Barack Obama On Jimmy Kimmel Being Pulled Off Air: “Media Companies Need To Start Standing Up”
Countless people are outraged after ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel and his eponymous show off the air after his comments about Charlie Kirk’s death and “MAGA gang.” Barack Obama recently shared his thoughts on the matter, giving a charge to media companies.
“After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like,” he wrote on X, referring to President Donald Trump’s cabinet and how they have inspired certain negative behaviors.
The former President wasn’t done, either. “This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent — and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating to it,” he added in a follow-up tweet.
Obama’s perspective hit the nail on the head, especially given what Rolling Stone revealed about ABC, Disney, and their affiliates’ decision-making process. Reportedly, they held emergency meetings leading up to their announcement of Kimmel’s removal on Wednesday evening (Sept. 17). Their goal was to “minimize the damage,” as multiple executives felt that Kimmel did not say anything that bad, but they were fearful of how Trump’s administration might retaliate if he was not taken off air.
“They were pissing themselves all day,” an insider told the publication. Brendan Carr, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), also threatened the media companies involved with Jimmy Kimmel Live! “I think that it’s really sort of past time that a lot of these licensed broadcasters themselves push back on Comcast and Disney,” he said on The Benny Show.
“Say, ‘Listen, we are going to preempt, we are not going to run Kimmel anymore, until you straighten this out because we, we licensed broadcaster, are running the possibility of fines or license revocation from the FCC if we continue to run content that ends up being a pattern of news distortion.’ We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
This past Monday, Kimmel addressed Kirk’s death and how people have been reacting to it in a monologue on his show, sparking massive backlash. “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,” he said.
