Jimmy Kimmel Suspended: Free Speech or Censorship

Jimmy Kimmel's quote that got him suspended or fired and the assassins influences the exact line. People forget about this. They don't really look at it. The exact line that got Jimmy Kimmel suspended was this quote. 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 other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it. That is the quote. And I want to spend a little time here dissecting this, analyzing it in a fair, objective way. I'm here as a sensible centrist coming to you, giving you analysis Based on my 40 years of experience working with business executives, CEOs, billionaire fund managers, as well as politicians, celebrities and star athletes on how to communicate effectively and crisis communication. Definitely Jimmy Kimmel is in a crisis. So I want to analyze this in a little more detail. Again, The quote was considered so inflammatory, so incendiary, it didn't warrant a mere criticism, a mere apology. But the, the head of the FCC basically, so much has said, abc, you got to get rid of him. We can do this the hard way or the easy way. And then other station owners that owned ABC stations, that carried the station weighed in and said, unless you get rid of this guy, we're not going to air the show. So it was not to clarify official censorship where the government said, you must take him off the air today or we take away your licenses and your appetite. But there was a lot of overt pressure. Let's analyze the quote again and figure out what exactly he did wrong. Where was he factually inaccurate? Where was he beyond the pale? Typically you don't lose your job for being a little sloppy or hurting someone's feelings a little bit. That's not how professional comedians typically lose their job. So I want to be fair and I'm really going to give you ammunition if you believe that Charlie Kirk's assassin was completely animated by a left wing ideology. I'm going to be fair and give you all the points for you to make your case. If you happen to believe he was a product of MAGA culture. I'm going to go through all those points, but I'm going to present a third perspective for you that I hope we all can think about a little more as well. So he said, again, we hit some new lows over the weekend. I don't know how you can fault someone for that. A lot of people were down, a lot of people were feeling like many, many political operatives across the spectrum were doing Sleazy, cheesy things, trying to make hay over someone's death. At that point, there's no particular ideological focus. I don't think you can fault him for that sentence. We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize the kid. Okay, so you might not like the fact that he wanted to point a finger at the MAGA gang, but let's be clear, he was not attacking Charl Kirk. Not that I think or any fair minded person thinks any comedian shouldn't be allowed to attack people. But he wasn't attacking Charlie Kirk. He wasn't attacking Charlie Kirk's family. He wasn't celebrating the death or the assassination of someone in our culture. So we need to take all those things off. I think a lot of fair minded people say, all right, someone with millions in audience being paid $16 million a year should not celebrate the assassination of someone. If he had done that, I think there would be widespr agreement that he should have been set. But that's not what he said. Again, we've hit some new loads over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize the kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them. Let's just analyze that. Was it in fact true that gigantic swaths of the Internet following the assassination of Charlie Kirk were devoted to painting the assassin as a product of the radical left? Well, yes, there was. There's simply no disputing that fact. You can agree or disagree with the analysis or whether the facts merit that assessment. And I'm going to go through the facts in a moment and I'm going to play it straight and give you all the facts on every side to make the case that this guy is was far left, far right and something in between or neither. I'm going to give you those facts right here today. But what you can't do is say that Jimmy Kimmel was wrong in saying people on the MAGA race again. Now he's talking about political actors, political characters. He's not talking about Charlie Kirk. He's certainly not embracing or endorsing assassination. He was simply saying that many MAGA supporters were trying desperately. That was his judgment call. But certainly there was a lot of passion and action. Actively trying to portray Killer of Charlie Kirk as being a part of the political left. Now I'm going to delve into that very deeply here in a moment. But that's what Jimmy Kimmel said. So far. There's nothing that could be honestly construed as attacking Charlie Kirk or his family or endorsing violence in any way. And we're almost at the end of the quote. So again, it's, we hit some new, and I'm sorry if this seems pedantic, but everybody I see in the media talking about this quote, don't really reference it. They don't really stop and say, oh, here's the exact thing that Jimmy Kimmel said which all fair minded people could agree upon is clear justification