Top MAGA podcaster and commentator Ben Shapiro is speaking out against the Trump administration’s role in pulling Kimmel off the air.
Following criticism from Republican Senator Ted Cruz about Federal Communication Commission chair Brendan Carr acting like a character out of Goodfellas, Shapiro issued similar concerns. On Thursday’s episode of The Ben Shapiro Show, the host said that it was wrong for the FCC to go after ABC.
“The FCC should not be threatening action against ABC or its affiliates or Disney,” Shapiro said.
Like Cruz, Shapiro is not sparing any sentiment for Kimmel himself. There was no effort to defend the content of what Kimmel said about Charlie Kirk’s murder and the suspected political motivations of his alleged killer, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson.
“Social censure is perfectly appropriate,” Shapiro continued. “The blowback from the public is totally natural and in fact good because Jimmy Kimmel is in fact a schmuck who should have been taken off the air 10 years ago.”
Kirk, 31, was shot and killed on September 10. In the days following, Trump has gone to great lengths to politicize the murder. Kimmel criticized the behavior in his September 15 monologue. By Wednesday at 5 p.m., ABC announced that Jimmy Kimmel Live! would be off air “indefinitely.”
Instead, Shapiro said that the decision to use the FCC to silence Kimmel could set a precedent of censorship that could be used against conservatives in the future.
“The question is…whether these local affiliates canceled Kimmel because they were upset with Kimmel or whether they canceled Kimmel because they came under pressure from the FCC,” Shapiro said.
“I do not want the FCC in the business of telling local affiliates that their licenses will be removed if they broadcast material that the FCC deems to be informationally false,” Shapiro continued.
Again, Shapiro doesn’t spare even a breath of sympathy for Kimmel. In fact, he makes the case repeatedly that the late-night show host could have been taken off the air based on his own lack of merit.
Shapiro referenced his own audience size and the audience of Fox News host Greg Gutfeld as examples of programming that gets better ratings than Kimmel.
Like Cruz, Shapiro’s concern centers on how Carr’s machinations with the FCC could easily be carried over under future Democratic leadership.
“I do not like that the FCC muddied the waters here. I think it is bad politics and I think it is bad policy,” Shapiro continued. “The fact that the FCC is trying to use standards about broadcasting false information in this way, I think is a negative.”
Shapiro echoed these same sentiment in his Friday show, calling to further reduce the powers of the FCC in general.
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