Look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on Kimmel or, you know, there's going to be additional work for the FCC ahead. There's calls for Kim will be fired. [00:00:16] I think, you know, you could certainly see a path forward for, suspension over this. And again, you know, the FCC is going to have remedies that we could look at. And again, you know, we may ultimately be called to be a judge on that. [00:00:31] You just heard from FCC Chairman Brandon Carr suggesting to Benny Johnson that the Trump administration could take action against ABC. And that is, in fact, in response to comments made by Jimmy Kimmel. And it turns out that Nexstar, Jimmy Kimmel's employer, has chosen [00:00:50] to throw their employee under the bus ahead of a potential merger that they're hoping to get approved, by the way. So there's a lot to this story. Kimmel has now been suspended indefinitely over comments that he had made [00:01:07] in regard to Tyler Robinson, the alleged Charlie Kirk assassin. Now, here's what Kimmel had said, which led to so much ire being directed toward him. He said we hit some new lows over the weekend, with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk [00:01:25] as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it. Now, obviously, Kimmel's statements were inaccurate. There was no indication that Tyler Robinson was a Trump supporter [00:01:40] or a Maga Republican. And to be honest with you, there's been a lot of irresponsible, you know, jumping ahead of the gun and kind of characterizing this guy, in order to, you know, make the other political side look bad. But the one thing that has become pretty clear to me through what we've learned [00:01:59] through this investigation so far is that he hated Charlie Kirk. He felt that Charlie Kirk was spreading hate, and that Robinson allegedly has a transgender partner, and was particularly upset with Charlie Kirk over his anti-trans comments. [00:02:16] So what Jimmy Kimmel said was inaccurate. There's no question about it. But it wasn't until Brendan Carr came out and said what he said during that interview with Benny Johnson, that next star decided, yeah, let's suspend Kimmel indefinitely. So let me read you the statement. [00:02:32] They say that 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. [00:02:48] So that was a statement from the president of Nexstar Broadcasting Division, Andrew Alford. And so, he says, continuing to give Mr. Kimmel a broadcast platform in the public interest at this current time. Well, I'm sorry, continuing to give Mr. Kimmel a broadcast platform in [00:03:06] the communities we serve is simply not in the public interest at the current time. And we have made this difficult decision to preempt his show in an effort to let cooler heads prevail as we move forward or move toward the resumption [00:03:21] of respectful, constructive dialog. So Nexstar currently operates mostly in smaller, mid-sized markets. Though they include the ABC stations in New Orleans and also Salt Lake City. And I should note the decision also comes as Nexstar, you know, [00:03:40] comes as the broadcast station is seeking FCC approval for its $6.2 billion mega deal to acquire Tegna, a deal that would make Nexstar by far the largest owner of local TV stations in the country. [00:03:56] So, you know, those mergers be calling. And so but like I'm curious what you think about Kimmel's statements because I do think Kimmel is feeding into not only were his statements inaccurate, it feeds into this like partizan brain rot that's fueling [00:04:12] a lot of unrest in this country. - What do you think? - So on what Jimmy Kimmel said. So was it wrong? Yes. So what do I think is allowed and not allowed? It's not even allowed. It's just what should you do and not do in a situation like that? [00:04:28] Now we're sitting there for 3 or 4 days with no information on who the shooter is, what their motive was, etc. If you say no speculation is allowed, what, everybody's just going to sit around silent for four days. We will wait for the official government position. We are not at all curious. We will not talk about it. [00:04:45] No, that's an unreasonable standard. Nobody's going to do that. And by the way, if you're in the right wing, you really want to get canceled over speculation after a shooting or any other major event. The right wing in my lifetime has done massive speculation about who it could be, etc.. [00:05:01] I'm not saying the left wing doesn't, right. I'm just saying that it's a thing that happens. It's normal, it's human, etc.. Now at the same time, should you make if you're on television, you're in media. Should you make definitive statements before you? No, no, of course not. But okay, so. So that's why if Jimmy Kimmel was not a comic and he was ABC's news anchor [00:05:21] and he said, yes, that's right, Tyler Robinson was MAGA. You'd go, whoa, whoa, what are you doing? The authorities haven't even come out yet with anything. Why are you stating that definitively? So that would definitely be wrong. Now we move to. Okay. So should they have taken him off the air? [00:05:36] Well, brother, he's not a news anchor. He's a comic. It was the setup to a joke. It was inaccurate. So what would I do if I was running the station? I'd talk to Kimmel and I'd say, you get that? That's wrong, right? [00:05:51] I know, I know, it was a setup to a joke. I know, and it's not. You're not, you know, Walter Cronkite. You're you're doing comedy here, but still, you might give people the wrong idea. So I don't even want you saying it definitively in a joke. And then my guess is Kimmel would go, oh, you're right, I get it. [00:06:07] We shouldn't have done that, right? And