Dejected 55
Enlightened
- May 7, 2025
- 1,493
I've been clear that I don't like what I know about Charlie Kirk, but didn't want to see him killed for it and I don't like seeing people cheering it.
Not equal events, but I don't like the implication of the Jimmy Kimmel suspension either. I'm not particularly a fan of his show. I was not a fan of "The Man Show" back in the day as I thought it exemplified the worst aspects of men in society.
Curiously... there are woman who are liberal who will defend Kimmel now, but I don't think they would have defended him for things he said and did on "The Man Show" back in the day. That's interesting to me.
Meanwhile, I see a lot of people on the right cheering at Kimmel's suspension. That kind of gets a meh from me because cancel culture has hit both sides at various times and each side cheers far too much at it. Sometimes I think it is just, others not so much... and this time it is less about defending Kimmel than it is about the look that this might have been instigated by FCC comments related to a potential NexStar merger among other things... which makes it less a case of cancel culture and more a potential 1st Amendment Rights issue. Which is ironic, considering Charlie Kirk was an advocate (by all accounts) of free speech, so people using his memory to cheer for potentially violating the 1st Amendment is odd.
Meanwhile... there are some people on the left who think people on the right shouldn't be cheering for Kimmel's suspension... which is weird, because some of them are the same people who thought it was okay to cheer an assassination. So... it's "okay" to cheer an assassination of someone you dislike who said something you don't like... but it's not okay for them to cheer a firing/suspension/cancellation of someone you like for something he said? I mean, at least Kimmel is still around to defend himself... something Kirk cannot do.
As for what Kimmel said. I don't think what Kimmel said was offensive. He was giving his opinion on his entertainment show. BUT... I do think what he said was dangerous in this regard. People of all walks of life get news and updates on current events through talk shows and even shows on Comedy Central (different topic) sometimes as much as they do the news. Late Night Talk Shows have a tradition of the "opening monologue" that is often a mix of jokes AND serious commentary about the day's events. Hosts go on after a tragedy, like say 9/11 or a school shooting, and give a serious statement about the day. People appreciate that.
But... Kimmel, in his monologue, said things that were just not true and he said them in a way that implied he knew them as truth and not as his opinion. He gave commentary about the shooter and claimed the shooter was definitely someone on the right and then made comments beyond that extrapolating from that assertion. The thing is, that was not a known fact at the time. It was rumor and speculation. Far too many news outlets were guilty of speculation and desperately wanting the shooter to be "the enemy" so they could ride a high horse... but facts were not known... and once the shooter was caught, a very different picture than statements like Kimmel made were found to be truth.
Retractions and apologies never make as big of a splash as the initial incorrect statements. I think Kimmel was irresponsible for saying what he said at the time he said it. IF he were a news anchor then I would 100% be in favor of his firing over that kind of statement. There are other anchors in other places I would say the same about, but this is not the post for that. I will note that MSNBC did apparently fire one anchor for comments made on the day of Kirk's shooting... so there's that at least.
But with Kimmel being a talk show host... I think that gives him some leeway to be stupid and ignorant and say shit he shouldn't have said. Which is why this gets dangerous. This wasn't a case of Disney or ABC suspending him because they didn't like his monologue. This smells more like a case of NexTel, who owns a lot of ABC affiliates and who is in talks for a big merger to become the largest owner of local stations in the country... NexTel threatened to pull Kimmel's show off their ABC affiliates unless Disney/ABC did something... because NexTel doesn't want the FCC to be against their upcoming merger... and Disney/ABC already had a settlement giving money to Trump over a previous thing so they don't want a part in anything potentially dodgy so they capitulated. And it doesn't help that after the Colbert/Paramount thing when Trump cheered that and said "Kimmel is next" and here we are with Kimmel next...
Everything is so fucking intertwined and the fuckery is all over so it is hard to keep track of all the nuance going on right now... but it's hard to find a lot of "good guys" when you look around the landscape... and it honestly seems like a lot of people kind of want to see the world burn right now, on all sides.