for being fired. So again, quote, we have 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, and doing everything they can to score political points from it. Were there people on the MAGA right, trying to say, okay, here, here was this killer and he's 100% associated with left wing ideology and pay no attention to all this set of facts here. That would also lead a fair minded but open minded individual to conclude maybe he was a part of or infiltrated by right wing ideology. There's no doubt what, what Jimmy Kimmel said there was 100% true. You might quibble with the idea that he's suggesting it's bad that they were trying to score political points, but that's what political actors do. That's what commentators do. That's what politicians do. Something happens in the news, they try to make themselves look good and their enemies look bad. It is simply indisputable that all sorts of people across the political spectrum are doing that. I want to spend a little time right now delving deeper into, into the basic facts of this situation and do it in a fair way. And if I say anything to offend you, grow up. If you hear me say something that hurts your feelings, then call Google and get my $16 million annual salary canceled and my show canceled. Oh, that's right. Google's not paying me $16 million. So I guess you're out of luck. So let's all, you know, put our big boy pants on and simply listen to objective facts in an objective way without instantly saying I have to use this crisis to make myself look good and people I don't like for other reasons, make them look bad. Let's put that aside for a moment, shall we? Okay. I told you I'm going to be fair and I am going to be fair. You might not agree with my assessment of every facts, but I'm going to marshal through facts to make everybody's case. I'm going to make the case that Charlie Kirk's assassin was heavily influenced by left wing ideology. I'm also going to make the case that Charlie Kirk's assassin was heavily influenced by right wing ideology and right wing culture. And I'm also going to make a third case, which is that Charlie Kirk is his assassin was very much a product of something that isn't particularly ideological but goes to some deeper rot in our society. Okay, let's first take a look at all the things that if you're convinced Charlie Kirk's assassin was influenced and part of some left wing cabal, some left wing ideology, I'm going to honestly and fairly put out the facts in your favor to make you come to that conclusion. So he has made, he made comments to the effect that Charlie Kirk spread too much hate. This is suggesting a motivation for his heinous act. And again, to be clear, I think it was a heinous act and you could certainly say, well, if he's right wing or conservative, he wouldn't have that viewpoint. So clearly let's chalk one up for that is left wing ideology. Although you could certainly be liberal, a mainstream, a centrist, and find Charlie Kirk's ideology wildly offensive. But for the sake of argument, let's say, okay, that's one in favor of the idea that Charlie Kirk's assassinated was motivated by the left, by left wing ideology. Next, one of the bullet casings had words that are related to being anti fascist. Well, that is a part of left wing ideology. Although a lot of centrists don't like fascism either and a lot of old style Republicans don't like fascism. But clearly putting some inscription on a bullet casing about being anti fascist, that's another clear cut point. If we're keeping score, that would suggest that Charlie Kirk's assassin was influenced by left wing ideology. Next point. And apologies if this offends anyone or does it seem exactly as you see the world, But I'm trying to give a fair minded analysis. He was in a relationship with a transgender woman or a man who was in the process of transitioning into becoming a female. This is something that I don't have any evidence that that's less likely to happen among conservatives or MAGA people. But as far as on paper, what they stand for, that is not considered something the typical MAGA supporter would endorse. They're in favor of traditional family values, traditional male female role models. So you could make a case that the assassin was influenced by a left positive pro trans ideology philosophy. You could certainly make that case. To be clear, the partner in question has Been cooperating completely with the authorities and by all indications knew nothing about this, did not endorse. It wasn't like the partner was egging the assassin on to do this. They seemed genuinely horrified that this happened. But we're keeping track. Okay, three clear cut points that would position the assassin's mindset as being part of left wing ideology. Now for those of you who are centrists, moderates, Democrats, liberals on the left, bear with me, I'm going to be giving both sides in a moment. Next item, the assassin, alleged assassin was reportedly engaged in with some progressive online spaces where anti Kirk sentiment was strong. So if you're keeping track, that's four specific fact points, data points suggesting this assassin was influenced by and a part of the left or at least a non right ideology. Several social acquaintances described him as mocking