#charliekirk

Of course, mocking the sitting president has long been a cornerstone of pretty much any late-night program throughout the medium’s history. Trump has been the butt of countless jokes over the years. What’s happened to Kimmel is an escalation in every way, a chilling precedent that could have further consequences if it isn’t swiftly undone. How Kimmel himself reacts to the situation will be important—he’s a major celebrity, a multi-time emcee of the Academy Awards who’s been hosting TV shows since the 1990s. There’s a chance network television could become even more reticent to broadcast anything remotely provocative, which in turn could also inspire blowback from their audiences.

Disney and ABC have pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live! off air “indefinitely” after FCC chairman Brendan Carr threatened to pull the broadcast licenses of any station that aired his show over comments Kimmel made about the man charged with killing Charlie Kirk.