What Kimmel’s Return Really Says About Free Speech – PJ Media– pjmedia.com
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Excerpt:The news that ABC has quietly reinstated Jimmy Kimmel to his late-night perch is being sold as a triumph for free speech, but the truth is more cynical and more troubling. Kimmel was not fired because he made a joke or voiced an opinion; he was suspended because he refused to apologize. That distinction matters, though few in the media want to spell it out. In America, you can say just about anything you want — but your employer can still show you the door if you embarrass them. In Kimmel’s case, he was told to issue a mea culpa for the timing and tone of his remarks about Charlie Kirk. He didn’t, and that’s why his show went dark. To pretend this was a First Amendment battle is to miss the point entirely.
No one is saying Kimmel doesn’t have the right to call Charlie Kirk an “a**hole” or worse. He can stand on the roof of his studio, shout it into a megaphone, and nobody can haul him away for it. That’s free speech. But ABC also has the right to discipline him if they think his words cross a line. Networks exercise that right all the time. Roseanne Barr tweeted something offensive, and she was gone by the next morning. Dave Chappelle tells jokes that offend progressive orthodoxy, and activists swarm Netflix demanding his cancellation. Scott Baio, who gave speeches supporting Donald Trump, was effectively blackballed from Hollywood altogether. There was no handwringing about free speech when those artists were sidelined. They weren’t rescued by a sympathetic network; they were shut out. Yet Kimmel gets a different standard. Why? Because he is one of their own.
This is what rankles. When comedians or commentators outside the approved ideological bubble speak freely, they are punished. When insiders cross a line, they get a slap on the wrist and a glossy press release about the “importance of diverse viewpoints.” That’s not free speech. That’s favoritism. And it’s a telltale sign that America’s cultural and corporate institutions are not neutral referees. They are for sale to the highest bidder.
