Going Back on His Word: Trump & Free Speech
During his inaugural address, Trump kicked off his second term as President with the promise to “immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America.” He also vowed that “never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents.” Less than nine months into his second term, these promises have already been broken.
Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, & Broadcast Networks
On Sept. 17 ABC announced the indefinite suspension of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show following comments made by Kimmel on air the network deemed “inappropriate”. The decision to pull the program from the air came after Trump appointed Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr put the network under immense pressure.
Since his appointment, Carr has been vocal about his view on the reporting of recent media outlets, sharing, “Americans no longer trust the legacy national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly. It is time for a change,” and has taken action by launching investigations into ABC, CBS, and NBC news.
Kimmel’s comments were made in relation to the recent Utah shooting involving right-wing influencer and Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk and a short interview Trump did with a reporter reacting to his death.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang trying to characterize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them,” said Kimmel, “and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
The show then cut to a short video of Trump talking with a reporter outside of the White House about how he was holding up after Kirk’s assassination.
“I think very good,” he said, before moving the conversation over to the ongoing renovations happening to the White House ballroom.
As the clip ended, the late night host made fun of his response, “He’s at the fourth stage of grief: construction,” he joked, “This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend. This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish.”
It is not certain which remark created the most uproar thus leading to Kimmel’s suspension, but Trump has recently noted that he views negative news coverage of him as “really illegal.” This creates a major concern, if we aren’t able to speak out against what we think is wrong and actively call out those doing the wrong, we no longer live in a free country.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a late night host face consequences for speaking their mind either. Back in July, known critic of Trump and host of The Late Show, Stephen Colbert, confirmed the cancellation of his show. CBS said the cancellation was "purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night” and is “not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at paramount.” To learn more about The Late Show’s cancellation check out our article “Attacking Public Press: Trump’s Media Censorship Campaign”.
After Colbert announced his cancellation, Kimmel received warnings about him being next through Truth Social posts written by President Trump. He wrote, “I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert” and “The word is, and it’s a strong word at that, Jimmy Kimmel is NEXT to go in the untalented Late Night Sweepstakes and, shortly thereafter, Fallon will be gone.”
While Colbert’s show is still set to end next May, Kimmel’s show is a different story. On Sept. 22 ABC went back on their promise of his indefinite suspension and announced Kimmel will return the next day on the 23rd.
In a statement made on the 22nd to USA Today Disney explained, “Last Wednesday, we made a decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country. We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”
One large factor Disney considered while making their decision to bring Kimmel back was the fact that after his suspension was announced, millions of outraged people used their dollars to make a difference by cancelling their Disney Plus subscriptions.
While “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” will be aired once again, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Nexstar Media announced they will not be airing his show on their ABC affiliates and instead will be replacing it with news programming.
After ABC declared the return of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”, Trump once again took to social media to criticize the decision. In a Truth Social post he wrote, “I can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back. The White House was told by ABC that his Show was cancelled! Something happened between then and now because his audience is GONE, and his ‘talent’ was never there. Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, who’s not funny, and who puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE.”
Further into the post Trump threatened to sue ABC for the reinstatement of Kimmel, writing, “[Kimmel] is yet another arm of the DNC and, to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major Illegal Campaign Contribution. I think we’re going to test ABC out on this. Let’s see how we do. Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative. A true bunch of losers! Let Jimmy Kimmel rot in his bad Ratings.”
Trump has filed for lawsuits against several different news and broadcasting sources during these first few months of his second term, though some have fallen through. This includes his $15 billion defamation lawsuit against the New York Times for making claims involving his business career, campaign, and administration, which was recently dropped.
During Kimmel’s first monologue back he argued that Carr’s pressure on ABC to cancel his show was a “direct violation of the First Amendment.” Throughout the entirety of his monologue he stressed the importance of freedom of press, freedom of speech, and active conversation around politics and differing beliefs. He also asserted that “A government threat to silence a comedian the president doesn't like is unamerican.”
Without the freedom of speech and press, and the ability to have engaging conversation surrounding contrasting beliefs, we as a society cannot learn and grow from each other. When we let different perspectives into political conversation we are able to better understand how our society and government need to function in order to serve all of its unique people.
