AM I GOING TO PRISON?September 26, 2025
Last Saturday, a friend offered to send me muffins if I went to prison.
His generosity responded to ABC taking the late-night comic Jimmy Kimmel off the air. Kimmel remarked about the man who killed Christian-conservative advocate Charlie Kirk. He said the shooter was a MAGA follower.
No evidence has been presented tying the shooter to MAGA. But the only legitimate response to Kimmel was to point out that he was wrong.
Last Tuesday night, Kimmel returned to some of the airwaves. A number of Hollywood actors, writers and others had threatened to not work for Disney, ABC’s and Hulu’s parent company. Some viewers cancelled the Disney Channel and Hulu. Money talks—if out of both sides of its mouth.
Two corporations, Sinclair and Nextstar, own about 70 ABC-TV affiliates. They still kept Kimmel’s show off the air. Newsflash: Nextstar needs Washington’s—Donald Trump’s—approval to purchase rival Tegna for $6.2 billion.
In July, CBS announced it would part ways with its late-night host, Stephen Colbert. In truth, viewership was down. But parent-company Paramount was in merger negotiations with movie studio Skydance. This required Washington’s (Trump’s) approval. On July 24, the FCC approved the merger.
As to Kimmel, if he doubles down on the shooter’s supposed MAGA affiliation, another suspension or even firing may be in order. But Kimmel has been chastised for a dumb remark he’s not likely to repeat. The show continues, and for good reason.
Free speech, including dumb speech, is the cornerstone of American liberty. Even Ted Cruz protested Kimmel’s silencing!
Talk shows, podcasts and social media gave Charlie Kirk plenty of opportunity to call the Civil Rights Act of 1964 “a great mistake” (Snopes). In 2024, Kirk Instagrammed his acceptance of the Great Replacement Theory, which proposes that undocumented non-white immigrants are brought into America to outnumber and replace white people (PolitiFact).
You may remember white men in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, marching and chanting, “Jews will not replace us.”
For many on the far right, free speech is allowable only if it reflects Donald Trump’s thinking. If you can call it thinking.
And there, having written the preceding phrase, I risk prison time. Okay, neither Jimmy Kimmel nor Stephen Colbert has been arrested. And I’m small potatoes. But don’t count out Trump’s insistence that the Department of (In)Justice seek to harass or indict late-night and other comics. Given the satiric pieces I’ve written, even me.
In this regard, another friend referenced my novel 2084 brought out four years ago. She asked, “How did you know all this would happen?” My answer: “I have no crystal ball, but I do see scenarios. Given Trump’s rhetoric, January 6 and worse always were possible.”
2084 (an homage to George Orwell’s 1984) is set in the year 2044. The Constitution has been abrogated and the United States transformed into the Covenantal States of America. New laws make non-white Christians and non-Christians second-class citizens. Stand-up comedy, feared by autocrats, is about to be banned.
Will a “nation of laws” become a nation of kingly fiat? Some months ago, I wrote that I didn’t think so. Today, I’m on the fence.
So, if Jimmy Kimmel and other comics are persecuted for speaking truth to power, will Trump’s minions come after me?
FYI: Banana-nut muffins are my favorite.
Please pass on this post unless you fear DOJ coming after you.
To those observing Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur—and the entire Ten Days of Awe—may the Jewish New Year of 5786 bring you, and the world, peace.
Order my novel, TAKING STOCK (Kirkus Reviews starred selection) — or 2084 —in softcover or e-book from Amazon, barnesandnoble.com or iuniverse.com. Or from your favorite bookstore.
I’ve begun assembling the ingredients.
Thanks, David. I know the muffins will truly be tasty!
Interesting, but I didn’t hear Jimmy Kimmel’s comments the same way. What I heard was that he was pointing out, in his comedic way, that the MAGA crowd was bending over backwards to determine that the shooter wasn’t one of them. His comments were more about the MAGA crowd than about the gunman. And they didn’t like that very much at all.
I didn’t see the monolog, Ellen, but my take is that Jimmy Kimmel’s remark was off the mark. As the old song “The Gambler” tells us, “You got to know when to hold ’em and know when to fold ’em.” That said, Kimmel’s now back on the stations Sinclair and Nextstar own. Public outcry wins the day. But I also agree with Claudia Long, who responded that this is another distraction from major issues.
Jimmy Kimmel said the maga right was using using the shooter to politicize the killing. Which they did, big time.
A stadium funeral, the president and vice president making hateful speeches. Neither showed up at the Minnesota murder of the State Representative and her husband. .
I think Kimmel called it as it was. Maybe he shouldn’t have made any comment about Charlie Kirk’s murder. But he did and what he said was not far from what became the truth several days later.
In any case none of what he says matter. What matters is silencing people for speech that doesn’t follow the dictates of those in charge.
Yes there are limits to free speech. Like you can’t yell fire in a movie theater. You can’t jeopardize safety or commit liable. But if you don’t’ like what a comedian or a journalist or anyone says, turn them off , move out of earshot etc. Silencing people for a difference of opinion is terribly frightening. to everyone’s freedoms. Just ask those who have lived under dictatorships.
We are in sync, Sandy.
A couple of thoughts: first, muffins aren’t big enough to hide the file you’ll need to escape.
Second, another day, another outrage: Colbert, Kimmel, Comey … and that United Nations speech. Oy vey! Not to mention the non-existent Tylenol-autism link. But my real concern is the damage that Trump and his sycophants are doing to the government: eroding conventions and norms and firing people with actual knowledge and experience and replacing them, if at all, with hacks and ideologues. It will take years to put a functioning, apolitical, professional bureaucracy back together, and we will all be worse off. Feh!
Agreed, David. Maybe I need a Chicago-style (thick crust) pizza. And why wait until I go to prison?
Chocolate chips? walnuts or pecans? No?
But seriously, folks, I think this whole Kimmel-cancellation was designed as a distraction, not from the Epstein files, which may also be a distraction, but from the absolutely terrifying call to the military to assemble this week. It’s the “last step” because protests can’t stop a tank.
When Kimmel was returned to the air, folks who’d been energized by the cancellation were appeased. There, we got our TV show back. We can return to our previously-scheduled complacency. Or our previously-scheduled silent panic.
Freedom of speech is vital, yes, and the joker speaks truth to power, absolutely, but the whole dance seems contrived.
I know it seems a little conspiracy-ish, but I’m so afraid of what’s happening that I can’t imagine how it will turn out.
I agree, Claudia. Much of what Trump says and does is contrived to take Americans’ eye off the ball. And yet, egotism and vindictiveness are very real.