maybe even puts out a statement, not like groveling or anything, but like, hey, our bad. We didn't know then definitively. And it turns out it's this, right? I wouldn't take him off the air. Now. Why wouldn't I take him off the air? Because Trump is going around going I got Colbert. [00:06:24] Now I want Kimmel. We're gonna cancel all of them. They better not criticize me. And in the context of that, now, you take Kimmel off after the CBS took Colbert off and CBS took him off while they were trying to prove a merger, now, next starts taking Kimmel off while they're trying to prove a merger. This looks terrible. And it is terrible. [00:06:41] And by the way, as you know, we talked about on Tucker Carlson's show last night and we've talked about in every context here, if there's one thing that Charlie Kirk stood for, it was freedom of speech. Now, if you're on the left and you say, oh, I don't really believe that he meant it, etc., it doesn't matter, guys. [00:06:56] That was his defining issue and the right wing 100% believes that is his defining issue. And I think, look, was he perfect on that? No. Was. Did I again, we'll say for the thousandth time, did we disagree with him on a whole host of issues? [00:07:11] Yes. Right. But did he fight for freedom of speech for his side? But obviously, freedom of speech is not a thing you do for just the right or the left. So for all of America. Yeah, that's what he was known for. That's what he was most known for. So if your reaction is because you stated [00:07:28] something incorrect in a quarter of a joke, I'm going to take your speech away. That's what Charlie would have wanted. Medicare is as messy as my daughter's room. It's almost impossible to wade through either one of those things, and they've got thousands of plan options without any help from Medicare. [00:07:44] So I had to do research. And after I did my research on Medicare advisors, only one Medicare advisor actually compares every plan nationwide to find the right fit for your needs and preferences. It's chapter Medicare Supplement Advantage Part D, they cover it all. On average, they save people over $1,100 a year. [00:08:03] It's also free and easy. They can review your options in under 20 minutes if you're already on the best plan. Boom! They tell you. You get peace of mind. If not, they help you switch, visit, ask for help, or call the number on your screen today. [00:08:21] No, no, you're making things up. Okay. And I know they didn't say that to be look, to be perfectly accurate. They didn't say that's what Charlie would have wanted. Right. They're saying in this context in our communities, blah, blah, blah. But in essence, that's what you're doing here. And and I think it sucks. I think it's bad for the country. [00:08:38] It's bad for free speech. And I'm tired of Trump and the right wing. Look, Kirk, I would argue, was principled enough on free speech. Trump has not been at all. Not close. Not within a million miles of close. [00:08:53] And in fact, right after Charlie Kirk died, Bondi and Trump backed him up, backed her up and up, said oh yeah. Hate speech. Anything. And Trump even said to a reporter from ABC, oh, you're questioning me. That's hate speech. No it's not, no it's not. That's a reporter doing his job. [00:09:09] That's part of the First Amendment, freedom of speech and freedom of the press. And Trump doesn't understand that. And so now taking out people who, make fun of the politician to serve that up on a silver platter to Trump. No way. Disgusting. [00:09:24] I think I disagree with you. Like the more I sit with what he said and the more I think about it. Look, guys, I mean, you have to consider, even if you loathe Charlie Kirk, put your put your shoes in the shoes of conservatives who saw one of their, [00:09:43] you know, top influencers, someone who had a tremendous amount of clout on the right wing. He gets assassinated. And so to make a declarative statement and pin the blame on the very people who are grieving the loss of Charlie Kirk. [00:10:00] Before you have any evidence, is. Yeah. It's offensive. It's irresponsible. I get that he's a comic, so I guess we should hold him to a lower standard, I guess. But my problem with it is it keeps feeding into, you know, that divide. [00:10:17] And it's all about like. Oh, no, it's your fault. It's the left's fault. It's the right's fault. It's just like this endless race to the bottom over which party sucks more. And look, I saw this happen with cable news, too. Where before we had any information about the suspect. [00:10:34] Before a suspect was even apprehended. Every debate, every conversation was about left wing ideology. Now, keep in mind, you know, it does appear that Tyler Robinson's motive was he didn't like what Charlie Kirk had to say about transgender people, and he [00:10:50] felt that Charlie Kirk was spreading hate. But this is before we even had those details about Tyler Robinson. And so it's just can we wait? And more importantly, why is it more important to pin the blame [00:11:05] on your political opponents as opposed to taking note of where we are as a country right now, and how dangerous the situation really is as we move forward. You know, like, I guess my point is, rather than rather than quelling violence, [00:11:22] tension, the constant blame game, he kind of fed into it before we had the details about what Tyler Robinson actually believes. So. And look, the part I agree with you on is yeah, can we cool it? So to your point, I saw a poll today that more people believed that Tyler [00:11:40] Robinson was on the right than the left. So until recently, obviously now it's all over the news, right? And that's just totally