Democrats, Hollywood condemn suspension of TV host Jimmy Kimmel over Charlie Kirk comments
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A pedestrian passing signs left by demonstrators protesting against the suspension of the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show outside the El Capitan Entertainment Centre in Hollywood on Sept 18.
PHOTO: AFP
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LOS ANGELES/WASHINGTON – Democratic lawmakers and Hollywood writers and actors condemned what they called an attack on free speech led by United States President Donald Trump after American talk show host Jimmy Kimmel was pulled off the air for comments about murdered American right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
ABC, the broadcaster owned by Walt Disney, said on Sept 17 that it was yanking Jimmy Kimmel Live! indefinitely
Comedian Kimmel, 57, a frequent Trump critic, said on his show on Monday that Mr Kirk’s allies were using his assassination to “score political points”. Mr Kirk, 31, was shot onstage as he debated students at a university in Utah on Sept 10.
Leaders of the Democratic minority in the US House of Representatives said Mr Trump and his Republican Party were mounting an assault on free-speech rights guaranteed in the US Constitution’s First Amendment.
In the Democrats’ joint statement, they accused TV networks of cowardice, and Mr Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) appointed by Mr Trump, of a “corrupt abuse of power”.
“He has disgraced the office he holds by bullying ABC, the employer of Jimmy Kimmel, and forcing the company to bend the knee to the Trump administration,” their statement said.
In the week since Mr Kirk’s killing, Kimmel is the most famous American to face professional blowback for making comments seen by conservatives as speaking ill of Mr Kirk, alongside media figures, academic workers, teachers and corporate employees.
Writers’ and actors’ labour unions said the move amounted to an attack on constitutionally protected free-speech rights, saying ABC should not have caved in the face of US government pressure.
“What we have signed on to – painful as it may be at times – is the freeing agreement to disagree,” the Writers Guild of America West and Writers Guild of America East said in a joint statement.
“Shame on those in government who forget this founding truth. As for our employers, our words have made you rich. Silencing us impoverishes the whole world.”
SAG-Aftra, the union representing actors, condemned the scrapping of the show, saying “the decision to suspend airing Jimmy Kimmel Live! is the type of suppression and retaliation that endangers everyone’s freedoms”. American actor Ben Stiller wrote “this isn’t right” in a social media post.
The American Federation of Musicians called it “state censorship”, adding that “Trump’s FCC identified speech it did not like and threatened ABC with extreme reprisals”.
Mr Trump has repeatedly threatened to pull licences from TV stations and pressured broadcasters to stop airing content he finds objectionable. He has also trained his ire on print media, with the filing of a US$15 billion (S$19.3 billion) defamation lawsuit against The New York Times.
ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live! after Nexstar Media Group, which owns 32 ABC affiliates, said it would stop airing the show following Kimmel’s Sept 10 comments, when he suggested that “the Maga (Make America Great Again) gang” was “doing everything they can to score political points” off of Mr Kirk’s assassination.
He also criticised Mr Trump’s mourning, comparing it to “how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish”.
Shares of Disney traded down nearly 1 per cent after the market opened on Sept 18, suggesting investors did not think the Kimmel news would damage the company’s financial prospects too much. REUTERS
