White House Photo by Erin Scott
Jimmy Kimmel is no martyr
Jimmy Kimmel is not a very funny man. He reminds me of the prep school boys I used to teach back in the 90s, with their snorty kind of humor, that ironic “I’m so smart, ha ha” type of affect that annoys the heck out of people who have to teach them AP French on a Friday afternoon. They weren’t bad kids, not at all. They reminded me of my three younger brothers, who had that same “I’m cool, really I am” attitude. It’s kind of cute in a pathetic way.
But it stops being cute when you are an adult making millions of dollars mocking people you don’t like. That is not even funny. It is certainly not satire of the classic model, the kind that such disparate but brilliant practitioners like Jack Parr, Johnny Carson, Dick Cavett, Tom Snyder, Charlie Rose, Joan Rivers, Larry King, or even the more caustic David Letterman practiced like Michelangelo behind a mic. The closest we have today to anything approaching that, and he is more Lenny Bruce than Carson, is Bill Maher, who has become my favorite host ever since he realized that he, like so many of us, is a man without a country.
As far as Kimmel and the other youngsters out there, and I am being kind in calling them youngsters because some of them are almost as old as me, they lack the one thing that separated the people I just mentioned from the updated versions: Class.
Class is a difficult thing to define, and it probably has different connotations for different people. But to me, it implies the perfect balance of intelligence, skepticism, humility and fearlessness. Add a dash of self-deprecating humor and the ability to be surprised, and you have a classy person. That’s why I think Maher is classy. Conservatives like Greg Gutfeld, but he reminds me of a conservative Kimmel, much too eager to be liked. I don’t watch many of the late-night shows now, and in fact, I spend most of my time watching old YouTube videos of Johnny and Dick, and sometimes even Merv Griffin. The past was better.
Unfortunately, we have to deal with the present, and the present is all about Jimmy and the fact that he was “suspended” indefinitely, which to me sounds like fired, definitely. His contract is up fairly soon, so you have to think that his employer, ABC, is just getting the paperwork prepared for the final adieu. And I am not weeping, nor should you be.
I have seen the tearing of clothes and the pulling out of hair on the left, and even among some on the right who have a more libertarian bent and think that people should be able to act as obnoxiously as possible and not suffer the consequences of their actions. I am actually surprised at the number of friends on the right who have a rather absolutist idea of free speech. It’s as if they are saying, “I have to be able to say whatever I want, and not only that, you have to listen to me.” No, my friends, I do not have to listen to people I do not like, and neither do the rest of us who think that joking about the assassination of a young father and husband is disgusting.
We can turn off the TV, true. We can change the channel. We can write letters of protest. But we can also do something else, and that is create a society where people become accountable for their words and their actions. I will explain exactly what I mean.
This week, I attended an asylum interview for a client at the Newark Asylum Office. Without divulging too many details, suffice it to say that my client had almost been killed because he spoke out against a totalitarian regime. Not fired. Not mocked on social media.
Almost killed.
We do not live in a society, or at least we did not used to until Charlie Kirk fell, where our words are used as bullets against us. We are not in danger of being killed or jailed. At most, we lose jobs.
I myself have been fired from a job I loved as a columnist with a newspaper that concluded that my conservative, pro-life views, mixed with my rather feisty way of responding to readers, were not good for their business. And they let me go. I was not happy, and as I mentioned on a radio program about free speech this week, I wish they had given me a little more rope with which to hang myself.
But I understand that they had the right to do what they wanted, because they were a private company. Had they been a public or governmental entity, that’s a different story. The First Amendment protects employees at public institutions.
On the other hand, the government cannot force a private institution to do anything against its will, because that amounts to unconstitutional encroachment on the right to free speech. Some of the people who are apoplectic about Kimmel’s suspension are convinced that this is what is happening, but they haven’t come up with any direct proof. The argument that ABC caved because of licensing issues is a nice plot twist, but there hasn’t been any confirmation from the network or the FCC. Chairman Brendan Carr has referenced the fact that Kimmel lied about the Kirk assassin’s ties to MAGA, but ABC acted on its own.
