While England slept through the wee hours of Wednesday night, president Donald Trump, ever the night owl, took to his phone in the 11th century Windsor Castle and merrily punched out his thoughts on what was, for him, a perfect end to a perfect day.
A golden carriage ride in the company of King Charles was the prelude to a high table dinner replete with royals, tiaras and titans of tech and publishing.
It ended with the news that ABC had pulled Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show off-air with immediate effect. Wednesday’s episode was cancelled hours before recording began. For Trump, the news represented another victory: he has made no secret of his loathing for Kimmel’s brand of snarky, irreverent satire of which he was an incessant target.
[ Explainer: What did Jimmy Kimmel say about Charlie Kirk’s death?Opens in new window ]
“Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done,” Trump posted. “Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even [Stephen] Colbert, if that’s possible. That leaves Jimmy [Fallon] and Seth [Meyers], two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!! President DJT.”
RM Block
The shock announcement of the suspension of Kimmel’s show caused a furore on Wednesday across the prevailing US television networks as people grappled with the implications for the future of free speech. The debates and responses offered a riveting glimpse into just how addled the collective mind of the American intelligentsia and commentariat has become. Under Trump, all is shadow play and open to interpretation.
What was this?
[ Jimmy Kimmel profile: Who is the TV host at centre of Charlie Kirk controversy?Opens in new window ]
Another frightening step in the slow march to the oppression of free speech and the suppression of media and creative voices critical of the administration? Or a pragmatic corporate business decision by a television network in an era when the icon of the late night television talkshow has become a fading irrelevance? The viewpoints were predictably partisan.
Officially, Kimmel was unceremoniously put in cold storage by ABC for a segment in his Monday night show relating to Trump’s response to a question, just before he departed the White House for his visit to England, on how he was feeling after conservative influencer Charlie Kirk’s death.
“I would say pretty good,” Trump said, before changing the subject to the early-stage work of the new White House ballroom, a project which has greatly excited him. Kimmel seized on the moment.
“He has reached the fourth stage of grief: construction,” the host said.
But he pre-empted that quip with an observation about “the Maga gang desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.”
Given the rawness of the emotions provoked by the appalling fact - and streamed footage – of the assassination of Kirk, any frivolous or sarcastic remark was bound to draw ire. And it did. On Wednesday, Brendan Carr, the chairman of the powerful Federal Communications Commission (FFC), the US broadcasting regulator, made an appearance on the podcast show hosted by conservative commentator Benny Johnson.
He addressed Monday night’s broadcast, alluding to Kimmel’s remarks as part of a “concerted effort to lie to the American people”.
“Frankly, when you see stuff like this – I mean, we can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr continued.
“These companies can find a way to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
The relevant companies were listening. The backdrop to those remarks can be traced to the proposed purchase of Tegna by its rival Nexstar, the largest owner of local stations in the US, a deal that would require the FCC to lift a cap limiting the reach of any one company owning more than 39 per cent of affiliate stations nationally.
The FCC had indicated that it would entertain lifting that cap. On Wednesday, a statement was issued by Nexstar president Andrew Alford from its headquarters in Irving, Texas, confirming that it would pre-empt, or pull, the Kimmel show from its affiliate local channels as the material was “offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse”.
That night, ABC announced that Kimmel, who has yet to respond, is suspended and off-air indefinitely after two decades as its star turn.
By Thursday, Johnson was basking in what he called “the single greatest accomplishment of my life” in his part in contributing to the demise of the Kimmel show and what he described as “consequence culture”.
Colorado Democratic congressman Jason Crow aptly summarised the general position on the left in describing the Kimmel suspension as “antithetical to the American way and our democracy”.
“We must make sure that we are not using this tragedy or allowing others to use it to squelch free speech and dissent,” he continued, describing the climate as “very troubling and creating a fear and intimidation”.
“ ... Unfortunately some of our most elite and powerful institutions – our media conglomerates, our universities, large law firms, are starting to buckle. I contrast that kowtowing, that buckling under the pressure, with the incredible courage we see from everyday Americans who are standing up for free speech.”
Meanwhile, a symbol of the daytime talkshow halcyon era, Geraldo Rivera, grappled with the significance of the moment in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
“For 55 years, the first amendment has been my shield, my protection. I embrace it. It is at times embattled. I get that” he said before emphasising that Kimmel’s remarks made light of the legions of Americans who had, through the killing of Kirk “suffered a trauma that I think is minimised by smart people, sophisticated people, who oppose Donald Trump. This is very simple. Have respect.”
As he left Ye Old Worlde splendour of Windsor and Chequers, Trump passed some of the flight to Washington by telling the White House press pool that further consequences may be in store for the networks who gave him “wholly bad publicity” during last year’s election campaign.
“I would think maybe their license should be taken away,” the president suggested.
“It will be up to Brendan Carr. I think Brendan Carr is outstanding. He’s a patriot. He loves our country, and he’s a tough guy.”
There may have been some sympathy, at least on the right, for Trump’s contention, based on an article he said he read that the “networks are 97 per cent against me” and that the country’s leading evening show hosts “hit Trump and that’s all they do. I guess they haven’t had a conservative on in years.”
It seems impossible that any modern president has been satirised as frequently and ferociously as the lampoonable and highly imitable Trump.Even David Letterman, weighing in on the subject on Thursday, allowed that his show “probably went easy on Barack Obama cos I kinda liked the guy”.
But Letterman’s broader point was that the freedom to go after any president, Republican or Democrat, rightly or wrongly, was enshrined by the first amendment. All of that has changed over the past 48 hours.
On Sunday, Trump will be among the speakers in what will be a long and deeply emotional memorial service for Kirk in Glendale, Arizona. That Kirk has been hailed as a champion of free speech, and that one of the first of the many executive orders signed by Trump was titled Restoring Free Speech and Ending Federal Censorship was noted as among the dark ironies by those fearful of where all of this is leading.
On Thursday, a number of Democrats announced they had drafted a Bill that would, if passed, become the No Political Enemies Act. Connecticut senator Chris Murphy accused the Republicans of an open move to “exploit this tragedy to weaponise the federal government to destroy Donald Trump’s political opposition. They aren’t even hiding what they are trying to do.”
It was reported on Thursday night by Elizabeth Wagmeister of CNN that both ABC and its owner, Disney, were “hopeful” that Kimmel will return to the air. But the prospect of Kimmel agreeing to a diluted version of his show seems remote.
The chief appeal of that would, surely, lie in his knowledge that it would irritate Trump. The comedian has managed to get under the skin of the president in a way that no Democratic politician has managed to do.
Meanwhile, the shows go on. ABC affiliate stations quickly announced that they will fill Jimmy Kimmel’s vacant Friday night slot with a tribute programme to the late Kirk.
