Transcription
This is a breaking news alert. ABC Disney has effectively fired Jimmy Kimmel, the host of Jimmy Kimmel Live, because Jimmy Kimmel made a joke about Charlie Kirk.
The sequence of events is that NextStar, which controls about 32 ABC affiliates, first announced that it would be preempting the Jimmy Kimmel Live show, meaning it would not be showing it and showing something else in its place. It should be noted that NextStar wants to complete a merger with a company called uh Tegna, which is its rival. It would be a $6.2 billion merger that requires FCC approval.
So, uh, NextStar said that it would not be carrying Jimmy Kimmel. It was certainly pressured as well by Brendan Carr, the chairman of the FCC, who's been threatening lots of broadcasters and had previously threatened ABC as well. Then after NextStar pulled the Jimmy Kimmel show, then Disney ABC confirmed that it would no longer be showing Jimmy Kimmel Live. They say indefinitely. So for all purposes, it's basically like Jimmy Kimmel has been pushed off and fired by Disney ABC. I'm sure there's potentially going to be litigation over his contract and what they're going to pay him.
Um, but the headline is Jimmy Kimmel pulled indefinitely by ABC after Charlie Kirk comments, and this was confirmed as well by an ABC spokesperson saying that Jimmy Kimmel will no longer be on the air. Let me show you what Jimmy Kimmel said during a monologue on Monday. I can't play it because then ABC would make a copyright claim despite trying to destroy the show and destroying the show. So, let me just read for you what Jimmy Kimmel said. He goes, "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. This is not how an adult grieves the murder of somebody uh that Trump called a friend. This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish."
Okay. And then he shows this clip right here of Donald Trump when he was asked, "What are you feeling right now about Charlie Kirk? How are you mourning the loss of your friend?" And then Donald Trump said in the White House lawn, we covered this. Remember we covered this last week. Donald Trump said, "Take a look at that ballroom. We're building a ballroom right there. So that's all that Jimmy Kimmel said that the right-wing was so offended by that MAGA was offended by and that now his entire show has been cancelled because he showed this clip and said what I just read here. Just play the clip of what Trump did here. Play this clip. How are you holding up for the last three and a half days? >> I think very good. And by the way, right there you see all the trucks. They just started construction of the new ballroom for the White House, which is something they've been trying to get, as you know, for about 150 years and it's going to be a beauty. It'll be absolutely a nightmare structure and I just see all the trucks. We just started. So, it'll get done uh very nicely, and it'll be one of the best anywhere in the world, actually."
So, here was the release by NextStar ABC affiliates to preempt the Jimmy Kimmel Live show. This comes from NextStar Media Group. Company objects to talk show host's comments on killing of Charlie Kirk. NextStar Media Group today announced that the company's owned and partnered television stations affiliated with ABC Television Network would preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live for the foreseeable future, beginning with tonight's show. NextStar strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk and will replace the show with other programming in its ABC affiliated markets.
Quote, "Mr. Kimmel's comments about the death of Mr. Kirk are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse and we do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views or values of the local communities in which we are located," said Andrew Alfred, president of NextStar's broadcasting division. "Continuing to give Mr. Kimmel a broadcast platform and the communities we serve is simply not in the public interest at the current time and we have made the difficult decision to preempt his show in an effort to let cooler heads prevail as we move toward the resumption of respectful constructive dialogue."
Let's be very clear. Charlie Kirk was never in favor of the resumption of respectful and constructive dialogue. Charlie Kirk spoke about hate. He talked about his hatred of black people. He talked about his hatred of gay people. He talked about his hatred of trans people. He called for former President Biden to be executed. He said that he wouldn't want to go on a plane with black people over, or or being flown by a black pilot, rather. Over and over again, Charlie Kirk has spread hate. He said that black jurists and like Michelle Obama and Ketanji Brown Jackson and others didn't have the mental brain power or capacity to truly hold their jobs. It's a direct quote from Charlie Kirk. He said that the civil rights movement was a complete mistake. So spare me the constructive dialogue. Charlie Kirk was a hatemonger while he was alive. Now, we condemn in the strongest terms violence, but let's not rewrite history about what took place here. And by the way, I read for you the transcript of what Jimmy Kimmel said. That's the whole thing that they're getting rid of Jimmy Kimmel over. Like, what did he say there that was wrong? I I still don't see what he said there that was incorrect. He He's a comedian. He's allowed to do jokes. And really, Donald Trump was the one who was asked, "How are you mourning?" and he points to the ballroom and says, "I'm building a ballroom." He can't even himself express sympathy.
