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By Max Towey
On Monday night, Jimmy Kimmel delivered perhaps the most replayed monologue of his late-night career – and maybe the one that ended it.
He said:
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.
Kimmel was suggesting that Kirk’s alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, was MAGA despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The next day, Utah authorities published Robinson’s texts to his lover that seemed to confirm it.
That same day, Kimmel’s clip made the rounds on conservative X as people looked for vengeance against the lefties who called Robinson a conservative. One popular anonymous account, Aesthetica, quote tweeted Kimmel’s monologue with the caption, “There is no peace with people like this. People like Jimmy Kimmel must have their careers completely destroyed. Lying about the now 100% confirmed far left terrorist ideology of Tyler Robinson should be grounds for removal from polite society.”
Conservative lawyer Peter Hasson added, “I cannot believe I missed this. Jimmy Kimmel was pushing the false flag conspiracy theory as fact. Unreal.”
But it was all just noise – until the Wednesday episode of Benny Johnson’s show.
Johnson, a MAGA podcaster with 5.7M subscribers on YouTube, hosted Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Brendan Carr for a discussion of Kimmel’s monologue that day. Carr tore into the late-night host: “This appears to be some of the sickest conduct possible... It looks like what happened here is an action by Jimmy Kimmel to play into that narrative that this was somehow a MAGA or Republican-motivated person. If that's what happened, that is really, really sick.”
Carr continued with a veiled threat against Kimmel’s network, ABC, which is owned by Disney: “This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney. We can do this the easy way or the hard way... These companies can find ways to change conduct and take actions on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Kimmel’s show wouldn’t make it through the evening.
Several hours after Benny’s Carr episode aired, Operation Cancel Kimmel was underway.
Nexstar, the largest owner of TV stations in the US, came down first, pulling Kimmel from its 32 ABC-affiliate stations. In a press release, it said that it “strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk and will replace the show with other programming.” Shortly after, Sinclair announced it would pull Kimmel’s show from its 28 ABC affiliates. Then came the fatal blow from ABC itself: The Disney-owned network announced that it had “indefinitely suspended” Kimmel’s show, sending Trump’s critics into a frenzy.
As MSNBC host Chris Hayes wrote, “This is the most straightforward attack on free speech from state actors I’ve seen in my life, and it’s not even close.”
Does he have a point? Did the Trump Administration conduct an unprecedented attack on free speech? Was this fascism, a freak out, or something in between?
In today’s deep-dive, we look at what was happening behind the scenes when Kimmel was canceled, so you can draw your own conclusion.
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Editor’s Note
We’re very eager to hear your thoughts on this one. Is this a step toward authoritarianism? Is it a free speech violation? Is it just business as usual? Let us know by replying to this email.
Thanks to those who wrote in yesterday about our story on the Groypers. Below are a few of those emails.
Maribeth wrote:
Before today, I had never heard of groypers. There will always be fringe groups trying to make a name for themselves. Highlighting them fuels the attention they seek. This is true for liberal and conservative fringe. I would rather read about groups that are making a positive impact on our communities. What we consume influences how we think, how we feel and what we do.
While Maggie from NY said:
We absolutely have to start paying attention to the groypers and learn how a person falls down that pipeline, and how to de-radicalize them. They often get lumped into the far-right but they are much more apolitical than anything else. As much as I personally loathe most conservative viewpoints, I know that conservatives hold them because they believe they will improve society whereas the groypers just want everything to burn, left right and center. It's a nihilistic death cult, albeit a small one, but a small group of nihilists who are completely desensitized to violence and relentlessly mock everything must be watched closely, especially when they can easily get access to guns. Many mass shooters in our country's history fall under the groyper umbrella. I also think that this ideology gets more appealing the more insane and divided our society becomes. It's an option to opt out entirely and laugh in the face of it all, to some extent it's laughable to ask young men who are experiencing more economic inequality than their parents or grandparents to take anything seriously when they can't reasonably expect to have a stable future no matter what they do. We need to offer better alternatives. I worry about my 12 yo brother who spends a lot of time online in different gaming communities. Of course the majority of gamers and internet-poisoned kids don't turn to extremism and violence, but the groyper mentality is disproportionately popular in those circles, and I don't fully understand how to keep him from that path.
And Margie wrote:
It would be wonderful if we could ignore them, but with social media I'm afraid that's impossible. And maybe that's fine, shining a bright light on something brings out all its flaws.
And in case you’re looking for more weekend reading on this fine Saturday, find our latest here:
Thanks for reading. We’ll be back with more tomorrow.
—Max and Max
