Staff Reports
The past week exposed the rot in late-night television when ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel off the air after a monologue that mocked the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk — a move that correctly set off alarm bells about the tone of our cultural elite but also showed the power of public pressure. Disney initially suspended Kimmel, then quietly reversed course after days of internal talks, proving once again that big entertainment companies will fold when the outrage machine subsides.
Local broadcasters, meanwhile, did something the national gatekeepers rarely do: they put their communities first. Sinclair and Nexstar announced they would not air Kimmel’s return, effectively leaving millions without his monologue and sending a message that constant, gratuitous attacks on half the country will have consequences. That decision — unpopular with Hollywood — was a refreshing reminder that local media owners answer to viewers, not to the Hollywood cocktail circuit.
The federal angle made this mess worse. FCC Chair Brendan Carr waded in and sided with stations that refused to air the show, and while some on the left screamed “censorship,” the entire episode highlighted how easily political pressure and corporate panic can dictate who gets a national platform. The righteous indignation from the Left shouldn’t blind us to the fact that network executives and regulators are now players in deciding which voices live or die on broadcast TV.
Joe Rogan’s take was an eyebrow-raising twist for many conservatives: on his podcast he warned people on the right against celebrating Kimmel’s suspension, arguing that inviting government or corporate censorship is a dangerous precedent that can be turned against anyone. Rogan’s tone wasn’t pro-Kimmel praise so much as a shrewd warning that weaponizing regulators and station owners to punish speech is a slippery slope. Whether you like Rogan or not, his point that censorship cuts both ways is one conservatives should take seriously even as they demand accountability.
The fallout has been ugly beyond cable punditry; prosecutors say a recent attack on an ABC affiliate in Sacramento may have been motivated in part by the Kimmel controversy, a sobering reminder that inflammatory rhetoric has real-world consequences and that networks must weigh incendiary comedy against public safety. This is not an argument to excuse Kimmel’s tastelessness, but it is a clarion call for responsible dissent and for leaders to stop fanning flames for clout. Americans deserve robust debate, not reckless provocation that risks bloodshed.
Conservatives should be clear-eyed: we can and should condemn Kimmel’s grotesque jokes while also insisting that the tools of power — government regulators, corporate giants, and cancel-hungry elites — not be allowed to pick winners and losers in our marketplace of ideas. Support the stations that stood their ground, boycott the studios that rush to apologize to an angry mob, and keep pushing for honest, accountable media rather than performative outrage. The moral high ground belongs to those who defend free speech without surrendering common decency.
Will Jimmy Kimmel recover? Maybe in the short term his Hollywood friends will rally and the show will limp back thanks to Disney’s bankroll, but the trust he once enjoyed with a broad audience is cracking. Late-night as an institution is hemorrhaging credibility because comedians like Kimmel treat conservative Americans as fair game rather than neighbors, and networks that tolerate that tone will find fewer viewers and more pushback. Patriots who work for a living see this for what it is: a privileged class testing the limits — and the backlash is only beginning.