Not equal events, but I don't like the implication of the Jimmy Kimmel suspension either. I'm not particularly a fan of his show. I was not a fan of "The Man Show" back in the day as I thought it exemplified the worst aspects of men in society.
Curiously... there are woman who are liberal who will defend Kimmel now, but I don't think they would have defended him for things he said and did on "The Man Show" back in the day. That's interesting to me.
Meanwhile, I see a lot of people on the right cheering at Kimmel's suspension. That kind of gets a meh from me because cancel culture has hit both sides at various times and each side cheers far too much at it. Sometimes I think it is just, others not so much... and this time it is less about defending Kimmel than it is about the look that this might have been instigated by FCC comments related to a potential NexStar merger among other things... which makes it less a case of cancel culture and more a potential 1st Amendment Rights issue. Which is ironic, considering Charlie Kirk was an advocate (by all accounts) of free speech, so people using his memory to cheer for potentially violating the 1st Amendment is odd.
Meanwhile... there are some people on the left who think people on the right shouldn't be cheering for Kimmel's suspension... which is weird, because some of them are the same people who thought it was okay to cheer an assassination. So... it's "okay" to cheer an assassination of someone you dislike who said something you don't like... but it's not okay for them to cheer a firing/suspension/cancellation of someone you like for something he said? I mean, at least Kimmel is still around to defend himself... something Kirk cannot do.
As for what Kimmel said. I don't think what Kimmel said was offensive. He was giving his opinion on his entertainment show. BUT... I do think what he said was dangerous in this regard. People of all walks of life get news and updates on current events through talk shows and even shows on Comedy Central (different topic) sometimes as much as they do the news. Late Night Talk Shows have a tradition of the "opening monologue" that is often a mix of jokes AND serious commentary about the day's events. Hosts go on after a tragedy, like say 9/11 or a school shooting, and give a serious statement about the day. People appreciate that.
But... Kimmel, in his monologue, said things that were just not true and he said them in a way that implied he knew them as truth and not as his opinion. He gave commentary about the shooter and claimed the shooter was definitely someone on the right and then made comments beyond that extrapolating from that assertion. The thing is, that was not a known fact at the time. It was rumor and speculation. Far too many news outlets were guilty of speculation and desperately wanting the shooter to be "the enemy" so they could ride a high horse... but facts were not known... and once the shooter was caught, a very different picture than statements like Kimmel made were found to be truth.
Retractions and apologies never make as big of a splash as the initial incorrect statements. I think Kimmel was irresponsible for saying what he said at the time he said it. IF he were a news anchor then I would 100% be in favor of his firing over that kind of statement. There are other anchors in other places I would say the same about, but this is not the post for that. I will note that MSNBC did apparently fire one anchor for comments made on the day of Kirk's shooting... so there's that at least.
But with Kimmel being a talk show host... I think that gives him some leeway to be stupid and ignorant and say shit he shouldn't have said. Which is why this gets dangerous. This wasn't a case of Disney or ABC suspending him because they didn't like his monologue. This smells more like a case of NexTel, who owns a lot of ABC affiliates and who is in talks for a big merger to become the largest owner of local stations in the country... NexTel threatened to pull Kimmel's show off their ABC affiliates unless Disney/ABC did something... because NexTel doesn't want the FCC to be against their upcoming merger... and Disney/ABC already had a settlement giving money to Trump over a previous thing so they don't want a part in anything potentially dodgy so they capitulated. And it doesn't help that after the Colbert/Paramount thing when Trump cheered that and said "Kimmel is next" and here we are with Kimmel next...
Everything is so fucking intertwined and the fuckery is all over so it is hard to keep track of all the nuance going on right now... but it's hard to find a lot of "good guys" when you look around the landscape... and it honestly seems like a lot of people kind of want to see the world burn right now, on all sides.
