More than 100 protesters packed the sidewalk outside the El Capitan Entertainment Centre on Hollywood Boulevard on Thursday, a day after ABC pulled “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” from the network over the host’s comments about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Protesters held up signs that read “Don’t bend the knee to trump,” and “Douse the Mouse.” Visitors strolling Hollywood Boulevard stopped to gawk at the gathering, which blocked two lanes of eastbound traffic in the busy tourist area.
Andrea Silva, of Hollywood, said politicians are using Kirk’s murder as a political talking point.
“I think all the politicians are taking Charlie Kirk and just trying to make it more of a political thing than a human tragedy,” Silva said. “But I really believe that we just violated another instance of free speech.”
During his monologue Monday, Kimmel made remarks about Tyler Robinson, the Utah man accused of fatally shooting Kirk. He said the “MAGA gang” was “desperately 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.”
Kimmel also mocked President Trump for providing an update on the construction of a new White House ballroom after being asked how he was handling the murder of his close ally.
On Tuesday, law enforcement officials revealed that Robinson had liberal political leanings and told his partner in a text exchange that he “had enough of his [Kirk’s] hatred,” and “some hate can’t be negotiated.”
Nexstar Media Group responded on Wednesday, saying that it would pull the show from its ABC affiliate stations because of Kimmel’s comments. Walt Disney Co.-owned ABC then announced it would pull “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” indefinitely.’’
A spokesperson for Refuse Fascism, a political organization opposed to the Trump administration, said the group arranged the protest where “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” is filmed immediately after the comedian’s suspension.
“If Jimmy Kimmel can’t speak truth to power, then who can?” the group said in a statement.
Protesters outside the venue said it seemed as though ABC capitulated to demands from the Trump administration and impeded on Kimmel’s first amendment right to free speech for political purposes.
It is not clear what role, if any, the administration had in the show’s suspension. But Nexstar’s decision to yank the show came after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr blasted Kimmel on a conservative podcast and threatened to take action against ABC.
“The current administration cannot laugh at themselves and they don’t want anybody else to laugh,” said Ken Tullo, a Hollywood resident. “I’m not a protesting type of guy, but enough’s enough… I want my daughters to grow up where they’re not afraid to speak freely.”
Carr had suggested on the podcast “The Benny Show” that there was a “concerted effort” from some broadcasters to deceive the public about the motive behind Kirk’s killing. Carr said broadcasters licensed by the FCC had an “obligation to operate in the public interest.”
When asked by a reporter about the potential threat to free speech during his visit to the United Kingdom, President Trump attributed Kimmel’s suspension to “bad ratings.”
”He said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk,” Trump told reporters at a news conference on Thursday. “Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person — he had very bad ratings — and they should’ve fired him a long time ago, so you could call that free speech or not.”
Carr said the decision was a consequence of a changing media landscape that yearned for more conservative perspectives.
“We are in the midst of a massive shift in dynamics in the media ecosystem for lots of reasons, again, including the permission structure that Trump’s election provided,” Carr said in an interview with CNBC. “We’re not done yet with seeing the consequences of that shift.”
Dianne Hall and Michael Talbur, of Kansas City, said they were unaware of Kimmel’s suspension until the night before the protest. They had procured tickets to the live viewing of the show and made an ultimately fruitless trip to Los Angeles.
“I was expecting [the monologue] to be something rude toward the [Kirk] family,” Hall said. “I kept thinking, ‘Surely something bad was said for him to get fired’… But it was nothing like that.”
Other protesters said while Kimmel’s monologue was in “bad faith,” wider censorship issues and interference on public life by the Trump administration could arise from the suspension.
“There’s a lot of people that are hurting from what happened and to say something about it, or to blame some somebody for it, and you don’t really have the evidence, we don’t need that,” said Selassie Blackwell. “I didn’t think that should have gone to the extreme to cancel his show… it’s still free speech.”
Some at the protest argued Kimmel’s monologue had little to do with Kirk or his character, but rather the reaction on the right to the ongoing investigation.
“I’m dumbstruck because it’s not that he said anything against Charlie Kirk,” said protester McKensie Lara. “ABC was so scared about the retaliation from Trump that they shut him down.”
The post Protesters flood Hollywood over ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ suspension, calling for an end to censorship appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
