ABC has suspend 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' in the wake of Brendan Carr threatening ABC affiliates following the late-night host's comments about the suspected Kirk shooter's politics.
Respectfully, read the statement again focusing on the word NOT.
Kimmel said the MAGA movement was trying to score political points by trying to prove that the 22-year-old suspect accused of killing Kirk is NOT one of its own.
“NOT one of its own” = NOT MAGA
Shooter = NOT MAGA
MAGA wants the shooter = NOT MAGA.
Which is what Kimmel said. And is very true.
As for why it’s an attack on Free Speech, it’s not hard to show. However, it is going to require a few links to paint the bigger picture -
To start, here’s how Republicans felt about executive orders in 2014 and how it’s tyranny to use them to bypass congress:
finding a Republican who’d denounce [Presidents] executive actions… was easier than breathing. “There’s a Constitution that we all take an oath to, including him, and following the Constitution is the basis for House Republicans.”
More resonant warnings followed, from Republicans who had been characterizing all of [Presidents] actions—as petty tyranny… wrote Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the Wall Street Journal - When a president can pick and choose which laws to follow and which to ignore, he is no longer a president.”
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul weighed in, too, “I think it’s disturbing… on the idea that he can go around Congress
Basically, a President using executive orders to bypass 1/3 of our system of government (congress) is tyranny, and against the constitution that President is supposed to protect. Ted Cruz stated any President who ruled entirely through executive order like this was not a President.
Something I agree with.
Because the FCC was an independant government agency until 2025. They regulated what was on TV with no influence from the government at all.
The FCC has long held that ‘the public interest is best served by permitting free expression of views,’” the FCC says on its website.
Until this year. When Trump expanded our government to control them. By issuing an executive order that bypassed congress (1/3 of our checks and balances) to expand the executive branch to control dozens of agencies that used to be Independant. The FCC is one of those agencies, and is now part of the executive branch instead of existing outside the government.
This is VERY important to understand when it comes to the first amendment, because:
In 1963, the US Supreme Court issued a key ruling that the government cannot create a “system of informal censorship” by putting pressure on private companies.
The FCC is now the government, not independant, so it cannot influence private companies without violating the Frist Amendment as ruled by the Supreme Court in 1963.
Yet here’s the head of the FCC doing just that:
FCC Chair Brendan Carr suggested Jimmy Kimmel should be suspended and said, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,”… Within a matter of hours, ABC suspended Kimmel’s show “indefinitely,” a stunning move that has raised serious First Amendment concerns.
Those concerns are about government overreach from the FCC. Which is now a part of our government through the tyranny of executive order. Trump is using them to censors private companies despite that clearly being protected by the First Amendment as I’ve linked above.
And he will keep doing it because Republicans only have a spine to protect our Constitution from a black president, not actual tyranny.
TYRANNY - Dictionary - noun
cruel, unreasonable, or arbitrary use of power or control.
Give me a reason the FCC is now part of the executive branch that isn’t a MAGA lie.
Executive control of the FCC wasn’t needed for 9/11. Or Covid. Or anything else. But it is now? Why? What reason could possibly be more important than 9/11?
If there’s no good reason, his expansion of government to control them is unreasonable.
Which is literal, by definition, Tryanny. And what Republicans used to care about.
Instead, Trump is actively using his extended powers over the FCC, granted to him by himself (not congress) to attack Kimmels right to Free Speech despite it clearly being Constitutionally protected as coming from a private company.
If Trump didn’t control the FCC, this likely wouldn’t be against the First Amendment. But the FCC wouldn’t do anything like this unless it was controlled by Trump. That’s why he issued an executive order to control it.
Which again, is both tyrannical AND and a very explicit and intentional disregard for the Constitution and our First Amendment rights over censorship it protects. The government cannot put pressure on private companies to censor them, yet Trump took control of the FCC so his government could do just that.
What happens next is Trump will keep overruling the Constitution by executive order, as he has been, eventually to the point where only some groups are safe to practice free speech. Effectively robbing it from everyone the Constitution grants it to, and giving it only to whoever he wants.
And you will be okay with it because Trump will surely give MAGA another lie to believe.
At least until he takes away something you do care about. Then it’ll matter.
Until then, you’ll likely just keep running away from any yes or no questions that might indicate this is what’s happening as a consequence of Trumps lies.
Respectfully, read the statement again focusing on the word NOT.
“NOT one of its own” = NOT MAGA
Shooter = NOT MAGA
MAGA wants the shooter = NOT MAGA.
Which is what Kimmel said. And is very true.
As for why it’s an attack on Free Speech, it’s not hard to show. However, it is going to require a few links to paint the bigger picture -
To start, here’s how Republicans felt about executive orders in 2014 and how it’s tyranny to use them to bypass congress:
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2014/01/gop-leaders-are-appalled-that-the-president-would-issue-an-executive-order.html
Basically, a President using executive orders to bypass 1/3 of our system of government (congress) is tyranny, and against the constitution that President is supposed to protect. Ted Cruz stated any President who ruled entirely through executive order like this was not a President.
Something I agree with.
Because the FCC was an independant government agency until 2025. They regulated what was on TV with no influence from the government at all.
Until this year. When Trump expanded our government to control them. By issuing an executive order that bypassed congress (1/3 of our checks and balances) to expand the executive branch to control dozens of agencies that used to be Independant. The FCC is one of those agencies, and is now part of the executive branch instead of existing outside the government.
https://www.consumerfinancemonitor.com/2025/02/26/trump-takes-control-of-independent-agencies/
This is VERY important to understand when it comes to the first amendment, because:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/9/19/does-jimmy-kimmels-removal-over-charlie-kirk-violate-freedom-of-speech
The FCC is now the government, not independant, so it cannot influence private companies without violating the Frist Amendment as ruled by the Supreme Court in 1963.
Yet here’s the head of the FCC doing just that:
https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/18/media/brendan-carr-jimmy-kimmel-fcc-first-amendment
Those concerns are about government overreach from the FCC. Which is now a part of our government through the tyranny of executive order. Trump is using them to censors private companies despite that clearly being protected by the First Amendment as I’ve linked above.
And he will keep doing it because Republicans only have a spine to protect our Constitution from a black president, not actual tyranny.
Give me a reason the FCC is now part of the executive branch that isn’t a MAGA lie.
Executive control of the FCC wasn’t needed for 9/11. Or Covid. Or anything else. But it is now? Why? What reason could possibly be more important than 9/11?
If there’s no good reason, his expansion of government to control them is unreasonable.
Which is literal, by definition, Tryanny. And what Republicans used to care about.
Instead, Trump is actively using his extended powers over the FCC, granted to him by himself (not congress) to attack Kimmels right to Free Speech despite it clearly being Constitutionally protected as coming from a private company.
If Trump didn’t control the FCC, this likely wouldn’t be against the First Amendment. But the FCC wouldn’t do anything like this unless it was controlled by Trump. That’s why he issued an executive order to control it.
Which again, is both tyrannical AND and a very explicit and intentional disregard for the Constitution and our First Amendment rights over censorship it protects. The government cannot put pressure on private companies to censor them, yet Trump took control of the FCC so his government could do just that.
What happens next is Trump will keep overruling the Constitution by executive order, as he has been, eventually to the point where only some groups are safe to practice free speech. Effectively robbing it from everyone the Constitution grants it to, and giving it only to whoever he wants.
And you will be okay with it because Trump will surely give MAGA another lie to believe.
At least until he takes away something you do care about. Then it’ll matter.
Until then, you’ll likely just keep running away from any yes or no questions that might indicate this is what’s happening as a consequence of Trumps lies.