Look, I have nothing against pawns. I’m sure many of ‘em are good people. But depending on the chessboard, sometimes the best use of a pawn is to die a miserable death.
They’re expendable. And that’s the point: In the hands of a grandmaster, pawns are worth their weight in gold because they protect the more important pieces.
Most of the time, when you sacrifice a pawn, it’s not immediately followed with a checkmate. They’re not valuable enough to win a game on their own. But when a grandmaster judiciously sacrifices a pawn, he knows how to leverage the corpse for something better: position on the board, trading pieces, or setting a trap for his enemy.
And this brings us to our old pal, Jimmy Kimmel. Haven’t you heard?
He’s a Free Speech hero.
The same guy who posted this when conservatives were banned from social media:
Flashback to Jimmy Kimmel laughing about Donald Trump being banned from all social media platforms, and joking about conservative apps being taken offline:
— Ben Scallan 🇮🇪 (@Ben_Scallan) September 20, 2025
"All over the internet, [conservatives] are screaming about being silenced. They won't be silent about being silenced." pic.twitter.com/SzVku8DsE6
The same guy who shrugged his shoulders when ABC/Disney fired conservatives like Gina Carano and Roseanne. Yeah, that guy.
It was a well-executed PR plan by Kimmel’s peeps, and his TV performance was top-notch (Jimmy can cry at the drop of a hat). But it also couldn't fail, ’cause Jimmy Kimmel Live is exclusively, 100% a leftwing show.
A new study from Media Research Center’s NewsBusters shows that "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" had a strong liberal bias, with conservatives bearing the brunt of 92% of the late-night host’s political jokes while Democrats were largely spared.
[…]
NewsBusters also reported that 97% (61 out of 63) of Kimmel's guests since Sept. 2022 have been liberals.
We know why he was suspended (with pay) for less than a week: Jimmy Kimmel spread misinformation about the most shocking political assassination in a generation by insinuating that the murderer was from MAGA, and that the “MAGA gang” was trying to hide the truth.
That alone was egregious and abominable enough to warrant his termination. Kimmel could’ve used his ABC/Disney platform to offer his condolences and bring Americans together during a national tragedy, but he opted instead to attack his political enemies… by misleading ABC/Disney viewers about the killer’s identity.
To quote Bob Uecker, that’s not “just a bit outside.” That’s WAY over the line!
But in his much-ballyhooed comeback show on Tuesday, Kimmel didn’t address any of that directly, pivoting instead straight into the Free Speech narrative. And his audience clapped and cheered.
The blowback isn’t over: Both sides are still fighting over the goalposts, and Disney has no shortage of angry, politically-motivated shareholders.
But in all probability, Kimmel won.
He’ll leave the “scandal” a bigger star than before — and now until the end of time, whenever he’s interviewed by a fellow liberal, he’ll be greeted with gasps and hushed awe as an exalted hero of Free Speech.
He was greatly aided by an unforced error on the GOP’s side. Because it could’ve been a very clean, very simple storyline: Jimmy Kimmel lost his job because he’s a flaming arsehole who spread misinformation about Charlie Kirk’s assassination. ABC’s two biggest affiliates were (understandably) furious and refused to air his program, so ABC had no choice but to pull the plug.
Period. End of story.
It would’ve been a violation of Disney’s fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders if they continued to waste millions on a TV show that wasn’t even airing in all their markets. For all kinds of reasons — good taste, common sense, dollars and cents — Jimmy was history.
But FCC commissioner Brendan Carr threw Kimmel a lifeline when he said:
Frankly, when you see stuff like this, I mean, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.
Arguably, Carr was simply engaging in his Free Speech on a podcast, because he never took any official action. Arguably, the affiliates would’ve opted to drop Jimmy anyway. Arguably, the political rhetoric of politicians and/or agency heads shouldn’t be taken at face value.
(Speaking of which, fun fact: When the DNC was caught red-handed rigging the 2016 Democratic nomination in favor of Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders’ supporters sued the DNC for violating their promise of fairness and impartiality. The DNC’s actual legal defense, I kid you not, was that “the DNC charter’s promise of ‘impartiality and evenhandedness’ [was] a mere political promise — political rhetoric that is not enforceable in federal courts.”) [emphasis added]
But it didn’t matter. All those “arguably’s” muddied the water enough for Kimmel to escape. And now the Democrats are howling mad at Cancel Culture, censorship, and the dastardly government undermining Free Speech!
I know, I know: The irony is delicious. But don’t concentrate on that. Focus on the opportunity at hand:
The Democrats are going on record supporting Free Speech!
Donald Trump should take advantage of it ASAP by “extending an olive branch in the name of bipartisanship and reconciliation” — and then ask for the Democrats’ support in eliminating the FCC.
Give ’em the pawn.
Tell the Democrats that Red America and Blue America must come together — now more than ever — and declare in unison that the government is permanently OUT of the business of regulating Free Speech.
And if they refuse the pawn, that’s fine, too: They can go on record defending government censorship if they want.
Either way, we’d win.
Full disclosure: I’ve never been a fan of the FCC. To me, the whole premise of the government — that because the airwaves are “public” and signal space is limited, radio and television are therefore the only two forms of speech that fall outside the traditional purview of First Amendment — is simply a legal fiction. In most towns, there are significantly MORE radio and TV options than daily newspapers, so it didn’t really make sense before — and in today’s world of unlimited digital content, podcasts, YouTube, TikTok, and globally-connected smartphones, it makes even less sense.
Other than preventing nitwits from jamming signals and/or claiming the same frequency, the FCC should quit regulating content altogether.
The FCC is a dinosaur. It’s time to put it out of its misery BEFORE it’s weaponized against us. Let’s use it as a bargaining chip to level the playing field on other media platforms, too.
(Including ones, unlike broadcast TV, that young people actually listen to.)
In American politics, precedent matters. Everything builds; everything grows. And the danger of a weaponized FCC, post-Kimmel, is obvious: Have you SEEN today’s Democratic Party?
The Trump administration didn’t take any legal action against Kimmel or ABC; not a single fine, sanction, lawsuit, or penalty was levied. Carr aggressively honked his horn, but that was it. (Which is why Jimmy Kimmel is as much a Free Speech hero as Tyler Robinson was from the “MAGA gang.”)
But the next administration might not be as accommodating.
The FCC is a pawn. Trump is a dealmaker.
Have at it.
