Before the Media Research Center could fully whine about the return of Jimmy Kimmel, it was necessary for Jorge Bonilla to have a fit of Stelter Derangement Syndrome:
Jimmy Kimmel’s much heralded return to the airwaves finally happened. As expected, there has been significant gushing over Kimmel’s monologue. Among those gleefully squeeing, CNN Chief Media Analyst Brian Stelter.
[…]To hear it from Stelter, Kimmel is this virtuous philosopher-king who is now stepping into the role of “educator” and “public servant”. The elite regime comic is now going to serve and educate YOU, you ungrateful rubes.
Stelter’s initial squeeing doesn’t address the substance of the monologue, and I’m not going to get into it beyond noting that Kimmel had a very low bar to clear: show a modicum of regret for smearing half the country by insisting, despite tons of available evidence to the contrary, that Charlie Kirk’s killer was part of “the MAGA gang”.
An actual apology would’ve gone a long way towards good will, and towards bringing the pre-empting affiliate groups back into the fold. Instead, Kimmel delivers a misdirective statement with no apology.
Stelter frames this as a triumphal return for Kimmel, “a comeback in every sense of the word”. Some may see it that way. Others, especially those expecting to see some act of contrition, will emerge disappointed and perhaps even angry. Stelter is right about this being “a fight that’s not going away.” Just not the fight he or Kimmel expected, which will continue.
Comedy cop Alex Christy delivered the whine, complaining that Kimmel was not apologetic enough:
ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel returned to the air on Tuesday after his suspension resulting from a previous episode where he stated conservatives were “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.” As Kimmel addressed the matter, he omitted the prevalence of conspiracy theories on the left that led to conservative outrage at his comments.
[…]While the tone of Kimmel’s remarks differed greatly from the fiery response he reportedly wanted to give last week, it still did not mention the conspiracy theories that led to conservative anger that Kimmel discussed last Monday and that was then directed at him. Nor does it mention why the killer thought violence was needed.
Because liberals think Kimmel was suspended because of Trump and Carr, Kimmel had to get a few jabs in at their expense. He claimed both men were free speech hypocrites and mocked Trump’s claim that he has no ratings, “Well, I do tonight. It’s—you almost have to feel sorry for him. He tried his best to cancel me, instead, he forced millions of people to watch the show. That backfired bigly. He might have to release the Epstein Files to distract us from this now.”
And, yes, Christy whined that Kimmel mocked Carr:
When he did come back, Kimmel returned to Trump and Carr as actor Robert De Niro appeared in a skit as a mob boss-like Carr. De Niro told Kimmel that, “It’s just me, Jimmy, the chairman of the FCC, gently suggesting that you gently shut the [bleep] up.”
After Kimmel wondered about free speech, De Niro informed him, “Speech, it ain’t free no more.”
Kimmel wondered how much speech costs now, and De Niro claimed it, “Depends on what you want to say. Like, you want to say something nice about the president’s beautiful thick yellow hair or how he can do his makeup better than any broad, that’s free,” but “if you want to do a joke like he’s so fat he needs two seats on the Epstein jet, that’s gonna cost,” which De Niro suggested would be a “couple of fingers, maybe a tooth, depends on how constipated he is.”
Christy offered no evidence that Carr’s threats against the broadcast licenses of ABC and its affiliates played no role whatsoever in KImmel’s suspension, meaning that it’s perfectly reasonable to believe Trump and Carr did get Kimmel suspended. He concluded by huffing:
As for the future of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Kimmel’s address probably satisfied his corporate Disney overlords, but whether it was enough to satisfy Sinclair and Nexstar is yet to be seen. It certainly did not meet Sinclair’s publicly-stated call for a full apology.
Would any apology have satisfied Christy? Doubtful.
Curtis Houck followed up with his own whine that non-right-wingers loved Kimmel’s monologue:
ABC, CBS, and NBC were exuberant on their lead Wednesday morning news shows over far-left late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s “triumphant” return late Tuesday to ABC after his six-day suspension, radiating joy for Kimmel’s “emotional,” “heartfelt,” and “passionate” monologue that doubled as a “searing defense of free speech.”
All those pathetic adjectives were leveled despite the fact that Kimmel’s lengthy monologue never included an apology for his September 15 smears of the late Charlie Kirk, Make America Great Again supporters, and President Trump.
Starting with Kimmel’s own network, ABC’s Good Morning America was steadfast in its love. Leave it to co-host and former Clinton flack George Stephanopoulos to sing Kimmel’s praises. Correspondent Trevor Ault picked up the baton with a hack-tastic defense of Kimmel by arguing “he never meant to make light of Charlie Kirk’s death”:
[…]Having made his friends happy, one could presume Kimmel would declare last night mission accomplished?
We suspect no apology would have satisfied Houck either. He followed up by touting a fellow right-wing ranter:
On CNN, their paid ranks of actual conservative political commentators — Scott Jennings, Shermichael Singleton, Brad Todd, and David Urban — can only do so much and be in so many places at once.
Thankfully, other, unpaid conservatives are capable of holding serve, as exhibited by former Congressman Peter Meijer (R-MI) schooling a Joe Biden regime official on Tuesday’s The Arena with Kasie Hunt over Jimmy Kimmel, Google censoring conservatives, and the left’s warped sense of emotion over Kimmel being put in timeout versus Charlie Kirk being murdered.
Dan Kohn — who was Deputy Assistant to the President under Biden — had inadvertently cued Meijer up when discussing the Kimmel suspension, whining “it is madness” anyone would support Kimmel’s suspension while the Trump administration has been “silencing opposition” day and night.
Meijer wasn’t having it and interjected with a simple statement: “Who was silenced? Nobody was silenced!”
[…]When Koh replied “Kimmel was taken off the air” and “universities [are] afraid to speak their mind,” Meijer reminded him the ultimate decision was made “by a private company.”
Meijer then gave everyone a basic education about broadcast networks: “[E]very single one of the reasons why the FCC has a role is because these are broadcast stations with a monopoly that was granted by the government.”
Rebutting the notion that the Trump administration suspended Kimmel, Meijer noted “[t]he reason why Jimmy Kimmel got himself into the first place is he was repeating a lie believed by one in three Democrats that the person who assassinated Charlie Kirk.”
The whataboutism came when Meijer huffed that “A lot of conservatives were silenced on social media platforms because the government threatened those social media companies. Facebook, Google, Twitter. You can go down all the list.” No evidence was offered that any of those people were “silenced” solely because they were conservative.
Steve Mazlberg — a right-wing radio host who for some reason is now writing for the MRC — had some huffiness to contribute:
This past Tuesday night, as many Jimmy Kimmel supporters and detractors watched his return to the helm of ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, they saw his monologue, and if they hung around past the first break, they saw the first skit.
That skit featured actor Robert De Niro, who was playing the role of FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. Carr has been accused of threatening ABC/Disney to dump Kimmel’s show, or face consequences. Kimmel ripped Carr in the first segment, quoting Texas Republican Ted Cruz who accused Carr of acting like a mob boss. So who better to play the role of a mob boss than De Niro, who has appeared in numerous mob-type movies. But there is something that I bet almost all of those watching Tuesday night’s show didn’t know.
Back in October of 2016, De Niro made a video to get out the vote, which included him calling then candidate Donald Trump, stupid, a dog, a pig, a bull-sh&t artist, you get the picture. But it didn’t stop there, De Niro added that he’d “like to punch Trump in the face.”It’s sad that this is just another example of violent rhetoric from the left that never gets talked about.
No mention that, just 10 days earlier, Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade called for the execution of homeless people. That seems like pretty violent rhetoric, no?