ABC yanks Jimmy Kimmel's show; pundits say American press impacted.

ABC is pulling the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” show off-air “indefinitely” following controversial comments by its host on conservative activist Charlie Kirk who was fatally shot last week.

Jimmy Kimmel, in his opening monologue for Monday night’s show, said the following:

“The MAGA Gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said.

“In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving,” Kimmel added.

Earlier in the day, FCC Chair Brendan Carr appeared on conservative podcaster Benny Johnson's show and stated that Kimmel’s comments were “truly sick,” and there was a “strong case” for action against ABC and Disney.

Disney was the first media company to capitulate to the President of the United States after settling a lawsuit in December before the Inauguration, according to Media analyst Brian Stelter. Stelter, political commentator Van Jones and other elected officials reacted quickly to the news of Kimmel's indefinite removal off the airwaves, and what this decision by a major broadcast network signifies about the state of the American press today:

Brian Stelter (Media Analyst): 

“….If big old-fashioned main stream media don’t have the guts to employ these people, then we are going to see start-ups start to flourish. We talk about the Substack era, with people launching newsletters and livestreams on YouTube. We’re going to see more of that if these old-fashioned media companies can’t stand a little bit of pressure from the President.”

Van Jones (Political Commentator:

“…..This is a red line that has been crossed for our industry, for the first amendment, for the right of people to speak; there was nothing hateful about what was said, and even hateful speech is protected. This is not acceptable. If you are going to run a media organization, that’s called a news organization, you have to stand up to government bullying anywhere in the world and certainly in the United States.”

Since the news broke, multiple outlets have reported that Kimmel is not being imminently fired, at this time.