MAGA people and rolling his eyes when right wing commentary came about. Okay, number five, number six, he posted memes of critical that were critical of conservatives on social media from time to time. So that's six elements. There are some indications that he consumed some liberal leaning podcast and YouTube channels. That's seven. And once he apparently wrote an essay in college praising diversity and inclusion efforts. Okay, so those are my numbers here. Those are eight specific facts, data points that could make a reasonable person conclude that he was influenced by left wing ideology. And Jen writes in left ideology was the reason why they don't agree left propaganda is what got him killed. Okay, Jen, so bear with me. Ben. Jen, you're watching this live and I just, I think in a fair way objectively laid out eight different facts that could make someone conclude this killer was in fact a part of a left wing mindset, a left wing culture and at least a non maga, a non conservative mindset. Jen, if I missed some, feel free to list them here, write in the comments section. But I think I was pretty thorough, did my research and was fair. I'm coming to you not as some partisan, but as someone who's really trying to analyze communication skills clearly and thoroughly. Okay, now let's look at the other side because yes folks, there is more than one side, there's even more than two sides and most serious contentious political issues in America and elsewhere. Now what are the factors that would make a fair minded individual, someone who's not a complete partisan hack, come to the conclusion that this Charlie Kirk assassin was maybe heavily influenced by right wing culture and MAGA culture? Okay, let's again look at the facts. He knew how to use a gun and owned one. Okay, gun culture is Overwhelmingly associated with right wing culture, MAGA culture. In fact, most liberals I know of people on the left like, ooh, guns, yuck, not in my house. I don't want to own a gun. That's the predominant idiot. And let's not forget what's the number one thing most conservatives say they hate the most about liberals and the left and Democrats? It's that they want to take my gun away. That's the thing they hate. So that's the fact that he owned a gun. The fact that he knew how to even put a bullet in it and shoot. It would not have happened. You could make the case that he wouldn't have happened if he had not been a part of a conservative MAGA loving culture. His father owned guns. His father was a police officer. He grew up in a culture that revered guns. So again, a fair minded person would have to say, okay, that's one in favor of the liberal left wing view that this guy would not have committed this atrocity without being shaped by a conservative MAGA view. And it does. One point so far. There's eight positive facts to suggest the conservative analysis, which is this guy was affected by left wing ideology. I only have one so far that's on the other side that supports essentially Jimmy Kimmel's analysis. So that's one. He wore a pro Trump Halloween costume several years ago. Again, it was a pro Trump Halloween costume. So that's two. Two facts. Number three, his own grandmother told Republic or told the media that the entire family was a bunch of Trump loving Republicans. This is his own family member. Now one of the things we're hearing from Republicans and conservatives for my entire life is the importance of family creaking culture. Supposedly that's what's so awful about liberals is they don't care about families and whether daddies stay around. It's families that create culture. Families pre. Okay, this guy had a family where everyone was a Trump loving Republican. This is the culture he grew up in every day of his life for two decades. So if in fact culture spreads ideology, which conservatives always tell us is the case, then you have to put that as a factor in as well. And Jen's giving some comments. I will address all of your comments in just a moment. Next item. He was enrolled in a very conservative university where pretty much everyone was a part of a conservative Mormon, however you want to view it, Mormon, Christian religion. He was not a part of Oberlin or some elite liberal university. Bard University, Williams, Columbia. He was in a culture surrounded by like minded people. Not everyone, not Every student was a Trump MAGA supporter. But overwhelmingly, the culture he was in at his university, where he did attend briefly, was very pro conservative, pro maga. Next thing, he lived in a very conservative pro MAGA town. His whole town basically voted overwhelmingly for Trump. And again, he said, well, TJ why are you bringing up. That's not relevant. If someone was a killer who grew up in New York City in an extraordinarily liberal left wing enclave, then wouldn't that be considered fodder for the argument of, oh, this one, this person was influenced by radical left wingers. Look at his town, look at his neighborhood, look at all these people supported left wing radicals. You would use that as an argument to make one case. It has to be considered fair game. In this case, he was in a town where pretty much most people, not everyone, most people, the culture he was marinated in, everything was pro