With a few intemperate remarks Pam Bondi, Donald Trump and Brendan Carr needlessly converted a victory we had already won into a liability.
What were they thinking? The base was fully convinced, and had been for some time, that Jimmy Kimmel was an irrelevant, unfunny, leftist, loser. Not a single vote for or against a Republican or a conservative from within our base was advanced beyond what was already in the bank. Much of the electorate had moved to Donald Trump's favor in 2024 because of the blatant corrupt lawfare that had been waged against Donald Trump on so many television screens. Those votes would come to the Republican side again, unless we did something to offend them. We did.
We threatened to wage regulatory warfare and censor free speech that arbitrarily offended us. We threatened to commit the very sin that aided Donald Trump's election. We made hypocrites of ourselves. We played the fool. We exposed ourselves to the world that we were so determined to honor Charlie Kirk as an icon of freedom of speech and open debate that we would shut down free speech to perversely honor his legacy. Our behavior was so hypocritical that we opened ourselves to the allegation that our indignation over the remarks of Jimmy Kimmel was nothing more than opportunistic and cynical political self interest, an egregious attempt to seize the organs of communication.
All of this was so unnecessary, the vast majority of American opinion had already concluded that Jimmy Kimmel was a churlish icon of a very unattractive political philosophy. His remarks were a grotesque exploitation of the tragedy of Charlie Kirk's death and the bereavement of this widow and orphans. All the political points that seem to be so important to those on this forum who would disregard the First Amendment had already been secured but were to be squandered when we abandoned the deathless language: "Congress shall make no law respecting the freedom of speech."
To add irony to the perversity of this situation, a report has emerged this morning that ABC is moving toward an agreement with Jimmy Kimmel to put him back on the air. Now we have a lose, lose, lose. We destroy our own reputation while Jimmy Kimmel is martyred, resurrected, and vindicated.
The FCC is prohibited from general censorship; Section 326 of the Communications Act states “no regulation [shall] interfere with the right of free speech” via broadcast. (Emphasis supplied). The First Amendment does not exist for the benefit of Jimmy Kimmel alone but to protect every member of our society who seeks information and opinion free of government control. It matters not if Jimmy Kimmel deserved everything he got; the question is, are our constitutional rights safeguarded?
But the loss so far described was but the loss of a skirmish in the war to come over control of our media and with it the war for the soul of our country. When the time comes for the executive branch of our federal government to pass judgment on proposed multimillion dollar mergers that will control thoughts for the entire nation by way of mergers and acquisitions that might or might not be contrary to antitrust and other laws, President Trump will be predictably accused of political bias.
Our paroxysm of indignation gains us nothing and risks everything.
