Jimmy Kimmel was fired. Good riddance. 

Jimmy Kimmel thought he was untouchable. For years, he mocked middle-class America from his Hollywood studio, hiding behind laugh tracks and celebrity applause. But this time he went too far.

During a show, Jimmy mocked the murder of Charlie Kirk, using his monologue to accuse “the MAGA gang” of “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.” Even going so far as to compare Trump’s reaction to that of a four-year-old mourning a goldfish. For these comments, ABC has suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live! indefinitely.

Immediately people took to the streets (the internet) demanding that Kimmel be reinstated, claiming that this was fascist censorship at its finest, that free speech no longer existed in America.

But the funny part in all of this is that what happened to Kimmel wasn’t censorship. It was simply the rules. ABC and its affiliates are subject to FCC regulations. When you broadcast on licensed airwaves, you don’t get carte blanche to spread misleading content, to politicize a murder recklessly, or to distort facts. The moment you step into that arena, there are guardrails. And Kimmel ran past them. 

What’s disgusting is what the left is whining about now. They’re more upset that Kimmel got fired than they are horrified by Charlie Kirk’s murder. They’re clutching “free speech is under attack” signs like they woke up in a Hollywood plot twist. Meanwhile, dozens of teachers, reporters, employees — many conservative, many not — have already lost jobs, been censured, or stripped of their platform for lesser speech offenses in the past. 

Remember Roseanne? Remember Gina Carano? Remember Kevin Sorbo? Remember the endless list of comedians, actors, and writers who lost their careers overnight for a single tweet that didn’t line up with progressive orthodoxy? The left cheered every time. They called it “consequences.” They called it “justice.” They insisted private companies had the right to fire whoever they wanted. But those were victories. Today, the tables have turned. So they cry foul. 

Cancel culture has been their tool for years. To see it used against them must be a shock, to say the least. Yet this is where we are now in the world. The right is done trying to play on a higher plane as if the left will respect them for doing so. They won’t, so the right has changed tactics, finally. 

Just a few years ago, if a conservative late-night host had said something similar about the murder of a left-wing pundit, the onslaught would have been endless. The mainstream media would have run with the story for months, with both sides demanding FCC pressure, advertiser boycotts, perhaps even forced removal. And many would have called that just consequences. Rightfully so. Now when the left gets a taste of its own medicine, suddenly free speech is “under siege.” 

That’s true hypocrisy. And we don’t need both sides here. We need standards. If speech is going to have power, then it must have accountability.

Kimmel didn’t “get cancelled” in secret. He broke rules, he misled people, he offended. Local ABC affiliates — Nexstar, among others — pulled his show. The FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, warned about regulatory consequences. ABC and Disney had to act.

So yes, good riddance. Not because I hate Kimmel, though he was insufferable. Because letting people broadcast lies and mock murders without consequence is already dangerous. Letting the powerful pretend they’re beyond accountability is how chaos spreads.

Charlie Kirk is gone. Jimmy Kimmel is off the air. If you can’t tell which one is the real tragedy here, you don’t understand the free in “free speech,” or the weight it carries.