Couldn’t it just be that ABC didn’t want him around anymore, just as CBS had a problem with Colbert? Is everything a right-wing conspiracy these days?
Even so, the loss of Kimmel is hardly tragic. Someone else, someone equally vapid, will fill the void.
And ponder this: Jimmy Kimmel can always find another job. Charlie Kirk’s daughter and son will never be able to find another father.
Christine Flowers can be reached at cflowers1961@gmail.com.
This article was originally published at the Delco Times.
Selective outrage? Yes. Good grief, Jimmy Kimmel became famous in part doing black face skits making fun of NBA legend Karl Malone and Oprah Winfrey.
Recently his numbers were not suddenly plunging, but according to Forbes from 3 days ago his numbers were increasing on TV and he was doing better than Colbert and Fallon. So… he was fired because the Federal government got involved.
You can’t have a serious argument if people are willing to lie or pretend they don’t know what occurred. All the goofy people that consider themselves “Conservative” and upset about the Biden Admin, CISA, FBI, Twitter, Facebook etc. should not be gleeful about the Trump Admin getting Kimmel “fired.” Kimmel pushed intolerant, self-righteous, one global order nonsense, and slick propaganda tyranny. I stopped watching him a decade or so ago. But the Federal gov should not be interfering with the public square and free speech, or making up laws against so-called “hate” speech.
I will opine that Jimmy Kimmel and all the other talking heads and talk show bloviators on the airwaves are using a publicly owned resource. That being the case, they do not have the right to use it for personal propaganda purposes. Jimmy Kimmel used the public forum to push a personal, political ideology to the exclusion of any other point of view. Hopefully, you will remember the “Fairness Doctrine from years ago. One day an enterprising lawyer will develop a legal theory that whatever political party of politician benefits from their ideological rants, are getting in effect in-kind campaign contributions and sue the networks and/or the talking heads. It seems to me ABC and CBS are, among other things, covering their collective arses. Jimmy is not being denied free speech or even the venue to express it, he can always buy time on the airwaves to express his views same as advertisers do to hawk their products. Only difference would be he spends his own money and not ABC’s.
Agree George, especially to lie about a subject as polarizing as the political assassination of Charlie Kirk. Kimmel is in stage 4 TDS and most of the country tuned out like you, as shown by his ratings decline since he started in 2015. Can Disney sink any lower?
FedUp, How do you not understand it literally doesn’t matter what topic Kimmel talked about? We can’t survive if the federal government gets to pick what you can talk about in the public square. The Federal government got Kimmel kicked out of the public square. Disney is communist trash. Don’t watch it. The federal government should not be using CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) nor the FBI to tell lies nor to censor free speech. These are ideas literally worth fighting wars over; violence is not an answer get out and vote.
Michael; It’s not a matter of the topic being discussed. Read up on the duties and responsibilities of the FCC regarding content on public airways versus cable subscription regarding equal political time, truth, obscenity, et.al. You sound like one of those screeching banshees on The View. ABC has been warned.
FedUp: I don’t like Kimmel. He’s sneaky, and he is effective at pushing insidious tyrannical propaganda. The answer to that is not censorship but rather debate and let better ideas win. You can choose not to watch like I do. However, you wrote “It’s not a matter of the topic being discussed.” You are completely misguided, ignorant, or engaged in intentional deceit.
Was Kimmel obscene, indecent, or profane? No, he was not. He literally spoke about flags being flown at half mast in honor of Kirk and mocked US President Donald Trump’s reaction to the shooting. The Fairness Doctrine, requiring balanced viewpoints, was repealed in 1987. He literally said:
“This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he calls a friend. This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish,” he said.
That prompted a furious response from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, Trump’s appointee, who accused Kimmel of “the sickest conduct possible” and demanded an apology. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr literally said on the Benny Show, a conservative podcast.
“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.” Hours later, Nexstar Media, one of the biggest owners of TV stations in the US, said it would not air Kimmel’s show “for the foreseeable future”.
Nexstar IMMEDIATELY RESPONDED and called his remarks about Kirk “offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse”.
