ABC has indefinitely pulled Jimmy Kimmel's late-night talk show following comments he made Sept. 15, 2025, on an episode regarding the fatal shooting of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.

Free speech has gotten really confusing in Trump America.

If I’m following things correctly, Republicans and President Donald Trump are celebrating the indefinite suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show because he said something they didn’t like.

These are the same folks who, for I don’t know how long, have been hollering that free speech is a God-given American right, even if that speech offends sensitive snowflake liberals like myself.

How was Jimmy Kimmel's monologue any worse than Republican rhetoric?

In the wake of the horrific fatal shooting of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, who preached the importance of free speech, Kimmel said this about the suspect during his Sept. 15 monologue: “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it. In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving.”

OK. That doesn’t sound all that offensive to me. Given what little we’ve learned about the suspect, it sure doesn’t seem like he’s a MAGA type. But he also doesn’t sound like a radical leftist, which is the way everyone on the right has gleefully, and without consequence, painted him. If anything, the suspect’s ideology seems muddled, and his specific motivation to commit such a horrible act is unclear.

Kimmel wasn’t mocking Kirk or the awful crime. He was mocking the right’s overtly political reaction. So I guess we can’t do that now? Free speech is crucial, unless it’s directed at Republicans who don’t want to hear it?

Kimmel's joke was apparently worthy of FCC pressure campaign

For whatever reason, Kimmel’s words were so intolerable to the Trump administration that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr put the squeeze on ABC to shut the comedian down. And the network, owned by The Walt Disney Co., folded almost instantly.

Again – and I swear, I’m not trying to be difficult here – I don’t understand how bonking a late-night host like this squares with a passionate devotion to free speech.

Back in 2020, the very same Brendan Carr who now runs the FCC posted on social media: “From Internet memes to late-night comedians, from cartoons to the plays and poems as old as organized government itself ‒ Political Satire circumvents traditional gatekeepers & helps hold those in power accountable. Not surprising that it’s long been targeted for censorship."

Hmm. You can see why I’m confused.

Remember Trump's free speech executive order? Those were the days.

Comedy back then, I guess, was good and one of the most important forms of free speech. Comedy now, as we witness the fall of Stephen Colbert and the potential fall of Kimmel, is … not?

I remember way back in January, shortly after Trump reentered the Oval Office, when the White House proudly released an executive order titled “RESTORING FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND ENDING FEDERAL CENSORSHIP.”

That order says it’s the policy of the United States to “ensure that no Federal Government officer, employee, or agent engages in or facilitates any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen.”

Weird, right? The head of the FCC muscling a television network into indefinitely suspending a comedian over a joke conservatives didn’t like sounds a lot like a federal government officer engaging in conduct that would abridge the free speech of an American citizen.

Fox News host can propose killing homeless people, and that's just fine?

Can we still criticize our government? I’m not sure how to tell good free speech from bad free speech.

Recently, Fox News host Brian Kilmeade was talking about homeless people and said if they don’t accept programs aimed at helping them, they should face “involuntary lethal injection.”

“Just kill 'em,” Kilmeade said.

See, I’d think suggesting a bit of mass murder would lean closer to the bad kind of free speech. But Trump and right-wing pundits and influencers didn’t get mad about that one, and Kilmeade offered a tepid apology and got to keep his job. So I guess the idea of killing homeless people is the good kind of free speech? Maybe?

'They are at war with us' is the good kind of free speech, apparently

It all seems so simple in the Constitution, but man, is it confusing these days.

Shortly after Kirk’s death, long before there was a suspect or a motive or a hint of evidence, Fox News host Jesse Watters said of Democrats: “They are at war with us. Whether we want to accept it or not, they are at war with us. And what are we going to do about it? How much political violence are we going to tolerate?”

That seems at least as irresponsible as Kimmel suggesting the shooter might have been a MAGA adherent. In fact, it seems a lot more irresponsible, as Watters is putting things in bellicose terms and suggesting conservatives are facing an existential crisis.

Selective outrage seems to trump free speech these days

Shouldn’t the FCC also target Fox News and demand Watters be suspended? You’d think so. Did that happen? Not at all.

So I guess suggesting roughly half of Americans are trying to kill the other half of Americans and hinting at a necessary civil war is good free speech that’s worthy of protection.

Only if Kimmel had mocked Muslim people or LGBTQ community

What if Kimmel stood up during his monologue and said this? “The American way of life is very simple. I want to be able to get married, buy a home, have kids, allow them to ride their bike till the sun goes down, send them to a good school, have a low crime neighborhood, not to have my kid be taught the lesbian, gay, transgender garbage in their school. While also not having them have to hear the Muslim call to prayer five times a day.”

Would that be the good kind of free speech? If I'm following this all right, I think it would. Because that's something Charlie Kirk said.

God, this stuff is confusing.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: FCC pressure gets Jimmy Kimmel suspended for a joke? What a bunch of snowflakes. | Opinion

Reporting by Rex Huppke, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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