WorldNetDaily’s enthusiasm for the Trump administration threatening media people with legal action for not being good little Trump-bots extended to Jimmy Kimmel, as detailed in an anonymously written Sept. 17 article:
The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission is threatening to take action against ABC over on-air claims made by comedian Jimmy Kimmel about the man suspected of assassinating Charlie Kirk last week.
Kimmel said in his monologue Monday, “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang 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.”
The suspect, Tyler Robinson, however, is reported by family members to have moved to the left politically in recent months, and Utah officials released texts to his transgender roommate in which he offers the reason he shot and killed the popular activist who clearly was in the MAGA camp.
[…]As reported at the Gateway Pundit, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr appeared on “The Benny Show” and told host Benny Johnson that he may take action against ABC and Kimmel.
“This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead,” Carr said.
“They have a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest. There are calls for Kimmel to be fired. I think you could certainly see a path forward for suspension over this.”
WND, of course, has a lengthy record of spreading lies with impunity, so it’s a bit ironic it would be so concerned about Kimmel.
When Kimmel did get suspended, another anonymously written article celebrated it:
Disney, which owns ABC, is pulling Jimmy Kimmel’s show Wednesday night and into the future “indefinitely,” a response to the TV host’s wildly inaccurate statement Monday about Tyler Robinson, the man accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk last week.
“‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ will be preempted indefinitely,” a Disney spokesperson told Fox News.
[…]President Donald Trump reacted to Kimmel’s ouster, saying: “Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done.
“Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible. That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!!”
Joe Kovacs found a right-wing activist — whom he mislabels as a “journalist” — to rant further about Kimmel in a Sept. 21 article:
A journalist who says Charlie Kirk greatly improved his personal life by focusing on Jesus Christ is now asserting former late-night talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel “put a target on the back of every Trump supporter” with his remarks blaming Kirk’s assassination on those who wish to Make America Great Again, or MAGA.
“Charlie is the figurehead of the MAGA movement and so to blame MAGA for Charlie’s death, which by the way is a sick and evil lie, is to blame Charlie for his own death. But also it is to put a target on the back of every Trump supporter,” said Benny Johnson, host of “The Benny Show,” during an appearance on “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Bartiromo on the Fox News Channel.
“Because what Jimmy Kimmel is saying is that with the full power and weight of ABC News, which is a taxpayer-funded, corporate news entity which has a license to broadcast in the public interest, he is saying I’m gonna take the full weight of that comedy show, which is a sick joke, and I’m gonna put a target on the back of Trump supporters.
“What he is saying is, ‘I will whitewash your crime,’ because Charlie Kirk was killed by a radical, trans activist Democrat. And he’s gonna say ‘I will whitewash that, and I will assist in blaming the MAGA movement for these assassinations.’
“It’s a very evil and very dangerous thing for everybody out there who’s still working to honor Charlie and his legacy and to remember him. It’s the last thing that he would want. Charlie was always an agent of peace and debate and dialogue.”
As per usual for WND, Kovacs couldn’t be bothered to seek out a contrasting view. Instead, he cited another Johnson rant:
In a previous broadcast on his own show, Johnson labeled leftists in the public and media as “wicked demon bastards” for celebrating Kirk’s assassination.
“You wicked demon bastards on the left and in the corporate media who even at this very moment celebrate Charlie Kirk’s death, called for Charlie Kirk’s death for years.
“You labeled him the most evil names you could possibly label him to your genetically and mentally predisposed audiences and deficient audiences who you know are mentally unstable, and you told them Charlie Kirk was Hitler. And then, what do you expect to happen? … They labeled us all this way.”
Kovacs didn’t mention that his employer repeatedly labeled Barack Obama as Hitler and the Antichrist — by Johnson’s definition ” the most evil names.”
WND had previously falsely claimed that a Kimmel joke about voting was exactly the same as racist internet troll Douglass Mackey maliciously telling black people to vote on a different day.