maga, pro Trump. Next thing, he was in a state, his whole state was a part of a pro, mega, pro Republican, pro Trump culture. These are the messages he's hearing all day long from his local media, his state media, from elected officials. You can't just say none of that has any impact. I'm not saying it made the definitive impact, but that was a part of what made him who he is. Next thing, he was a part of a particular religious faith, Mormonism, that is historically aligned with very conservative politics. The Mormon Church and its leaders, by and large, even if they don't officially do it all. Trump supporting Republican, supporting conservative policy, supporting. In fact, there was a time, if you were a Mormon and you said, I endorsed the Equal Rights Amendment, you were excommunicated from the church. And before the 1970s, mid-1970s, if you were a Mormon and you said, I think black people have souls, that was considered crazy because the Mormon Church did not consider black people to have souls. And they're certainly not equal to white people as human beings. Now, they changed that before this guy was born. But I just want to give you a little sense of the culture he was in. He was brought up a Mormon. He was involved in Mormon activity. That was the culture he was a part of. Again, if someone grew up in a culture of radical Islam or Louis, Louis Farrakhan version of Islam that said, white people are all devils, let's go out and kill white people, and then somebody did, you would say this religious upbringing was a part of what shaped person, wouldn't you? Okay, next, certain friends recalled him attending conservative campus events. So that would, that would make you think, okay, maybe that shaped it attending conservative events. A bullet casing had the following phrasing. If you can read this, you are gay. That seems to be an anti gay slur. I don't know gay people who say things like that around non gay people at least. So that would suggest making fun of gay people, which is a part of conservative. Let's be honest now, that's a part of conservative. Conservative culture. Until not that long ago, conservatives thought it was an absolute abomination, and many still do. That being gay was an abomination. They opposed gay marriage. So for him to put on the casing, if you could see this, you're gay. Seems to be something consistent with someone on the political right. Now, I'm being fair. I already pointed out to you earlier that he did in fact have anti fascist writings on the bullets. This is what's being reported to us through law officials. So who knows if that actually stays? But that's all we know right now. For those of us who follow objective media reports on this next. Neighbors described his family flying Trump flags outside their home during the election season. That's a part of his culture. The home where he lived was flying Trump flags. He If I told you, here's a guy who killed a prominent conservative, and in the house where he lived, they were flying flags promoting Che Guevara and Fidel Castro and Stalin, I think you would logically conclude there's something about the culture this guy grew up in who made him want to do these horrible things. You can't have it both ways. I'm being fair here. Okay, finally, social media history included him liking pro Trump pages before later deleting them. Again, that's a part of his culture. So if you're adding it up, there are eight facts that I saw that could make the case that he is very much a part of the political left, heavily influenced by the political left. There are 12 facts I just outlined for you that would make a clear cut case that he was heavily influenced by the political right and the maga. Am I saying it's purely a numbers game? No. In fact, I'm saying there's more to it than that. But let's, let's look at some of the comments. I want to be fair. Okay. So Jen says, is rhetoric like this MAGA wants to hurt you, especially if you're a person of color, part of the LGBTQIA community. Okay, so I did point that out. I did point out that the costume was him riding Trump, not Kent beef. I've read stories about this costume, and you could Inter fairness to you, you could interpret it both ways, but one interpretation is that people got this Trump Halloween costume to honor him. One mother versus the rest of the family statements. I would question if his grandmother knew anything. We tend not to burden our elders with conflicts. Okay, but are you saying everyone else in the family said, oh, we're a big left wing family, we were out busy campaigning for Mamdani that day? No, there's. I have seen no reputable news reports suggesting that everyone else in the family says grandma's crazy and we're all liberal Democrats in this. Again, it would be odd for any white family to and that's the part I didn't even get to race. It'd be odd for any white extended family in this part of Utah to not be Republican and MAGA supporting. Something I didn't even get to is the guy is a young white male and that's the demographic that did better this election for Trump and MAGA than any other demographic. Trump is totally dominating support among young white men. So just demographic. Certainly if the killer had been a 60 year old black woman, I think