Transcription
ABC and Disney tonight have good reason to brace for retribution from the president for putting Jimmy Kimmel back on. He's already promised it. Quoting from his social media post: "I can't believe ABC fake news gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back."
The White House was told by ABC that his show was canceled. He continued with the threat: "I think we're going to test ABC out on this. Let's see how we do. Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 million. This one sounds even more lucrative. A true bunch of losers let Jimmy Kimmel rot in his bad."
That is both the backdrop to and the threat hanging over ABC parent companies, their parent company, Disney. And now that he's back from suspension, over, over remarks he made in the wake of Charlie Kirk's murder. High stakes as well for a late-night monologue.
According to ABC, more than 6 million TV viewers, plus 26 million online, watched as he opened in last night with the exact same words. Tonight show host Jack Paar once after he returned from a different, and certainly less serious, fight over censorship 65 years ago. "We all know. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Anyway, as I was saying before I was int..."
Well, Kimmel also made light of the conditions for his. "Disney has asked me to read the following statement, and, I agreed to do it. Here we go. To reactivate your Disney Plus and Hulu account. Okay. Open the Disney Plus app on your TV or TV-connected device."
Like any good joke, there was truth behind it. A suspension set off calls for people to cancel subscriptions to streaming services owned by D. And a certain number of Google searches for instructions how to big affiliate groups. Sinclair and Nexstar, together accounting for nearly a quarter of ABC households, did not carry Kimmel's return last. Meaning their viewers did not get to hear him choke up while addressing Charlie Kirk supporters.
"I have no illusions about changing anyone's mind, but I do want to make something because it's important to me as and that is, you understand that it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man. I don't. I don't think there's anything funny about it. I, I posted a message on Instagram on the day he was killed. Sending love to his family and asking for compassion. And I meant it. I still do. Nor was it my intention to blame any specific group for the actions of what was obviously a deeply disturbed individual. That was really the opposite of what I was trying to make. But I understand that to some that felt either ill-timed or un- or maybe both. And for those who think I did, point a finger, I get why you're If the situation was reversed, there's a good chance I'd have felt the same way."
Kimmel also directly addressed the president and his pressure campaign to get him pulled from the air, as well as a wider. The wider climate of censorship is taking a hold on the country.
"The president of the United States made it very clear he wants to see me, and the hundreds of people who work here fired from our job. Our leader celebrates Americans losing their livelihoods because he can't take a joke. He's not stopping. And it's not just comedy. He's gunning for our journalists. Who? He's suing them. He's bullying them. Over the weekend, his Fox friend Pete Hegseth announced a new policy that requires journalists with Pentagon press credentials to sign a pledge promising not to report information that hasn't been explicitly authorized for release. That includes unclassified information. They want to pick and choose what the news is. I know that's not as interesting as muzzling a comedian, but it's so important to have a free press, and it is that we aren't paying more attention to it. Walter Cronkite must be spinning in his grave right now. He's dead, right? Yeah. Look, I never imagined I would be in a situation like this. I barely paid attention in school. But one thing I did learn from, from Lenny Bruce and George Carlin and Howard Stern. Is that a government threat to silence a comedian the president doesn't like is anti-American. Oh."
Before the monologue aired, Kimmel got a boost from podcaster Joe Rogan. Here's his remarks: "The companies, if they're being pressured by the government. So if that's real and if people on the right are like, yeah, go get 'em. Oh my God, you're crazy. You're crazy for supporting this because this will be used on you."
A spokesman for Charlie Kirk's organization, Turning Point USA, weighed in on Kimmel's monologue, saying it was not enough. "What we need is I'm sorry I lied. I was wrong and I won't do it again. And my apologies to the Kirk fam and Erica Kirk with somebody like Kimmel says that the shooter was Charlie was MAGA. What he's really saying is that it's okay to lie about conservatives, that their lives don't matter, that the his agenda, his political and cultural agenda is more important than the life of my friend who was just taken from us and robbed from us."
Vice President Vance also addressed Kimmel's remarks, suggesting the administration, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, had nothing to do with his suspension. "What people will say is, well, you know, didn't the FCC commissioner put a tweet that said something bad? Well, can't compare that. The FCC commissioner making a joke on social media. What is the government action that the Trump administration has engaged in to kick Jimmy Kimmel or anybody else off the air? Zero. What government pressure have we brought to bear to tell people that they're not allowed to speak their mind? Zero. We believe in free speech."
In point of fact, Kimmel was pulled from the air not after Brendan Carr made a joke on social media, but after Carr put pressure on ABC affiliates on camera just hours before those two affiliate groups, Nexstar and Sinclair, decided to preempt last Wednesday night's show. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct, and take action. Frankly, on Kimmel or, you know, there's going to be additional work for the FCC ahead. You can call that pressure. Maybe. You see, that is just making a suggestion for affiliates."
Joining us now is Kara Swisher, co-host of The Pivot podcast and host of the On with Kara Swisher podcast. Also, Harvard Law School professor and First Amendment attorney Rebecca Tushnet. Kara, first of all, what did you What'd you think of Jimmy Kimmel's monologue?
"I thought you did a great job. It's a really hard needle to thread. I think he came off as, human. He was funny. That's the critical thing. He's a comic. He should be funny. Relaxed, actually, surprisingly. And he made a lot of good jokes, at the expense of Donald Trump and Brendan Carr. And those are the deserved attack vectors for a comic in this situation like him. So I thought he was good and he wasn't too lecturing. I think that could have been a problem. He said sort of the right things about the free press and, was, I think, appropriately apologetic and tried to say, if you heard me the wrong way, I'm really sorry. I thought it was pretty good. It did well, so it did well, that's the other thing, by Million. 26 million on YouTube. Yeah, six and 6.25."
"You know, it's sort of a clap back at the president because it was popular. People wanted to hear it. And, you you interpret it as a clap back against the president. I think that, you know, yes, definitely. He was making a lot of jokes at the expense. No, I mean, those numbers. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. People wanted to see it. It was popular. You know, the one thing President Trump is aware of is popularity. And this was a popular, this was Like, I don't know if it's going to stay popular, but he certainly did, Jimmy Kimmel a favor and always says he does favors for people's ratings."
"Well, congratulations, Mr. President. You did a great job getting Jimmy Kimmel noticed. And so, professor, the president called Kimmel's show another arm of the D. Like in the airtime, he gets to an unlawful campaign contribution against him. Does that argument have any basis in in law?"
"Not in current law. So this has been an idea floating around on kind of the radical fringes for a while, that speech that they don't like is, a campaign contribution. And, you know, obviously it it's nonsensical. He It's nonsensical in general. But it's particularly so here when the there's no way you could say he's, supporting a political party. But even if he was, saying things in support of a political party is not a political contribution. And, that's, I mean, I really don't know what it's it's it's deeply bizarre."