The right’s big lie about Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension

The Trump administration is openly coercing media organizations into suppressing speech that it does not like.

On Monday night, late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel (irresponsibly) seemed to suggest that Charlie Kirk’s killer had conservative sympathies, before making several unrelated jokes at Donald Trump’s expense.

Two days later, FCC chair Brendan Carr warned broadcasters that if they continued to disseminate Kimmel’s program, the government might fine them or revoke their licenses. Within hours, ABC had indefinitely suspended Kimmel.

This has posed a dilemma to many conservative commentators. On the one hand, right-wing pundits spent much of the past decade decrying the left’s censoriousness and insisting on the vital importance of free speech. On the other hand, they tend to think tha