Late night comedian Jimmy Kimmel鈥檚 return to regularly scheduled programming could be a prelude to a larger war over free speech in the United States.
The cheery, teary, following a week-long suspension featured a plea for the country to fight for First Amendment rights to speak freely as well as criticism of President Donald Trump as a leader who 鈥渃elebrates Americans losing their livelihoods because he can鈥檛 take a joke.鈥
Kimmel told his studio audience that political interference and threats led to fellow talk-show host Stephen Colbert losing is CBS show earlier this year and almost cost him his own show, which he said was 鈥渦namerican and 鈥 so dangerous.鈥
鈥淭his show is not important. What is important is that we live in a country that allows us to have a show like this,鈥 he said.
But Kimmel was not the only one to double down on Tuesday night.
Trump himself chimed in from with new threats to silence his comedic critic.
He said that Kimmel鈥檚 show was 鈥測et another arm of the (Democratic Party) and, to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major illegal campaign contribution.鈥
鈥淚 think we鈥檙e going to test ABC out on this. Let鈥檚 see how we do. The last time I went after them, they gave me $16 million dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative,鈥 he wrote, in apparent reference to a defamation cast brought by Trump against ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos.
If Trump does go into battle to silence Kimmel, it would be just one more campaign in a wider war against critics of his administration.
Last week, he filed a US$15-billion defamation lawsuit against the New York Times, while the newly renamed Department of War issued new rules that would revoke access to accredited Pentagon reporters unless they signed a pledge to publish only information authorized for publicly release.
“If the news about our military must first be approved by the government, then the public is no longer getting independent reporting. It is getting only what officials want them to see,” . “That should alarm every American.”
Kimmel referred to the new Pentagon rules in his monologue, saying it was an example of the Trump administration wanting “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 nuts that we aren’t paying more attention.”
The free-speech fight that has pitted Kimmel against Trump erupted last week after a monologue that suggested Trump supporters were attempting to cast the man charged in the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk 鈥渁s anything other than one of them.鈥
He also accused 鈥渢he MAGA gang鈥 of trying to 鈥渟core political points鈥 with the killing.
The accused, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was in a romantic relationship with a transgender woman and had expressed left-wing political views, according to criminal indictment.
Kimmel’s comments prompted outrage among Republicans and a veiled threat from Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, a Trump appointee, to launch an investigation into broadcaster ABC. Hours later, local ABC affiliates Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Inc. announced they would be indefinitely pulling the Kimmel show from their lineup, prompting a decision by ABC and parent company Disney to suspend the production.
The move was celebrated on the right as a political victory and denounced on the left, with campaigns to boycott Disney content and products.
This week, hundreds of Hollywood artists also came to Kimmel’s defence, issuing a letter through the American Civil Liberties Union that called the suspension “a dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation.”
“We know this moment is bigger than us and our industry. Teachers, government employees, law firms, researchers, universities, students and so many more are also facing direct attacks on their freedom of expression,” said , which was signed by big entertainment names, including Ariana Grande, Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, Meryl Streep, Pedro Pascal, Ron Howard, Robert DeNiro, and Tom Hanks.
“Regardless of our political affiliation, or whether we engage in politics or not, we all love our country. We also share the belief that our voices should never be silenced by those in power 鈥 because if it happens to one of us, it happens to all of us.”
Returning to the air鈥攖hough with both Nexstar and Sinclair continuing to pre-empt the show on their stations鈥擪immel said there was probably nothing he could do to change peoples鈥 minds about his politics or boost his popularity.
鈥淚f you like me, you like me. If you don鈥檛, you don鈥檛,鈥 he said.
鈥淏ut I don鈥檛 want to make something clear. It was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man. I don鈥檛 think there鈥檚 anything funny about it.鈥
As Kimmel鈥檚 opening line (鈥淎s I was saying before I was interrupted鈥︹) suggested, Tuesday鈥檚 show was his attempt to cross from international controversy back to the firmer and more familiar ground of comedy.
He joked that his experience in Trump鈥檚 crosshairs was as bizarre as the chief executive officer of Tylenol, who is dealing with fallout from the president鈥檚 claims linking Tylenol use by pregnant women to autism.
He joked about FCC Chair Carr, noting that even Republican Sen. Ted Cruz his comments to conservative podcaster Benny Johnson to those of a mafia boss.
The only difference was that 鈥渢o hear a mafia boss make a threat like that, you have to hide a microphone in a deli and park outside in a van with a tape recorder all night long,鈥 Kimmel said.
鈥淭his genius said it in a podcast.鈥
Kimmel also riffed off Trump鈥檚 refrain that his late-night show should be pulled off the air because 鈥渉e had no ratings.鈥
It was an underhand pitch to a major league veteran, and Kimmel the funny man, grinning, hit it with everything he had.
鈥淚 do tonight!鈥
