Fox News’s Jessica Tarlov argued this week that President Donald Trump’s criticism of Jimmy Kimmel has had the opposite effect of what Trump intended.
During Wednesday’s broadcast of The Five, Tarlov said Trump’s comments about Kimmel’s suspension backfired.
She pointed to Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr’s earlier comments that signaled regulatory concerns.
“Brendan Carr tried to backtrack when he said, ‘oh, I didn’t really mean to sound like the mafioso,’ as Ted Cruz put it, and did the little accent, and as always Donald Trump comes riding in and makes it clear as day that this was government pressure,” Tarlov said.
Her comments came after ABC suspended Kimmel earlier this month over controversial comments about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
At the time, Kimmel had said, “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.”
Utah officials later said the suspect, Tyler Robinson, 24, who is facing a murder charge, had been influenced by far-left ideology.
Critics accused Kimmel of politicizing Kirk’s death.
Carr added to the controversy, saying, “Frankly, when you see stuff like this, I mean look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way,” he said.
“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.”
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Kimmel’s suspension drew strong backing from broadcast groups Sinclair and Nexstar, both of which pressed ABC to remove him permanently.
Trump also weighed in, writing on Truth Social, “I can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back. The White House was told by ABC that his Show was cancelled! Let’s see how we do.”
According to Tarlov, that kind of attack has the unintended effect of making Kimmel untouchable.
“In the process Trump has basically made Kimmel unfireable at this point. Disney, even if his ratings go down to three people watching it, will not be able to do it because now he has become the lightning rod, the symbol, the avatar for this fight about the First Amendment and government overreach,” she said.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.the-express.com ’
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