Marc Maron and Wanda Sykes were among the many to raise serious concerns about the threat to free speech after ABC’s decision to indefinitely pull Jimmy Kimmel Live! following pressure from the Trump administration.
Sykes was set to be a guest on Kimmel on Wednesday night, but ABC made its decision before the show was taped. “He didn’t end the Ukraine war, or solve Gaza, within his first week,” Sykes said of Trump in a video on Instagram. “But he did end freedom of speech within his first year. Hey, for those of you who pray, now’s the time to do it. Love you, Jimmy.”
Maron, who’s become an increasingly vocal critic of comedians who inadvertently, or outwardly, cater to the right, shared a particularly blunt video on TikTok that was at once a dire warning and a call to action. “This is government censorship. This is the Trump administration coming after people who speak out against him,” he said. “This is the end of it. If you have any concern or belief in real freedom or the Constitution and free speech — this is it. This is the deciding moment. This is what authoritarianism looks like right now in this country. It’s happening.”
Maron also put ABC’s decision in the context of the free-speech debates that have been swirling around the comedy world the past few years, and urged those ostensible “free-speech warriors” to take note. “This isn’t about saying the r-word or the t-word or any of that,” he said. “This is government censorship. This isn’t fucking Twitter. This isn’t people getting canceled because of a cultural pile-on. This is the United States government silencing voices that they disagree with.… Look, if they can come for Kimmel, they can come for anybody. This is happening. It’s time to act, figure it out, find a way, come together. Push back. Because if this goes, it’s over.”
Emmy-winning Hacks star Jean Smart shared a photo on Instagram of herself and Kimmel, writing that she was “horrified” with ABC’s decision. “What Jimmy said was FREE speech, not hate speech,” she said. “People seem to only want to protect free speech when it suits THEIR agenda. Though I didn’t agree at ALL with Charlie Kirk; his shooting death sickened me; and should have sickened any decent human being. What is happening to our country?”
Others to express their shock and dismay online include Ben Stiller, who simply tweeted, “This isn’t right.” Mike Birbiglia, echoing Maron’s sentiment about the free-speech debates in comedy, added, “I’ve spent a lot of time in public and private defending comedians I don’t agree with. If you’re a comedian and you don’t call out the insanity of pulling Kimmel off the air — don’t bother spouting off about free speech anymore.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the Republican Party “does not believe in free speech,” adding, “Buying and controlling media platforms. Firing commentators. Canceling shows. These aren’t coincidences. Its’s coordinated. And it’s dangerous.… They are censoring you in real time.”
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Barack Obama echoed this sentiment, saying, “After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.”
He added, “This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent — and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating to it.”
In a video posted to social media, Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy said, “If you don’t raise your voices right now about the assault on free speech, about Donald Trump’s decision to, disgustingly, exploit the murder of Charlie Kirk so as to try to permanently render powerless and impotent those who politically oppose him, there may be no democracy to save a year from now.”
The decision to pull Kimmel came after conservative outcry over a joke the host made during a recent monologue about the suspect accused of killing Charlie Kirk. Among those criticizing Kimmel was Trump’s Federal Communications Commission chairman, Brendan Carr, who called on licensed broadcasters to stop airing Kimmel’s show. Not long after, Nexstar and Sinclair — two giant media conglomerates that own myriad ABC affiliates around the country — announced their decision to preempt Kimmel. ABC made its decision to pull the show soon after.
From Rolling Stone US
