The sudden, politically charged preemption of Jimmy Kimmel’s long-running show proves once again that the media swamp can eat its own — and that the left’s moralizing about “disinformation” and “hate” has always been a two-tiered system. ABC pulled Kimmel after his monologue about the assassination of Charlie Kirk, a move triggered when big station groups refused to air the program, and conservatives smelled what tastes like organized, selective outrage.
Kimmel’s on-air barbs about who was “capitalizing” on Kirk’s murder touched off a predictable scramble: Nexstar and Sinclair announced they’d stop airing the show, and ABC quietly bowed to pressure and pulled the plug indefinitely. This is not some spontaneous civic reckoning — it’s the result of decades of activists and media elites treating speech as a weapon to be used or banned depending on whose ox is gored.
The heavy hand of the state’s communications regulator only made matters worse, with the FCC chair publicly condemning Kimmel’s remarks and signaling that broadcast licenses could become political cudgels. When regulators start publicly threatening networks they disagree with, you’re no longer in the realm of journalism; you’re in the realm of politically managed speech. Americans who care about free expression should be alarmed.
Meanwhile, the House moved to honor Charlie Kirk with a bipartisan resolution, and a sizeable bloc of Democrats — including Alexandria Ocasio‑Cortez — voted against it, saying the measure elevated a man whose politics they oppose. That vote and the fiery remarks that accompanied it show why so many Americans smell hypocrisy when the left now cries foul about “censorship” only when one of their own gets the shoe.
Let’s be blunt: AOC has spent years attacking conservative media figures like Tucker Carlson and cheering when platforms pushed back, so her sudden sanctimony over cancellations rings hollow. She routinely paints criticism of the left as dangerous or racist while defending left-wing outlets when they attack conservatives, and Americans are tired of the double standard.
This episode fits a pattern we saw earlier with Stephen Colbert’s exit and other Hollywood reckonings — a left-wing elite that demands immunity from consequences while shaming everyone else into silence. If liberals want a society where every opinion is allowed only if it passes a partisan litmus test, then congratulations: they’ve created something worse than the cancel culture they pretend to oppose.
Conservatives who cheered the removal of Kimmel ought to be clear-eyed about what comes next: once the left hands regulators and corporate gatekeepers the power to decide which broadcast voices live or die, there’s no guarantee the censorship will always cut the same way. The Nexstar decision and the FCC’s posture show how fragile independent speech is when the elites and the administrative state coordinate punishment.
Patriotic Americans who believe in free speech and equal treatment under the law should demand consistency, not selective outrage. If Alexandria Ocasio‑Cortez truly cared about fairness and the First Amendment, she’d stop cheering platforming fights when they target conservatives and start calling out power when it silences anyone — left or right. This country deserves better than partisan virtue-signaling; it deserves equal standards and accountability for all.
