On Monday, late-night host Jimmy Kimmel said something silly. “The MAGA gang [is] 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 said.
Kimmel’s error was regurgitating the unsupported idea, mainly circulating online the weekend prior, that Kirk’s killer came from a conservative family, therefore he must also be conservative.
It’s since emerged that the killer told his transgender partner he killed Kirk because “I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.”
Killing a Christian conservative because of a perception they are full of “hatred” doesn’t seem MAGA, and given that families often consist of people with different views, what Kimmel said was, as I said at the top, silly.
Days later, Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, was interviewed by serial plagiarist-turned-somehow popular-conservative influencer Benny Johnson. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said on Johnson’s podcast in a warning to broadcasters. “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.”
Within hours, Kimmel was pulled off the air. Since then, many on the right have celebrated the move and rationalized it one way or another. “It’s called soft power. The left uses it all the time. Thanks to President Trump, the right has learned how to wield power as well,” Johnson declared after the news.
Maybe Jimmy Kimmel wasn’t funny. Maybe Jimmy Kimmel got poor ratings. Maybe Jimmy Kimmel was on the way out anyway. The government shouldn’t be in the business of jawboning private companies with veiled or explicit threats to get the outcomes they want. It’s wrong when Democratic governments do it, it’s wrong when Republican governments do it.
I get MAGA World wants to get revenge after all of the real and perceived wrongs Democrats did to their side, but this cycle is one that only emboldens Big Government and erodes liberty over time.
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, remarkably, is one person who seems to get this. On his podcast (because everyone has to have one), Cruz said of Carr’s remarks, “That’s right out of a mafioso coming into a bar going, ‘Nice bar you have here, it’d be a shame if something happened to it.’”
After saying he was glad in any case that Kimmel was gone, he continued, “But let me tell you, if the government gets in the business of saying we don’t say what you the media have said, we’re going to ban you from the airwaves if you don’t say what we like, that will end up bad for conservatives.”
He’s right.
I can only hope that others come to their senses and realize the precedent they are setting. If Kimmel’s bosses wanted him out, fine, but if they acted out of fear of the government, that’s un-American.
I would like to conclude this column in memory of longtime reader and prolific letter writer Mary Emily Smiley of Lawndale, a proudly self-described “deplorable” who passed away on Aug. 30 at the age of 82. A fervent critic of the press, the politically correct “Kumbaya Kops,” and government waste, she didn’t get to live to see the day when wasteful cities like Los Angeles went bankrupt as she desperately wished.
Relentlessly and righteously critical of the hysteria throughout the coronavirus pandemic, I invited her to contribute a commentary of her own.
I leave you with a passage from that piece: “Ignorance engenders fear. Fearful people are easier to control. Knowledge is power. Knowledge engenders challenge. Yet even the knowledgeable are fearful. Dissenting opinion brings ostracism, loss of work and grants and friendships. The ignorant, out of fear and ‘following the science,’ can just as easily become a mob on the internet or in the workplace or among friends denigrating those who don’t ‘follow the science.’”
Rest in peace Mary Emily Smiley.
Sal Rodriguez can be reached at salrodriguez@scng.com
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