Jimmy Kimmel and a matter of degree

Henry Castaigne (View Post):

What is your take? What subjects or jokes do you think should be made taboo and what should be made more acceptable?

Glorification of Communism. It should be no more socially acceptable to display a hammer and sickle, or wear a Che Guevera T-shirt, than it would be to display a swastika, or display a picture of Hitler.

I don't think the criteria ought to be "decorum". It sounds too much like some conservative's cliches that we've seen plenty often--too often: "fainting couches", "crinoline", "grasping at pearls" "pining away for those cocktail party invitations", etc etc. I don't think the Kimmel issue involves decorum.

He said something factually wrong and should be punished. Loss of the show? If Sinclair and Nextstar take a hike, that's a huge financial hit to ABC. But it was their choice. The FCC commissioner should have kept his mouth shut. BTW, contrary to what I read on the web. there's no such thing as an "ABC broadcaster's license" that the Feds could go after, and there never has been.

of course, his bosses can fire him for any reason they want. And I would be totally against the government getting involved in this decision at all, just as I was against Joe Biden’s administration getting involved in all the censorship in social media surrounding Covid and all kinds of other things.

and I agree what he said was pretty despicable, and I can’t see where any humor was in any of it.

But If it had been my decision, I probably would’ve just left him right where he was, allowed him to keep doing what he does. He has so few viewers, such a small audience who appreciate him I can’t see that he does the left very much good.

I don’t know for sure, but I would bet that he has a much larger audience on the right. His most egregious bits are fodder for all the podcast. I listen to, and he does a lot of damage for his side that way.

I agree with Scott Adams when he says that we should leave the most ridiculous left-wingers - Chuck Schumer, AOC, Brian Stelter, all of these people who say the most eye rolling things – right where they are. That only do they do their side a lot of damage, they are also quite amusing to our side.

They continuously remind us of what we are up against, which ain’t much.

Henry Castaigne (View Post):

If Jimmy Kimmel had said the N-word live, or if he had denied the Holocaust in a tweet, he would have been fired and ‘canceled’ without a second thought.

Kimmel was spreading a blood libel when there was widespread reporting in the media on the Saturday, Sunday, and Monday BEFORE he went on the air that the assassin was a gay, radicalized leftist and nothing to do with MAGA.

If he didn't know this, then he was ignorant despite claims in 2024 that he has a team of fact-checkers that verify whatever he says in his monologues is accurate before he goes on air - OR - he knew he was spreading a blood libel which is much worse and suggests that his intent was more vile.

This wasn't an edgy joke about death. This wasn't a joke at all. Good riddance.

Very pretty illustration for your post, though.

Kimmel wasn't fired, he just won't be on the air for the foreseeable future. He refuses to apologize, so I guess he doesn't want to be on the air.

Kimmel's FCC case, to my understanding, would have wound around the requirement that broadcasters "serve the public interest." The government issued no sanction, it came instead from the station affiliates' ownership. The response came from market forces.

"Market response" isn't predictable. It is interesting to consider just how much Kimmel and his producers knew what they were doing, and to what degree they didn't anticipate such a response. The expectation seems to be that a broadcaster should have awareness of the subject when making claims. If the claims the broadcaster then makes are false, that goes against public interest(?). In the immediate case, the broadcaster's employer decided the comments went against its interest.

There is much to unwind with your questions. I'll leave it here and continue to ponder what a civil standard would look like. Good questions, Henry, and thanks for the post.