Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night television show has been taken off the air “indefinitely” after the host was criticized for comments about the motives behind the killing of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, US network ABC said.
The stunning decision to suspend one of the United States’ most popular and influential late-night shows comes as President Donald Trump has widened his legal attacks on media organizations that he accuses of bias against him.
“Jimmy Kimmel Live will be preempted indefinitely,” an ABC spokesperson told AFP, using a television industry term for when a show is replaced or removed from the schedule.
Kirk, a close ally of President Donald Trump, was shot dead last week during a speaking event on a Utah university campus.
Authorities said 22-year-old Tyler Robinson used a rifle to shoot Kirk with a single bullet to the neck from a rooftop. He was arrested and has been formally charged with his murder.
On Monday, Kimmel spoke about the shooting in his popular late-night show’s monologue.
“We had 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 with everything they can to score political points from it,” said Kimmel.
“MAGA” refers to the president’s “Make America Great Again” movement.
The White House this week said it would be pursuing an alleged left-wing “domestic terror movement” in the wake of Kirk’s killing, prompting alarm that such a campaign could be used to silence political dissent.
ABC’s decision came shortly after Nexstar — one of the country’s biggest owners of ABC affiliate stations — said it would not broadcast “Jimmy Kimmel Live” for “the foreseeable future.”
In a statement, Nexstar broadcasting president Andrew Alford said the company “strongly objects” to Kimmel’s comments.
“Mr. Kimmel’s comments about the death of Mr. Kirk are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse, and we do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the local communities in which we are located,” he said.
“Continuing to give Mr Kimmel a broadcast platform in the communities we serve is simply not in the public interest at the current time, and we have made the difficult decision to preempt his show in an effort to let cooler heads prevail as we move toward the resumption of respectful, constructive dialogue.”
Kimmel did not immediately comment, and representatives for the entertainer did not respond to AFP queries.
– ‘Actual malice’ –
The decision to suspend Kimmel’s show comes as Trump has intensified his long-established hostility toward the media.
Since his return to the White House, the president has repeatedly badmouthed journalists critical of his administration, restricting access and bringing lawsuits demanding huge amounts of compensation.
The US president filed a $15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times on Monday, alleging a “decades-long pattern” of smears driven by feelings of “actual malice.”
While broad constitutional protections exist for US media, Trump has found success in similar lawsuits brought against other news organizations, winning multi-million dollar settlements from Disney-owned ABC and Paramount-owned CBS.
The settlements in those cases — which are to be paid to Trump’s future presidential library — were seen as being motivated by the desire of the news organizations’ parent companies to stay in Trump’s good graces.
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