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Texas senator Ted Cruz has waded into the debate surrounding the decision by ABC to suspend comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show, and people are expressing alarm that they actually agree with his take.
The news that Kimmel’s programme was being suspended came just days after the broadcaster criticised the MAGA movement’s response to the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last week.
He said on Monday: “We had some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and with everything they can to score political points from it.”
And this prompted a response from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which grants broadcast licences to networks.
Speaking to podcaster Benny Johnson on Wednesday, FCC chairman Brendan Carr said: “Frankly, when you see stuff like this, I mean, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
A short while later, the news broke that ABC will suspend Kimmel’s show “indefinitely”.
In Friday’s episode of his podcast, Verdict, Cruz addressed the aforementioned remarks from Carr and said: “He threatens explicitly, ‘we’re going to cancel ABC’s licence, we’re going to take them off the air, so ABC cannot broadcast anymore’. He threatens it, he says, ‘we can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way’.
“I gotta say, that’s right out of Goodfellas – that’s right out of the mafioso coming into a bar going, ‘nice bar you have here, it’d be a shame if something happened to it’.
“I hate what Jimmy Kimmel said. I am thrilled that he was fired, but let me tell you, if the government gets in the business of saying … ‘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 be bad for conservatives.”
After making a comparison to The Lord of the Rings, Cruz continued: “Let me tell you what will happen: going down this road, there will come a time when a Democrat wins again, wins the White House … they will silence us, they will use this power and they will use it ruthlessly, and that is dangerous.
“I like Brendan Carr, but we should not be in this business. We should denounce it, it’s fine to say what Jimmy Kimmel said was deplorable, it was disgraceful, and he should be off air, but we shouldn’t be threatening government power to force him off air – that’s a real mistake.”
And Twitter/X users have since found themselves agreeing with the senator, and they’re concerned:
Texas representative Jasmine Crockett described it as “mind-blowing” that she was agreeing with Cruz:
Another said “the world is literally upside down”:
“Cancun Cruz with a rare reasonable take,” wrote political commentator Vince Wilson:
And others shared the popular stock image from a viral 2018 article from Clickhole which came with the headline: “Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made A Great Point”:
Kimmel is yet to comment on his show’s suspension.
Why not read…
- Colbert rallies behind Kimmel after ‘blatant assault on free speech’
- Watch Jon Stewart’s dig at Trump after Kimmel taken off-air
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