Kimmel would be withdrawn from the air.
“” Jimmy Kimmel Live “will be preempted indefinitely,” said a spokesperson for ABC, without developing.
Sinclair, the largest ABC affiliation group in the country, then said that it would not broadcast Kimmel’s show, even if ABC decides to bring it back, unless “appropriate measures” were taken. Sinclair called Kimmel to apologize and said that it would pay tribute to Kirk in Kimmel’s time slot on Friday.
Kimmel, who was seen on Wednesday, leaving the El Capitan theater where his show is recorded, did not respond to a request for comments.
While the broadcasters took measures, Trump applauded the news in an article on Truth Social while also calling CMCSA.O NBC, belonging to Comcast, to dismiss Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, the hosts of the end of the evening comedy programs on the network who often make jokes at the expense of Trump.
“Congratulations to ABC for having finally had the courage to do what should be done,” said Trump.
Democrats in turn criticized Kimmel’s withdrawal from the air, Senator Ed Markey calling her “censorship in action”.
The FCC commissioner Anna Gomez, the only Democratic member of the FCC, said that American laws on freedom of expression should prevent the FCC from telling the diffusers what they can disseminate.
“This administration is increasingly using the weight of government power to remove legal expression,” she told CNN.
Trump has repeatedly continued, reprimanded and threatened media companies whose coverage he disputes legally or other.
Trump this week has a defamation trial of 15 billion dollars against the New York Times and the Books publisher Random House this week, accusing them of treating it unjustly.
CBS-Parent Paramount paid $ 16 million in July to resolve a civil action on what Trump alleged was the misleading edition by the network of an interview with the presidential candidate Kamala Harris. ABC, in December, paid $ 15 million to set a defamation trial filed by Trump about the live description by the George Stephanopoulos anchor of the president’s conduct in the E. Jean Carroll case.
After the murder of Kirk, political analyst Matthew Dowd was dismissed from MSNBC after having described the activist as a “division” figure which spread “hate speech” and added “hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then led to hateful actions”.
The president of MSNBC, Rebecca Kutler, published a declaration apologizing for the comments of Dowd, which, according to her, were “inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable”.
Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah said on Monday that she had been dismissed by the newspaper on a series of publications on the social networks she had made after the murder of Kirk, one in which she noted Kirk’s previous comments on black women. The position said that he does not comment on personnel issues and that the newspaper’s union sentenced the dismissal.
