Late night host Jimmy Kimmel came under fire for comments he made on his show about the suspected shooter in Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
ABC announced on Wednesday that it will indefinitely stop airing “Jimmy Kimmel Live” after the host of the show made remarks about conservative influencer Charlie Kirk’s assassination that have drawn criticism from the head of the Federal Communications Commission.
During a recent show, Kimmel delivered a controversial monologue about Kirk’s killer, saying: “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.”
He was referencing Tyler Robinson, the suspected shooter involved in Kirk’s assassination on Sept. 10 at Utah Valley University.
Ahead of ABC’s announcement, Nexstar Media Group Inc. said that it would stop airing the show on its 32 ABC affiliate stations, citing comments Kimmel made.
“Mr. Kimmel’s comments about the death of Mr. Kirk are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse,” said Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division.
Kimmel’s comments drew criticism from Federal Communications Commission Director Brendan Carr.
In an interview on Wednesday with conservative commentator Benny Johnson, Carr described Kimmel’s monologue as an effort “to play into the narrative that this was somehow a MAGA- or Republican-motivated person.”
“What people don’t understand is that the broadcasters … have a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest,” he said.
Carr said his agency has a “strong case” to pursue action against Kimmel, ABC, and parent company Disney for spreading politically-motivated misinformation.
“I think you could certainly see a path forward for [Kimmel’s] suspension over this,” he said. “The FCC could make a strong argument that this is sort of an intentional effort to mislead the American people about a very core fundamental fact, a very important matter.”
He suggested that broadcasters who aired “Jimmy Kimmel Live” could face investigation, fines, or license revocations.
Reuters contributed to this report.
By Joseph Lord
