By now, you've probably heard that ABC is suspending Jimmy Kimmel's show. The decision came in response to pressure from both the Federal Communications Commission chair and President Donald Trump himself, and concerns about comments Kimmel made following Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

Just in case you've missed it. Here is what the late-night show host said.

“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,” Kimmel said before transitioning into a joke about Trump.

Kimmel’s comments were wrong, but using the government to influence ABC into taking him off the air reveals that the Trump administration cares very little about free speech.

Government intervention isn't the way to deal with Jimmy Kimmel

Contrary to what many have wanted to portray, Kimmel was not suspended for a joke – he was suspended because he implied that Kirk’s killer was a right-winger long before there was any factual basis to make a judgment on the matter.

I think Kimmel’s implication that there was any factual basis for the shooter to have been a right-winger was a gross misrepresentation of the facts. And if ABC had fired him on the network's own accord, particularly if he refused to apologize on air as has been reported, that would have been a perfectly acceptable reaction to his mistake.

However, that is not what happened. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr dedicated Wednesday, Sept. 17, to making threats against ABC and the network's affiliates for airing Kimmel’s content.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said on a conservative podcast. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

The FCC chief went on other shows to express similar sentiments.

ABC affiliate Nexstar, which operates more than 200 local stations, was the first to announce it would no longer air Kimmel’s show. Others have reported that this might be in order to complete an upcoming merger that requires FCC approval.

ABC seemingly punished Kimmel in large part because of the threat of government retaliation for his actions. While there are obviously other factors in the network's decision not to fight against the pressure, that doesn’t make the government pressure any less wrong.

The government should not be in the silencing business

Trump hinted on Sept. 18 at potentially flexing his censorship muscles even more, suggesting the FCC may look at pulling licenses of broadcast networks for slanted news coverage. Fox News has a history of outright false statements, namely in the wake of the 2020 election, but was not punished in this manner. It was only sued civilly by the afflicted. The government stayed out of it.

“When you have a network and you have evening shows and all they do is hit Trump, that’s all they do ‒ if you go back, I guess they haven’t had a conservative one in years, or something ‒ when you go back and take a look, all they do is hit Trump. They’re licensed. They’re not allowed to do that,” Trump said on Sept. 18.

The government has no business in making these determinations, particularly given that a partisan administration will inevitably weaponize its power to target only political enemies. I guarantee Trump won’t revoke FCC licenses from Fox News for its primarily negative coverage of Joe Biden. The motivation is clearly partisan, not in the interest of fairness.

However, for an administration that claims to be in favor of free speech, there is particular irony in the use of government power to remove someone from the air. Neither the Trump administration nor many of his Democratic critics have a leg to stand on when it comes to free speech. I’m tired of people pretending to care about the issue.

Dace Potas is an opinion columnist for USA TODAY and a graduate of DePaul University with a degree in political science.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kimmel said a horrible thing, but Trump shouldn't use government to censor critics | Opinion

Reporting by Dace Potas, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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