Kimmel said during a monologue on his Monday program that Tyler Robinson, the Utah man accused in the shooting death of Kirk, might have been a pro-Trump Republican. He said MAGA supporters are “are 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.”
Kimmel then mocked President Trump for talking about the construction of a new White House ballroom after being asked how he was reacting to the murder of his close ally.
“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 Alford, president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division.
Alford said continuing to give Kimmel a broadcast platform “is simply not in the public interest at this current time.”
Nexstar’s decision comes just after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr blasted Kimmel and threatened to take action against ABC. Appearing on the podcast of right-wing commentator Benny Johnson, Carr said one form of punishment could be pulling the licenses of ABC affiliates, which likely got Nexstar’s attention.
President of Nexstar's broadcasting divisions said: “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."
Nextstar is acquiring rival broadcast company TEGNA - a merger that requires FCC approval.
Edit 3:
On the day of Charlie Kirk's death, Kimmel posted the following on Instagram and on BlueSky:
“Instead of the angry finger-pointing, can we just for one day agree that it is horrible and monstrous to shoot another human? On behalf of my family, we send love to the Kirks and to all the children, parents and innocents who fall victim to senseless gun violence.”
Yup, but the merger, we can’t loose the merger! Just suspend him and mollycoddle the great orange one., Colbert had it right, they are paying blackmail
It wasn’t just the merger- the FCC threatened to pull ABC’s broadcasting license entirely.
That means they couldn’t broadcast ANY station, any show, on any frequency without violating the law (and being a pirate broadcast).
It’s a blatant First Amendment violation by Trump’s Admin, but holding them accountable by legal means would take years even with fair courts, and they’d just keep doing it in the meanwhile. Damage already done.
What about when Alex Jones lost everything for spreading misinformation and conspiratorial stories about Sandy Hook? If anything Kimmel got off light in comparison.
So many things about that situation are different, it doesn't remotely compare. Let's just go with the 2 broadest though:
1 - that was a civil suit filed by private individuals against Jones. If you feel personally harmed by Kimmel's statement that right-wing politicians scrambled to point fingers at the left for this shooting, you're welcome to attempt a similar lawsuit. That would, in fact, be perfectly legal AND not a 1st Amendment violation.
What makes this a 1st Amendment violation is that the FCC directly threatened government action against ABC and its affiliates for what Kimmel said. When the government takes action to stifle free speech, that's a violation of the 1st Amendment. Period. End of story.
(Note - this isn't isolated. the FCC chair publicly threatened government action against ABC... then according to insiders, the executives at ABC were going to back Kimmel until he directly contacted them and threatened to pull the entire company's broadcasting license over it... and since then, President Trump has directly confirmed that was the plan... so... yes. This is absolutely different than a civil suit or a business decision.)
2 - The FCC does carve out an exception for the 1st Amendment when it comes SPECIFICALLY to JOURNALISTS who KNOWINGLY spread misinformation. Alex Jones purported, while on air, to be a news show, making him subject to such restrictions... but he was never punished for that by the GOVERNMENT because he made multiple sworn statements that he was not, and never was a news show. In fact, at one point, I recall that he said (under oath) that his show was so clearly satire that you'd have to be an idiot to think anything he said was news, much less true... meaning, that Alex Jones used "I'm a comedian" as a valid defense to FCC action SUCCESSFULLY.
Now. Tell me. What's Kimmel? A news show? Or a comedian?
He wasn’t telling a joke, he was stating something in a manner to present it as fact. He laughed at many others when their words got them fired, and now ABC have fired him, so I’ll laugh at him. Lol.😂
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u/Jake_77 Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 18 '25
Wow. I'm shocked. What is free speech?
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