Charlie Kirk, MAGA influencer and Turning Point USA co-founder, killed at 31

What most people should realize is as you go farther right or farther left the two sides look the same:

I agree with that, and I'm not trying to make excuses for either side. It just seems like we've gone nuts in the last 10-15 years. Maybe it was always there and I just didn't see it before.

We’re seeing free speech die in this country. And, there’s nothing either party is doing to save it except point fingers at the other.

What most people should realize is as you go farther right or farther left the two sides look the same

Not according to a Yougov.com poll. They asked, "Do you think it is ever justified for citizens to resort to violence in order to achieve political goals?" 25% of very liberal said yes. Only 3% of very conservative said yes. Both sides are not the same.

What Americans really think about political violence | YouGov

I would agree that we shouldn't allow government to be pushing for firings, but what Kimmel did was to claim, explicitly contrary to the known evidence, that the murder of Charlie Kirk was "MAGA". There should be a place for an employer to say "you're a journalist, you should know better" or "you do a show on current events, and allowed your bias to prod you to spout off utter nonsense". If you don't allow such employers to fire those who spout of utter nonsense, you basically consign them to the category of the old Weekly World News or Pravda-Moscow.

Bert,

Kimmel is not a journalist. He is a comedian. Comedians purposadly don't follow truth, they follow laughs. Kimmel did not get fired because of journalistic integrity. He got fired because the Trump put pressure on the FCC, the FCC put pressure on Nexstar Media who is in the process of negotiating with the FCC on a merger and FCC licensing. Nexstar put pressure on NBC, who then suspend the show. If you watch the actual Kimmel clip it is pretty harmless. The focus was on making fun of Trump, with a clip of Trump talking about his new ball room. Yes he pointed to MAGA, but so were a lot of people.

The Yougov is one data point and it is only about violence. But actual violence, most studies show that far right commits more politically motivated violence in the last 50 years than the far left, although in general it doesn't happen often.

a comedian who specializes in satirizing current events. So there ought to be some connection between Kimmel's show and reality, no? Now you are probably correct that too many networks do not care what nonsense is being spread on their shows as long as it gets ratings, but that doesn't change the fact that networks ought to fear getting that reputation.

Does not need to be a clear connection between someone who is a satirical comedian and reality. That is the definition of comedy. He should be able to say what he wants. Watch his actual clip. Is this what we want to censor? This is where the line is drawn? Besides, who is Trump to start talking about what someone should say should match reality? Give me a break! If he stood up and started making fun of Charlie's death, yes probably should be some reprucussions. But we live in a country where First Amendment is paramount. Wasn't the right just complaining last year that the left was curtailing free speech?

I would agree that we shouldn't allow government to be pushing for firings, but what Kimmel did was to claim, explicitly contrary to the known evidence, that the murder of Charlie Kirk was "MAGA". There should be a place for an employer to say "you're a journalist, you should know better" or "you do a show on current events, and allowed your bias to prod you to spout off utter nonsense". If you don't allow such employers to fire those who spout of utter nonsense, you basically consign them to the category of the old Weekly World News or Pravda-Moscow.

I have zero issues with ABC cancelling Kimmel if they want to. That is something totally different than what happened though. The FCC chairman made threats to ABC regarding their broadcasting licenses if they did not pull Kimmel's show, and that is an abuse of power and government bullying. And it's happening in other areas of government too.

Kimmel is not a journalist. He is a comedian. Comedians purposadly don't follow truth, they follow laughs. Kimmel did not get fired because of journalistic integrity.

Yeah, ok - but Kimmel is part of the gaslighting left. His comment was:

Kimmel, 9.15.25, per USATODAY: "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. In between the finger-pointing, there was, uh, grieving on Friday − the White House flew the flags at half-staff, which got some criticism, but on a human level, you can see how hard the president is taking this.