Now, the chairman of the FCC, Brendan Carr, wrote the following. "I want to thank NextStar for doing the right thing. Local broadcasters have an obligation to serve the public interest. While this may be an unprecedented decision, it is important for broadcasters to push back on Disney programming that they determine falls short of community values. I hope that other broadcasters follow NextStar's lead."
Now, Brian Stelter, reporter, asked for comment from the FCC chair, Brendan Carr, and Brendan Carr sent a GIF of the office of the characters raising the roof, celebrating the termination of Jimmy Kimmel. Right-wing media influencers like Benny Johnson are congratulating NextStar for cancelling Jimmy Kimmel. And ABC Disney, thank you for standing up for Charlie.
Now, earlier in the day, you had FCC chairman Brendan Carr go on the Benny Johnson show to threaten NextStar, to threaten ABC Disney, um, to threaten their local affiliate licenses, as well as the merger between NextStar and their largest rival, Tegna, in a merger that would make NextStar the largest owners of local TV stations. And Trump's FCC got involved there. And then NextStar clearly caved very early. Here's what Brendan Carr has to say. Play this clip. >> There's actions that we can take on licensed broadcasters. And frankly, I think that it's it's it's really sort of past time that a lot of these licensed broadcasters themselves push back on Comcast and Disney and say, "Listen, we are going to preempt. We're not going to run Kimmel anymore until you straighten this out because we we licensed broadcasters are running the possibility of fines or license revocations from the FCC if we continue to run content that ends up being a pattern of news distortion. So, I think again Disney needs to see some change here, but the individual licensed stations that are taking their content, it's time for them to step up and say this, you know, garbage, uh, to the extent that that's what comes down the pipe in the future isn't something that we think serves the needs of our local communities. But, but this sort of status quo is obviously not not acceptable where we are.
Now, let's not forget that ABC Disney, they were one of the first to capitulate and cave when uh they settled a ridiculous lawsuit that Donald Trump filed against George Stephanopoulos, in my opinion. Then, of course, uh earlier in the week, Donald Trump threatened John Carl of ABC when Trump and his regime said that they were going to go after what they consider to be hate speech. John Carl said, "Well, what do you mean? What are you going to consider hate speech that you're going to criminalize and go after?" And then Donald Trump said, "Like you, we're going to go after people like you." And then shortly thereafter, they the regime went after uh Jimmy Kimmel and now Jimmy Kimmel's lost his job. Here, play this clip of that exchange. >> And and what do you make Pam Bondi saying? She's going to go after hate speech. Uh is that I mean, a lot of people, a lot of your allies say hate speech is free speech. You probably go after people like you because you treat me so unfairly. It's hate. You have a lot of hate in your heart. Maybe they'll come after ABC. Well, ABC paid me $16 million recently for a form of hate speech, right? Your company paid me $16 million for a form of hate speech. So maybe they'll have to go after you.
>> We're hearing from Ari Melber for The Fire, a free speech organization, saying the following. "The government pressured ABC and ABC caved. The timing of ABC's decision on the heels of the FCC chairman's pledge to the network to do this the easy way or the hard way tells the whole story. Another media outlet withered under government pressure, ensuring that the administration will continue to extort and exact retribution on broadcasters and publishers who criticize it. We cannot be a country where late-night talk show hosts serve at the pleasure of the president. But until institutions grow a backbone and learn to resist government pressure, that is the country that we are."
Now, contrast this to what's been going on on Fox. Brian Kilmeade, one of Fox's hosts, endorsed just killing homeless people. "No, we should kill them. Involuntarily euthanize them," is what Brian Kilmeade said. This is what's happening on Fox on a daily basis. Play this clip. >> Billions of dollars to mental health and the homeless population. A lot of them don't want to take the programs. A lot of them don't want to get the help that is necessary. You can't give them a choice. Either you take the resources that we're going to give you and or you decide that you're going to be locked up in jail. That's the way it has to be now. >> Or uh involuntary lethal injection or something. Just kill them. >> Yeah. Brian, why did it have to get to this point? >> Right. I I would say this. We're not voting for the right people in North Carolina. Wake up. >> And then you can just say we're going to kill people if you're on Fox and then just apologize for it and you're cool. Remember what Brian Kilmeade did here? Play this clip. >> Uh and it actually happened. We were together on Wednesday, Lawrence, uh, in the morning, we were discussing the murder of Arena Serusa in Charlotte, North Carolina. Now, how to stop these kinds of attacks by homeless, mentally ill assailants, including institutionalizing or jailing such people so they cannot attack again. Now, during that discussion, I wrongly said they should get lethal injections. I apologize for that extremely callous remark. I'm obviously aware that not all mentally ill homeless people act as the perpetrator did in North Carolina and that so many homeless people deserve our empathy and compassion.
