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ABC shocked the TV industry last night by pulling Jimmy Kimmel Live!<\/em> off air under pressure from the Trump administration, prompting anxiety over state censorship and a wave of support for the late-night host. Earlier Wednesday (September 17), Brendan Carr, the Trump-appointed chair of the Federal Communications Commission, had threatened the network with retaliation if it did not punish host Jimmy Kimmel for a joke, on Monday night\u2019s telecast, that linked Charlie Kirk\u2019s alleged shooter with \u201cthe MAGA gang.\u201d\u00a0Celebrities including Ben Stiller, Wanda Sykes, and Jean Smart, as well as unions such as the Writers Guild of America, strongly criticized ABC\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n In the comments for which he is under fire, Kimmel said that \u201cthe MAGA Gang\u201d was \u201cdesperately 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.\u201d He added, \u201cIn between the finger-pointing, there was grieving.\u201d<\/p>\n Carr, interviewed on a right-wing podcast on Wednesday, said Kimmel\u2019s remarks were part of a \u201cconcerted effort to lie to the American people.\u201d The FCC, he added, \u201chave remedies that we can look at.\u201d<\/p>\n Conservatives have portrayed Kirk\u2019s alleged shooter, Tyler Robinson, as a politically motivated radical leftist, but analysis of his communications paints a more ambiguous picture. Robinson\u2019s mother told prosecutors that her son had recently become \u201cmore pro-gay and trans-rights oriented.\u201d But, as a Ken Klippenstein investigation<\/a> uncovered, some of Robinson\u2019s friends questioned the notion that his beliefs on sexuality represented a wider left-leaning position\u2014noting, for instance, his belief in the Second Amendment.<\/p>\n Some of the strongest condemnations of ABC\u2019s decision came from unions: the Writers Guild of America (WGA), the American Federation of Musicians (AFM), and the Screen Actors Guild\u2013American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA). Their statements criticized both the government and ABC, a network owned by the Walt Disney Company, whose chief executive, Bob Iger, and television chief, Dana Walden, made the decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel Live!<\/em>, sources told The New York Times<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n The AFM, which represents Kimmel\u2019s band, lamented<\/a> \u201cgovernment overreach\u201d and called for protections of free speech and artistic expression. \u201cThis is not complicated,\u201d the statement reads. \u201cTrump\u2019s FCC identified speech it did not like and threatened ABC with extreme reprisals. This is state censorship. It\u2019s now happening in the United States of America, not some far-off country. It\u2019s happening right here and right now.\u201d<\/p>\n The WGA added in its own statement<\/a>, \u201cThe right to speak our minds and to disagree with each other\u2014to disturb, even\u2014is at the very heart of what it means to be a free people. It is not to be denied. Not by violence, not by the abuse of governmental power, nor by acts of corporate cowardice.\u201d SAG-AFTRA echoed those points, writing<\/a>, \u201cThe decision to suspend airing Jimmy Kimmel Live!<\/em> is the type of suppression and retaliation that endangers everyone\u2019s freedoms.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n