Daily Herald opinion: The First Amendment is under assault. We should all be defending it

The First Amendment is under assault by the very people who have sworn an oath to uphold and protect it.

The latest attack was directed at Jimmy Kimmel, whose late-night TV show on ABC was suspended over remarks he made about Charlie Kirk, the political activist and Arlington Heights native whose shooting death has split the nation.

The response to the monologue was swift and unnerving.

On Wednesday, Federal Communications Chairman Brendan Carr, a Trump appointee, went on a conservative podcast show and said the monologue warranted a suspension. He then went further, saying the agency which licenses broadcasters could take action against Disney, the parent company of ABC.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr told podcast host Benny Johnson. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take actions on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

Hours later, Disney opted for “the easy way” and suspended Kimmel.

We can debate endlessly whether his comments were insensitive or ill-timed. We can also debate Kimmel’s word choice, and whether he was indeed suggesting the killer was a conservative despite comments by Utah governor Spencer Cox to the contrary. We also can talk about a network’s right to pull a show off its schedule.

But what’s concerning here is the pressure wielded to silence political commentary critical of one side of the political divide, chipping away at the free speech rights we as Americans have always held dear.

There are countless incidents where comedians, government officials or businesses have crossed a line and been rebuked by the general public. “Cancel culture” has always existed. We just found a catchy name for it.

Now we’ve put it on overdrive.

This recent wave didn’t start with Kimmel. And it won’t end with him. But the increasing frequency and fury is alarming.

Trump and his appointees have gone after CBS, PBS, ABC, The Wall Street Journal and, more recently, the New York Times for any coverage they find unflattering, and the attacks are not just on social media as the Committee to Protect Journalists pointed out in a report published about the first 100 days of the second Trump administration.

“Critics believe that the Federal Communications Commission and other regulatory agencies have become increasingly politicized in their work,” the report said. “While it is common for a president to appoint agency heads that are sympathetic to their views, some of the current administration’s appointments have raised concerns that this administration has taken this to a new level in what one expert told CPJ was ‘Nixon on steroids.’ This sense of uncertainty coupled with Trump’s own harsh rhetoric and behavior has set newsrooms on edge.”

Now, it’s set entertainers and late-night TV hosts on edge. Trump celebrated when CBS announced the impending end of Stephen Colbert’s show in July at the same time Paramount was seeking FCC approval for its merger with Skydance. And Trump has called for NBC to fire late night hosts Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon.

Vice President JD Vance went further and called for people to report co-workers who “celebrated” Kirk’s death on social media.

To be clear, Kimmel did not celebrate Kirk’s murder. Immediately after the very public assassination, Kimmel had this to say on social media: “Instead of the angry finger-pointing, can we just for one day agree that it is horrible and monstrous to shoot another human? On behalf of my family, we send love to the Kirks and to all the children, parents and innocents who fall victim to senseless gun violence.”

But this week Kimmel took Trump supporters to task for trying to “score political points” — something, we might add, that his opponents have done as well. The Kirk reference in the monologue was a lead-up to a punchline, perhaps not funny, which mocked the president for quickly pivoting from a comment on Kirk to construction at the White House. Comics have mocked presidents of both sides for decades.

But is this who we are now?

Do we want comics to pander to those in power because they fear their corporate bosses will suspend them? Do we want to stifle views that conflict with our own?

And do we want a system that punishes those who cross the White House? Because if we do, we set a dangerous precedent that clears the path for Democrats and Republicans alike.

“A free and democratic society cannot silence comedians because the President doesn’t like what they say,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said on social media Wednesday night. “This is an attack on free speech and cannot be allowed to stand. All elected officials need to speak up and push back on this undemocratic act.”

We all need to push back. If we don't now, we will have to live with the consequences.