By Matthew Robinson
Copyright newsweek
Jimmy Fallon has responded to the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show following backlash over comments he made following the assassination of the conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.Speaking on The Tonight Show on Thursday, Fallon said: “The big story is that Jimmy Kimmel was suspended by ABC after pressure from the FCC, leaving everyone thinking, ‘WTF?'”He added: “To be honest with you all, I don’t know what’s going on, and no one does. But I do know Jimmy Kimmel, and he’s a decent, funny and loving guy, and I hope he comes back.”A lot of people are worried that we won’t keep saying what we want to say or that we’ll be censored. But I’m going to cover the president’s trip to the U.K. like I normally would.”It comes after ABC announced on September 17 that Kimmel’s show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, would be “pre-empted indefinitely.”Kimmel said during the opening monologue of his show on Monday: “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 one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”In between the finger pointing there was grieving. On Friday, the White House flew the flags at half-staff, which got some criticism, but on a human level you can see how hard the President is taking this.”Responding to his remarks, Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division, said in a statement: “Mr. Kimmel’s comments about the death of Mr. Kirk are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse, and we do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the local communities in which we are located.”Continuing to give Mr. Kimmel a broadcast platform in the communities we serve is simply not in the public interest at the current time, and we have made the difficult decision to preempt his show in an effort to let cooler heads prevail as we move toward the resumption of respectful, constructive dialogue.”This is a developing story. More to follow.