that many on the right would make a lot out of that fact that she would be ipso facto automatically considered to be a part of the left. Not saying that's true, but that is how our conversation would go. And the fact that he is a white man who looks exactly like the demo of the podcast listenership of the right wing blogosphere or the podcast sphere. I didn't even count that as one of the issues. So Jan, I don't think you're being fair. You're right. Grandma could be wrong. But there's been no evidence of other family members saying, oh no, she's way off. We were all a bunch of liberal Democrats. Final thoughts. Kimmel made an appropriate joke that made one side upset for a dying network that can't afford it. Two Shooter made pro anti antifa references. Well, you say it's a dying network. We're going to talk about that later in the show today because networks are having but that's not why he was suspended. The fact that his show wasn't as profitable. So let's not mix issue. Let's not be cute. And I don't know if you meant an inappropriate joke. I don't think it was. When I, when I look at every single word, I can't figure out what he actually said that was insensitive or for that matter, even factually incorrect. You could make a judgment call. You got all. He could have also said the Left is trying to make hay out of this and make it seem like he's not one of us. But the fact that he said accurately that those on the right were trying to make it look like the killer was not a part of it is 100% true. You can debate whether or not they have facts for them, but I'm doing that right now. And I would contend I've done this more thoroughly than anything you've seen on any cable TV news program, network news program, because we've now been talking about it for 33 minutes and I have taken the time to barely accurately weigh all of the elements that could make a case for this Kirk assassin to be seen as influenced by hard right or hard left ideology. Okay, Now I want to suggest a third option. There are simply plenty of facts out there to suggest that ideology had nothing to do with this. This. Let's look at more of the facts. This guy was a young male, a demographic disproportionately represented in mass shootings. You simply don't see a lot of 80 year old black women or white women or Asian women running around assassinating people or killing or doing mass murder. You don't. You see mostly young white men. And when they're not young, they're typically white men. Last night. Kill ourselves. It is One area where white men truly seem to excel is senseless violence with guns. He was unemployed and financially struggling. Maybe that had a bigger impact on him deciding to take another life than some left wing ideology, Right wing ideology. He failed at school. He had been a gifted student in high school, had a 4.0 average, got in, had a partial merit scholarship to college. And then for whatever reason, things just washed out for him that first semester and he really drifted. He spent many, many, many hours in isolation. He had few close friends according to most report. Isn't that something that is potentially a lot more influential in the way his life turned than whether he was a left winger, right wing influence? He was a heavy consumer of the video games. This echoes the profiles of a lot of other isolated, young troubled men, men who either take their own lives or who take other people's lives. He clearly displayed a sense of aimlessness and a lack of direction. Isn't that potentially the bigger issue than whether he was influenced by left wing ideology, Right wing ideology. He exhibited social awkwardness with peers who described him as withdrawn. All of these things suggest a troubled youth and troubles that affect tremendous proportion of our society of not just young men, but men in general. Men are about three times as likely to have a death of despair, meaning they kill themselves or they overdose on opioids or something. To me, he seems a lot more influenced by that kind of culture of just being a lost boy. So what is the answer here? Was this Charlie Kirk assassin primarily influenced and did he commit this atrocity because of influence of left wing ideology? Or was it right wing ideology? Or was it nothing to do with ideology, Other social afflictions that are affecting him and a lot of other young men too? I'm going to let you decide. I tried to give this in as fair and as accurate a way as possible. If you think I missed a fact, feel free to add it. But do not tell me that I am just spinning things here and giving you some nonsense. I'm giving you fair, objective analysis because I happen to believe if you want to be an intelligent person who's successful, you have to learn how to look the the world in a clear way. You cannot simply look at everything through confirmation bias. Oh, here's something bad that happened. I'm instantly going to blame somebody I don't like and I can say it's just because they're bad people. That's what we see too often in our modern culture, not only on this issue, but on many other issues. And it's tiresome, it's tedious, and it's not the way for a society or a democracy to be successful. And it's certainly not a way for, for you to be successful either.