Staff Reports
The brutal assassination of Charlie Kirk on September 10, 2025, ripped through the country and should have united Americans in sorrow and outrage. Instead, too many on the left treated his death like a political event to be mined for ratings and cheap jokes, a moral failing that cannot be swept aside. Conservatives and everyday patriots watched in disbelief as a national tragedy was often met with opportunism rather than empathy.
When late-night host Jimmy Kimmel used his monologue to paint the assassin as somehow representative of the MAGA movement, the backlash was immediate and justified. ABC quietly suspended Kimmel after major affiliates like Nexstar and Sinclair announced they would stop airing the show, a reaction driven by viewers and station managers who were tired of one-sided media narratives. Networks cannot be allowed to weaponize comedy into propaganda while pretending to be above consequence.
Yet even the enforcement here raises serious questions about free speech and overreach. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr publicly criticized Kimmel’s remarks, and the episode sparked a debate about whether regulatory pressure crossed a line into government coercion of private broadcasters. Conservatives are right to worry that the same agencies and institutions that ignore left-wing vitriol suddenly spring to life when a left-leaning celebrity faces pushback.
ABC’s reversal and Kimmel’s eventual return after private talks with Disney executives only deepened the sense that corporate media continues to play by different rules for friends in Hollywood. Shareholders and investors have demanded transparency about Disney’s decision-making, rightly asking whether political calculus trumped both common sense and fiduciary duty. The American public deserves to know whether media giants are enforcing one set of rules for conservatives and another for the cultural elite.
What has been truly disturbing is how many on the left moved quickly to defend a comic while far too many shrugged at or even celebrated the murder of a conservative voice. High-profile defenders and sympathetic hot takes from late-night circles were widely promoted while genuine calls for justice and unity from conservatives were dismissed as performative grievance. This misplacement of moral outrage reveals a rot at the core of our media elite — they’ll defend their own far more passionately than they mourn a murdered American.
Social media’s response exposed the country’s fracture lines: there were grotesque celebratory posts from some on the left, and equally disturbing fevered calls for revenge from elements on the right, showing we are perilously close to normalized political violence. Both are unacceptable, but the selective disgust of mainstream outlets and influencers — furious over a suspension but muted about homicidal glee — proves there are double standards in public morality. Conservatives demand equal enforcement, real accountability for those who cheered a killing, and consistent condemnation of violent rhetoric from all sides.
Americans who love liberty should insist on three things: first, that the death of any citizen be met with respect and justice rather than partisan applause; second, that media and tech platforms apply rules evenly instead of protecting ideological friends; and third, that government officials stay out of browbeating private companies into punishing speech. The left’s reflex to defend a celebrity and gaslight the nation about who really matters is a wake-up call — hardworking patriots must keep fighting for a culture that values life, truth, and equal treatment under the law.
