Jimmy Kimmel returned to American night television on Tuesday defending the political satire against the “intimidation” of the Trump administration, six days after his comments on the air about the murder of the right -wing activist Charlie Kirk took Walt Disney to suspend his program.
Disney’s decision to shorten Kimmel’s exile for comments that he initially described as “inopportune” and “insensitive” marked an act of high corporate challenge profile in the face of Trump’s growing repression against the perceived enemies in the media through regulatory litigation and threats.
Even so, on his first night back in the air in almost a week, Kimmel was discussed between his usual ironic ingenuity and a more sober and sensitive tone when addressing the stir that his previous comment had unleashed.
“It was never my intention to subtract importance to a young man’s murder. I don’t think he has anything funny,” said “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” The presenter told the spectators, with the voice broken by the emotion, moments after taking the stage before an ovation standing.
“It was not my intention to blame any specific group for the actions of who, obviously, was a deeply disturbed individual; that was just the opposite of what he tried to convey,” Kimmel added.
Disney, a parent company of the ABC chain that transmits its program, stopped its production on September 17, two days after Kimmel said in his opening monologue that the supporters of President Donald Trump were eager to characterize the alleged Kirk murderer “as something less than one of them” and accused them of trying to “win political points” with his murder.
The Trump administration and many of its supporters expressed their outrage at Kimmel’s comments, which occurred five days after Kirk, a nearby Trump ally and radio and podcast presenter, was shot dead while spoke on the campus of the Utah University of Utah in Orem, Utah.
In response to Kimmel’s comments, the president of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Brendan Carr, threatened with an investigation and urged television chains to cancel the Kimmel program or face possible fines and the revocation of their transmission licenses.
“We can do it for good or bad,” Carr said then.
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Kimmel thanks his detractors
Shortly after, Disney announced the immediate and indefinite suspension of Kimmel, which unleashed a violent reaction that finally included several prominent conservatives who joined the Democrats to condemn the FCC so they described as government censorship attempts.
“I want to thank those who do not support my program or my beliefs, but who supports my right to share them anyway,” Kimmel said on Tuesday, mentioning figures of the political right as commentators Ben Shapiro and Candace Owens, as well as the American Republicans Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, and Ted Cruz, of Texas.
“I don’t think I said this before, but Ted Cruz is right,” Kimmel said laughing.
Disney also faced the pressure of consumers who protested by Kimmel’s suspension, canceling their subscriptions to the Disney+streaming channel.
Kimmel joked during the transmission by saying that Disney only imposed a condition for his return; Then he took a role out of his pocket to read a statement asking the spectators to renew their Disney+service.
Although Disney already reincorporated Kimmel to ABC programming, the two largest groups of television chains of the local ABC affiliates – Nettar Media Group and Sinclair – continued to boycott their program.
Before Tuesday’s broadcast, Trump said on his online Truth Social platform that “he can’t believe” that ABC returned the program to Kimmel and hinted that he would take more measures against the chain.
“Why would they want someone who makes it so bad, who is not funny and endangers the chain by reproducing 99% positive democrat?” Trump wrote. “It is another branch of the National Democratic Committee (DNC) and, as far as I know, that would be an important illegal contribution to a campaign. I think we are going to test the ABC with this.”
Kimmel, presenter of the Oscar four times, said that Trump not only attacked the comedians who displeased him, but also the journalists, and said about the Republican President: “He is demanding them, he is intimidating them.”
ABC News agreed to donate 15 million dollars to the Trump presidential library to resolve a lawsuit for the comments of the presenter George Stephanopoulos on the civil lawsuit filed against the president by the writer E. Jean Carroll.
Paramount Global paid 16 million dollars in July to resolve a lawsuit filed by Trump, who claimed that the “60 minute” program of CBS News deceptively edited an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris, which the chain broadcast in October.
That same month, Paramount announced the cancellation of “The Late Show”, presented by Comedian Stephen Colbert in CBS. The chain said it was a business decision, but critics interpreted it widely as a strategy to please Trump.
“I know that it is not as interesting as silenced a comedian, but it is essential to have a free press, and it is madness that we are not paying more attention to him,” Kimmel said.
Deminting any suspicion that his criticisms would be kept when satirizing Trump on Tuesday, Kimmel opened the program joking: “I don’t know who had about 48 rarely, if I or the executive director of Tylenol,” in reference to Trump’s announcement that linked autism with the use of this popular analgesic by pregnant women.
“Follow Donald Trump’s advice and you could also look like a glaze ham with deep vein thrombosis,” Kimmel joked. “This is Tylenol. We talk about what you take when they don’t let you take anything that works.”
Almost at the end of his monologue, Kimmel resumed the theme that led him to be briefly expelled from night television, saying that he was “deeply” moved by the forgiveness that Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, said towards the 22 -year -old accused of murdering her husband, an expression that the presenter described as “a selfless act of grace.”
“And if there is something we should get from this tragedy to move on, I hope that is,” he said, with our eyes again full of tears.
With Reuters information
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