In Celebration of Pushback

The news that Jimmy Kimmel will now be learning to code is making the rounds this morning. Greg Gutfeld said on last night’s show that the media is trying to make Kimmel into their own Charlie Kirk — as if getting fired is the same as being fired upon.

Well, look, Greg, what would they have if they didn’t have false equivalency? Their position overall has become so very weak that they’re down to tossing everything at the wall in the hopes that something/anything will stick.

The fact is that Kimmel was already on thin ice because his viewership numbers were underwater, and as such, ABC was already losing money on him. Between the prospect of more viewers leaving and the probability of another costly lawsuit because of Kimmel’s lying, ABC made the only decision it could: cut its losses.

As to the usual suspects trying to make a First Amendment case out of this, sorry, it just isn’t. In a lucky stroke of timing, I’ve already addressed these concerns from a constitutional perspective in a previous column. The government didn't fire Kimmel; ABC canned him. This is not a First Amendment issue by any stretch of even the left’s fevered imagination.

Much as the left would like to have ABC as an arm of the government, the fact is that it’s a private company that can hire and fire as it chooses. When you’re walking on this ice, it’s usually a good idea to step lightly. Jimmy Kimmel didn’t. What he did do: His breakthrough move (pardon the pun) was to flat-out lie about Tyler Robinson’s political leanings, in his efforts to try and detach the left from the horrible creature that killed Charlie Kirk and the rhetoric that drove him to that action.

Over at the always worthwhile Behind the Black, Bob Zimmerman makes note of this:

It is important to point out that Kimmel did not lose his job because of government action — though that action was threatened. He got fired because numerous ABC affiliate stations told the network that they would no longer air his show. These local stations decided they had had enough of this slander culture. It had to stop.

ABC was thus forced to take action. It knew that if it didn’t address the concerns of its local affiliates, its entire network could collapse.

Nor is Kimmel’s removal an unjustified action similar to the hundreds of blacklisting cases I have documented since 2020. Kimmel wasn’t fired because he stated an opinion based on reasonable facts — the typical situation when conservatives were blacklisted for the past decade. He was fired for spreading a lie about current events that could be easily verified as false in just a few seconds of online research. And the lie was expressly designed to defame Kimmel’s political opponents in the most vile manner.

Zimmerman correctly notes that the murder of Charlie Kirk has changed the equation. Just a few short weeks ago, Kimmel’s lie would have been passed off as just part of the political back and forth. But Kirk’s murder changed all of that. The right, at least, but I believe also the center of this nation, is now pushing back in a manner which we have not seen in many a year, and not just against ABC. Zimmerman goes on:

We have seen a similar firm response to the thousands of leftists who posted videos celebrating gleefully the murder of Kirk, with almost all who have been identified now fired or facing serious personal consequences. Employers are no longer willing to tolerate such behavior from their workers. You act like a vicious fool who supports murder for political purposes. You can find another place to work.

Kimmel’s firing, however, raises this response to a whole new level. The TikTok influencers who have been fired were also unknown, with little power. Kimmel, however, was a big name hosting the major late-night show on television. His quick removal signals that cultural shift quite starkly.

It should be noted that many of these firings of lesser-known people for vile social media postings were by people who also consider themselves leftists. And as for Kimmel’s being canned, does anyone truly consider it likely that the leaders at ABC are conservatives and/or Trump supporters?

So much for the right weaponizing cancel culture, and in a remarkable reversal of kismet, Sinclair, one of the largest station groups that carries ABC, decided to air a tribute to Charlie Kirk in the time slot Kimmel formerly occupied.

For years now, the average American, particularly those not devoted to the ideas of socialism, has been used as a punching bag. Charlie’s murder has pushed us past that point, and having been awakened (as opposed to ‘woke”), we are now pushing back.

Finally (speaking of precedent for being fired), let’s consider the doubling down of Keith Olbermann, a name many of you won’t remember, but I do. So for me, this really means something. He took to his X account to post, “Burn in hell, Sinclair. Alongside Charlie Kirk.”

I think that post shows us why he was too hot for even MSNBC, which canned him back in 2011. There’s no honest and open debate with him and his kind. The only option is to overwhelm them into obscurity. The signs are that we are well on our way to doing that.

Now, about The View...

Editor’s Note: Do you enjoy PJ Media’s conservative reporting that takes on the radical left and woke media? Support our work so that we can continue to bring you the truth. Join PJ Media VIP and use the promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your VIP membership!