wrong, right? And why did they believe that? Because so many people immediately and yes, obviously on on the left jumped [00:11:56] out and said, oh, he was probably MAGA. He was a groper. He was this. Now, we speculated. We speculated on the show. We gave you a range of options, right? I said, these people are saying this, this and this, but we don't know yet, right? That's what I think is the right thing to do. So other people jumped in and said, oh, we're sure he's on the right. [00:12:12] Okay, so that's a problem. But Jimmy Kimmel said it as a quarter of a freaking joke. So now I think, you know, to your point about shoe on the other foot, right? Okay. If Greg Gutfeld had made a similar joke when I said, that's it, Greg Gutfeld, [00:12:28] I can't believe you made a joke. An inappropriate joke was, of course, incorrect statement. That's it. Greg Gutfeld! Gutfeld! Off the air. Hey, I wouldn't say it be. No one would say it. See, there's absolutely no chance in the world that would happen. So now we're going to take off everyone on on the left, the center. [00:12:45] Anyone who isn't right wing but the right wing gets different rules. So Gutfeld can say whatever he wants. Everybody can say whatever they want on the right. And there was massive and and let's be honest, with their right wing hosts were their right wing media who are all saying from second one leftist. [00:13:03] Now they didn't know either. Now it turned out it was a leftist and I don't. And what my point is, I'm not. We don't know if he's a leftist. We know that. Hold on. Let me finish the. - Point. - Real quick. I'm not blaming the right wing for speculating that he was, that the shooter was on the left. [00:13:18] Because I get it, Charlie Kirk was on the right. So it's normal to think that the shooter was on the left. As someone who opposes him so much, they didn't want to shoot him, right? But are we going to. But they didn't know either. So are we suspending all of them? Are we firing all of them? No, it's a double standard. [00:13:34] And who's the double standard applied to the enemies of the president? Let's be honest. Yeah, and by the way, I don't believe for a second that nexstar's motivating factor here was that they were aggrieved by what Kimmel had to say. I actually think the fact that the FCC needs to approve the merger that they [00:13:50] so desperately want is the bigger factor here, and I find that particularly gross. But, you know, I guess my point is, the left has always seen itself as people who operate at a higher standard than the right. You know, they don't. [00:14:06] They don't roll around in the mud the way the right wingers do, you know? They don't jump the gun when it comes to these shootings and pin the blame unfairly on the other side. But I guess what I've seen with, you know, partizans like hyper partizans on the left who are like, just constantly enraged by Donald Trump. [00:14:24] The entire entirety of their politics seems to be, you know, guided by that hatred for Donald Trump. But I get it, I get it. But sometimes it clouds your mind and it leads to you making decisions under not the best judgment. So I think it was wrong for him to pin the blame, on the right. [00:14:43] Again, I'm just going to repeat that. But I also think that what the Trump administration is doing in regard to retaliating against any reporting or press that he doesn't like is also a serious issue. I just don't know if the Jimmy Kimmel example is the best example. I mean, he's catching feelings over a comic man. [00:15:01] If Joe Biden did this, I demand every comic who criticizes me be taken off the air. Otherwise, I won't approve mergers. People would have said, what a tyrant, what a what a ridiculous, thin skinned loser. Right. Trump does it. And we're like, oh, well, I mean, he did get a quarter of a joke wrong. [00:15:20] No, we would never apply that standard to Gutfeld. And so I know and Anna, to your point, I get it, I get it. What can you find someone in in media that has a deeper loathing of the mainstream media than I do? And so their whole fake pretenses of like, oh, we are the truth. [00:15:39] We are reality. Meanwhile, they're framing everything for status quo is great, politicians are great, corporations are great, etc. We've broken that down thousands of times on The Young Turks, but we have to have the same principles that apply to everyone. So that goes to your point. [00:15:54] They should be more careful, especially if they're going to talk down their nose at people. I totally agree with that, right? But at the same time, taking him off the air for this type of microscopic infraction. And we know why they're doing it. To placate an out of control president who hates freedom of speech. [00:16:13] So no, I hate this decision. I think it's totally wrong. I've got to read one comment here, because they made such a good point that I forgot to make in the last story. One of our members on Titcomb, next to a reporter, wrote in I don't care about the opinions of the company. Once the FCC gets involved, it's the government. [00:16:29] The government policing speech is a violation of the First Amendment. Thank you for being part of the show. I love that we do the show with the members. I should have made that point earlier. That is the most important point when the government gets involved and says, okay, well, we don't like what Jimmy Kimmel's jokes. No, no, no, no, that's a violation of the First Amendment. [00:16:47] If the company wants to make a decision, as other members wrote in for their bottom line, that's up to them. But when the government says what is allowed and not allowed massive violation of the First Amendment. Totally agree.