Once again I will post something unpopular, one that makes my long-time readers ask what has happened to me. The answer is simple, I remain a small-L libertarian.
The thing is this, Jimmy Kimmel is a two-faced hypocrite, left-wing Democrat mouthpiece, and frankly, I doubt he is very smart*. I found his show insipid and unfunny. So I did not watch it.
I don’t need the FCC or the president to tell me Kimmel’s show wasn’t worth watching. If we are going to censor any program that distorts the truth or outright lies (Hello “The View”), then there won’t be much on TV. And there are plenty of shows that spread biased garbage on the conservative news networks.
You might argue it was the station owners that demanded Kimmel be removed. I suspect in a future administration it will be learned the White House made some calls and “strongly suggested”. You know, very similar to how Biden had Meta and Twitter shadow ban conservatives.
You might argue Kimmel was disseminating lies. Here’s the thing, if you are getting your news from Jimmy Kimmel, then you are so low that you are not even one of Rush’s low information voters. In fact those people likely don’t even vote.
A concrete block was just used to crush an ant.
*Apparently he was offered a chance to retract and apologize and refused. Not smart.
4 comments:
Holy carp, Joe, when did you become such a cynic?
Clearly the market was *not* deciding. Kimmel was losing them viewers and $$$ left and right, but they were keeping him on because he espoused the message they wanted espoused. Same with Colbert. But there are some sins that simply can't be expiated by "He's saying what we want to hear."
I think your points on kimmel are correct; he was supposed to be funny and wasn't, he was required to be entertaining and wasn't. He was losing money and viewers, as most one-sided political shows should do.
However, this is a big deal because kimmel evolved into a tool for democrats (nothing else), so when he gets suspended, it becomes a big deal, one political party squealed and they have practically all of the media and entertainment businesses.
Did Disney get some behind the scenes pressure from the current administration, likely, every administration does this.
Bottom line, the first amendment is a contract between American citizens and the government. kimmel wasn't fined or jailed, Disney pulled the trigger. Free speech is not without consequences firing, shunning and/or a punch in the nose are all appropriate.
I agree with you, the government must not cancel free speech; but I can certainly see a fine line being drawn that will eventually be abused.
Welp, his ratings were low. If his supporters want me to watch him, they need to bring a court order.
It seems like there are two competing explanations here that don’t quite line up. On the one hand, I see the argument that Kimmel was simply unfunny, lost ratings, and Disney made a business decision. On the other hand, there’s acknowledgment that the White House may have “made some calls” or “strongly suggested” a course of action.
If it was just the market, then government pressure doesn’t even need to enter the discussion. But if there was government involvement, then it’s not just about whether Kimmel was funny or not—it’s about the principle of political power influencing which voices stay on air. That’s a much bigger deal than ratings.
I don’t have to like Kimmel to see the problem. Either it was the market alone, or it was government pressure. It can’t really be both at once.
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