Mr Carr thanked Nexstar “for doing the right thing” and said he hoped other broadcasters would follow its lead. Nexstar is currently seeking FCC approval for its planned $6.2bn (£4.5bn) merger with Tegna.
You want to pretend that Kimmel said something obscene? Go ahead. You’re lying to yourself. He offended the sitting President and the President’s henchman acted accordingly and inappropriately, and possibly illegally. At a bare minimum the FCC Chairman should have kept his mouth shut and prosecuted his case within the legal system which is set up to do such. Instead he started making open threats on a podcast. He completely compromised himself now regarding the Nexstar and Tegna merger situation. He should resign immediately. Maybe the FBI director, Kash Patel, will see him in a famous majestic hall located in Asgard and presided over by the god Odin. Many of Trump’s appointees are clowns.
FedUp. Well put. The problem today is that people are so used to having unfettered control over content on the various communication systems, (i.e. cable, satellite, Internet, cellphones) they are completely unfamiliar with the broadcast (airwaves) and its content requirements. They apparently are not aware the airwaves belong to the public and not to ABC, Jimmy Kimmel and so on.
I wonder if the people who complain about the federal government deciding way is appropriate to air would be so quick to invoke that argument if it were Charles Kirk and Turning Point instead of Jimmy Kimmel. I doubt it, I suspect the screams for censorship would be so loud you could hear it several continents away. A position of no content control by the FCC means a free rein to say anything, show anything: explicit sex, urging violence against (insert minority group here), advocate violent overthrow of the government. That is the logical extension of that position.
The other component is distributors like Nexstar and Sinclair have every right to reject what ABC is selling if it doesn’t perform well on their stations. They have advertisers to answer to, who have viewers to answer to. Viewers tune out, advertising revenue dries up. Simple math, not overbearing government, unlike the Biden administration having Youtube censoring their content. That was a direct infringement on free speech, but the leftists don’t talk about that.
Agreed, they have every right to do that but Kimmel was performing decently on their stations. So, what you are describing is correct but that is not what happened. They only responded and acted, immediately, after the FCC Chairman openly threatened them on a podcast. See above.
You can’t be for defending Rights sometimes. You have to stick up for the people you don’t like, even the people you find disagreeable, if you want to protect your same Rights for the future.
Michael, responding to your first response – I was referring to the rightful duties that the FCC possesses, not necessarily any ‘obscene’ remark or gesture that little Jimmie weasel may have made. Re-read my statement. It seem that you grant Kimmel free speech, but not the FC Chairman? OK – just checking. The specific reason (to me) is the bold faced, proven lie that the shooter was MAGA (‘one of their own’). That alone falls within the realm of the FCC. It was further disclosed that he was given the opportunity to apologize, to which he refused, but also threatened to go ‘scorched Earth’ instead if given the chance. This was easily enough for Disney, Nexstar and Sinclair to have the right to ‘timeout’ this childish nozzle, let alone for the fact that this self aggrandizing, rodent faced, unfunny ‘comedian’ chose to pick the topic of a politically assassinated conservative Christian husband and father as a comedy bit. What’s next? Ridicule Charlie’s wife and kids? What he did goes against basic moral character (not that the left has any) and bare minimum level respect. Regarding any side-deal pending FCC approval: Business is business, whether you like it or not.
Jimmy Kimmel’s ratings have been in the tank for years. This year, for instance, Kimmel’s viewers in the 18-49 age demo, which sets advertising rates, has collapsed. In January, that number sat at 212,000 in January. By August it had dived to just 129,000. Even Sinclair and Nexstar won’t put up with that. They could re-run Gilligan’s Island and outperform Kimmel.
I will always remember the statement that Sebastian Gorka made on CNN one night. When he said to the pompous Anderson Vanderbilt Cooper. Your ratings are so bad that you are losing to reruns of Yogi Bear cartoons that were made in the early 1960’s on Cartoon Network.
How ironic that you rant about how mightier-than-thou Jimmy Kimmel is, as you tell us what comedy is supposed to be and what all of us are supposed to think is funny. Did you ever stop to think that maybe you are just uptight and have a lousy sense of humor?