Meanwhile, right-wing figures and right-wing uh influencers continue to spread lies over and over again with zero accountability. Last night you had Ted Cruz go on CNN and lie that the uh political assassination of Melissa Hortman in Minnesota was committed by left-wing people and that it was Governor Walz is somehow behind it. Everything they do is just an utter lie to cause division. Here, play this clip. >> When funding acts of violence we should go after, but this is a left-wing problem. How can you argue that it's I think the argument that people have been talking about recently is what's going on with the Charlie Kirk case. I think people have raised that because there have been other acts of political violence as well when it comes to targeting Democrats. I mean, we've seen that with a lawmaker who was killed in Minnesota this summer alongside her husband. We've seen it with the break-in at Nancy. >> But the assassin is Brett Kavanaugh. The assassin with Hold on a second. If you're if you're going to say facts, get you need to get your facts right. The assassin there was not a right-wing assassin acting on a political motive. The assassin there was someone who had been an appointee of Tim Walz and he was a deranged lunatic. Of course, you had Donald Trump traveling the country during the campaign, mocking the attempted murder of Nancy Pelosi's husband and spreading false defamatory rumors that Nancy Pelosi's husband was secretly gay and invited the uh potential killer into his home and that's why he was wearing his underwear and Trump just lying and defaming Pelosi's husband and mocking the attempted assassination by a MAGA nut job. Here, play this clip. >> We had no terror during my administration. The only terror we had was Nancy Pelosi, who's a crazed lunatic. She's a lunatic. She is a crazed lunatic. What the hell was going on with her husband? Let's not ask. Let's not ask. I'll withdraw that statement. By the way, she's got a wall around her house. Obviously, in that case, it didn't work very well, did it? It didn't work.
And again, we've seen this over and over again. Donald Trump refused to call Governor Walz and called him a whack job after the political assassination of Democratic leaders in Minnesota. Play this clip. >> Governor of Minnesota is so whacked out. I'm not calling. Why would I call him? I could call him, say, "Hi, how you doing?" Uh, the guy doesn't have a clue. He's a He's a mess. So, you know, I could be nice and call him, but why waste time?
Then earlier today, you had J.D. Vance saying that my friend is dead, Charlie Kirk, because of left-wing political radicalization, which again is not true. It was a guy, a 22-year-old white guy from a MAGA family. And this is what the right-wing wants to do. This is what Trump and his fascist regime wants to do. They want to spread this hate and lies and use Charlie Kirk's murder as a pretext to now shut down all of the media. And they're doing it with Kimmel. Here, play this clip. That is not a both sides problem. My friend is dead because of left-wing political radicalization. And if you want to cut that out, then be honest about it and look yourself in the mirror.
And now Donald Trump has responded from his social media account. He writes the following. "Great news for America. The ratings challenged, Jimmy Kimmel show is cancelled. Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. Kimmel has zero talent and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that's possible. That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers on fake news NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC president DJT."
So now Donald Trump is also calling for the firing of Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers. The attack on late-night comedians because of Donald Trump's frail, fragile little ego, very, very, very disturbing and very, very fascist.
Now we posted on our Substack on midasplus.com. Go and check it out. We've invited Jimmy Kimmel uh to be a host at the Midas Touch Network. I hope he takes us up on it. Go to midasplus.com. You'll see our article, "A Message to Jimmy Kimmel from Midas Touch," and we told him we just were named YouTube's number one channel again. Um, we beat Joe Rogan again this past week. We're the most viewed YouTube channel uh in all categories in the world right now. So join us, Jimmy Kimmel. We're for free speech. We'll let you say whatever you want. Um, and we're not afraid to speak our mind here at the Midas Touch Network. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers. And thanks everybody for watching. Love this video. Support independent media and unlock exclusive content. Ad-free videos and custom emojis by becoming a paid member of our YouTube channel today. You can also gift memberships to others. Let's keep growing together. [Music]