Studying Time: 4 minutes
This week, ABC abruptly suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s present indefinitely.
Ostensibly, this craven transfer was because of his statements within the aftermath of far-right podcaster Charlie Kirk’s dying.
Few appear to take extra delight at this growth than disgraced comic Roseanne Barr.
ABC fired her again in 2018. Some are equating the Disney-owned community’s decisions in each situations.
The Jimmy Kimmel firing is setting off alarm bells
As we famous when CBS canceled Stephen Colbert’s present, one of many key indicators of a free society is whether or not you may make enjoyable of a rustic’s chief with out consequence.
Many consider that Jimmy Kimmel’s years of poking enjoyable at Donald Trump — for his embarrassing moments, for his many crimes, and for his scandals — is the true motive behind the silencing of his present.
In case you watch Kimmel’s feedback in full, it’s troublesome to consider that his statements about Kirk are the issue.
TV station operators like Nextar Media Group and the notorious Sinclair Broadcast Group had been unsurprisingly fast to push for reprisal in opposition to Kimmel.
Most alarmingly, Donald Trump’s hand-picked head of the FCC mused brazenly about revoking ABC’s broadcasting license over the imagined offense over Kimmel’s phrases.
From what we will inform, Kimmel ignited this firestorm by acknowledging:
“The Maga gang are desperately attempting to characterize this child who murdered Charlie Kirk as something aside from considered one of them, and doing all the things they’ll to attain political factors from it.”
How does this evaluate to ABC firing Roseanne Barr?
In Could 2018, Roseanne Barr tweeted: “Muslim Brotherhood & Planet of the Apes had a child = VJ.”
The “VJ” referred to Valerie Jarrett, who had been a senior advisor to President Obama. (Only a reminder, for full context, that Donald Trump occupied the White Home presently)
Barr insisted that she had not supposed her tweet to be racist, however merely political.
She additionally very memorably blamed Ambien, inviting pushback from everybody from pharmaceutical corporations to most of the people. ABC fired her and changed the Roseanne revival with The Connors, that includes a lot of the unique forged.
“Yeah think about an administration placing strain on a tv channel to fireplace a comic they didn’t like,” Roseanne Barr tweeted on Wednesday, September 17. (Once more, Trump was in workplace in 2018)
We now have to acknowledge that Barr has a historical past of posting (or in any other case sharing) unsubstantiated or false claims.
She has even retweeted QAnon conspiracy theorists like Liz Crokin, who as soon as blamed a browsing harm on Hillary Clinton training sorcery in opposition to her.
Nonetheless, even Barr pushes again at the concept her firing is just like Kimmel’s suspension.
Sadly, it’s not as a result of she’s come to her senses. It’s as a result of her thought of actuality seems to be closely skewed.
Firing after a racism scandal is just not the identical as suspending a present to appease a despot
Curiously, Roseanne Barr predicts that Jimmy Kimmel will “get a complete PR tour.”
That may be good. We actually want him and his crew effectively, as they’re the victims of authoritarian overreach that threatens to destroy our very society.
We aren’t even ten months into the erosion of sacred American rights and freedoms.
It’s a bit of odd for Barr to make this prediction. In spite of everything, she bought her very personal Cancel This! comedy particular on Fox Nation in 2023.
Roseanne claims her being kicked off her present was the identical as Jimmy Kimmel being cancelled. No Roseanne, that present ran for 7 seasons with out you, and I do not assume Jimmy Kimmel ever dressed up as Hitler baking cookies or known as a black girl “Planet of the Apes” pic.twitter.com/ahEbu0cDAP
— TheRealThelmaJohnson (@TheRealThelmaJ1) September 18, 2025
In contrast to in 2018, this transfer by ABC is just not merely a enterprise choice.
Jimmy Kimmel didn’t really say something incendiary. He has been compassionate within the wake of Charlie Kirk’s taking pictures, no matter what the late podcaster stood for.
Fairly, giant companies are collaborating with the Trump administration to silence his critics. And, as with Colbert and CBS, it’s working. No matter pretext, it’s working.
Sooner or later, America will be capable of start the lengthy, troublesome street of rebuilding. Issues could worsen earlier than that work can start.
At the moment, our society can take a tough look and decide which corporations merely bowed right down to authorities strain out of worry, and which had been keen collaborators with an authoritarian agenda.