Yes, he's at the fourth stage of grief: construction. Demolition, construction. 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, OK? And it didn't just happen once. And then we installed the most beautiful chandelier. Responses you wouldn't believe. Who thinks like that, and why are we building a $200 million chandlier in the White House? Is it possible that he's doing it intentionally so he can be bad about that instead of the (Jeffrey) Epstein list? …"

That was two days after it was revealed that [shooter] had a transgender (male, dressing "female") lover.

So there's a few things that bother me about Kimmel's comment. 1) He's using it to claim (falsely) that [shooter] was MAGA. 2) He's falsely claiming that the MAGA gang is trying to miss-characterize [shooter]. 3) He's mocking grief.

I'm not sure he should be fired over that. I would prefer if Americans were smart enough to be outraged by his comments and quit watching and then the ratings would just cancel him in the course of events. I'm not crazy about the gang-up-on-people-with-social-media and get them fired thing.

"So there's a few things that bother me about Kimmel's comment. 1) He's using it to claim (falsely) that [shooter] was MAGA. 2) He's falsely claiming that the MAGA gang is trying to miss-characterize [shooter]. 3) He's mocking grief."

Dan you are trying to equate a satirical comedian with falsely framing things. That is what comedy does! When we listen to Chik-fil-A song by Tim Hawkins, Do we all hate Jared at Subway because of Chik-fil-A? No it is satirical. Why does Tim characterize people who go to church as people who go to Chik-fil-A? Are these people stupid because they don't realize that it is Sunday? It is a stinking joke that is funny.

Did I find Kimmel's comments as funny? No. Was he really mocking grief, or was he mocking Trumps response to grief? Was Tim Hawkins mocking people who go to church? We can all say that Kimmel's joke was a bit poor, and maybe most didn't like it. People who hate Chick-fil-A hate Tim's song.

The question is why are we cancelling Kimmel over this kind of statement? If we decry cancel culture on the left, how on earth do we have any credibility after this incident. We don't have a moral high ground anymore. We lost it.

But again, we also lost politicizing things. Almost everything that was decried about the left politicizing something, the right has gone magnitudes above that level.

Well, I did say, "I'm not sure he should be fired."

The part that bothers me the most is what I underlined: "the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them..."

The reason that bothers me is that in order to mischaracterize this, he (or his writers) had to know the statements MAGAs were making: that [shooter] had a homosexual relationship with a transgender man. That means they knowingly lied about the other side lying.

If we're going to work for unity, being honest is pretty important. And that's not satirical comedy.

What is bothering is what Trump said on AirForce One today when a reporter asked for his response to Kimmel being taken off the air. He stated that the broadcast networks that are "against" him might have their licenses taken away. "They give me only bad press, but they're getting a license". The issue with Kimmel was never about the contents that people are complaining about, it was the core the joke. It was ultimately a joke about Trump. And to be honest the video wasn't flattering. He is upset with people painting him in a bad light and if he sees more of it, he will use the power of the Federal government to punish that individual and/or corporation.

How close are the President's and the FCC's actions are in alignment with his executive order, called "Restoring. Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship" Seems to me that the action violates his Executive order, yes?

Ken: The FCC chairman made threats to ABC regarding their broadcasting licenses if they did not pull Kimmel's show, and that is an abuse of power and government bullying. And it's happening in other areas of government too.

What’s the source for this? The first I heard that the FCC was purportedly influential in Kimmel's firing was here on SI. I hope that isn’t true.

Everyone believes it was the companies that own affiliates.

Free speech doesn’t end because someone says something offensive or untrue, especially a comedian. Even if someone slanders someone, the recourse is a civil lawsuit not government silencing the individual.

If Kimmel were celebrating and encouraging political violence, that’s one thing. Thats clearly not what he was doing. Kimmel was silenced by the FCC chairman who wielded his administrative power to threaten broadcast networks.

Brothers, we should not be okay with this. This kind of government action can and will one day be used against Christians.