Before Disney announced Monday that Jimmy Kimmel would be returning to air this week, Howard Stern had strong words for ABC.
“When the government says, ‘I’m not pleased with you, so we’re going to orchestrate a way to silence you,’ it’s the wrong direction for our country,” Stern said on his SiriusXM show “The Howard Stern Show” on Monday.
Kimmel was “indefinitely” suspended after criticizing Trump supporters and conservatives’ response to Charlie Kirk’s shooting death on Sept. 10.
Kimmel suggested during an episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” that Trump supporters were trying to capitalize off of Kirk’s death following the arrest of the suspect accused of killing Kirk, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson. Robinson was charged in the shooting.
“The MAGA gang [is] 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.
The talk show host’s remarks prompted Donald Trump’s Federal Communications Commission chairman, Brendan Carr, to call on licensed broadcasters to stop airing the show. Nexstar was the first to announce Wednesday that it would cease airing the late night show for its ABC affiliates, with ABC following suit soon after by pulling Kimmel’s show off the air.
Kimmel getting yanked from the air caused a stir among celebrities and sparked a nationwide debate about free speech protections in the United States. The incident also called into question the power President Trump possesses to silence and punish media companies that he deems are biased against him.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt denied that Kimmel was suspended due to “pressure given from the president of the United States” even after Carr’s threats to pull broadcast licenses of ABC affiliates.
“The decision to fire Jimmy Kimmel and to cancel his show came from executives at ABC,” Leavitt said on Fox News’ “Saturday in America.” “It was a decision that was made by ABC because Jimmy Kimmel chose to knowingly lie to his audience on his program about the death of a highly respected man when our country is in a state of mourning.”
She added: “That was a decision that he made, and he is now facing a consequence for that decision and for that lie.”
On Monday, however, Disney announced that “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” will resume airing on Tuesday.
“Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country. It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive,” the company wrote in a statement. “We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”
Elsewhere in the episode, Stern noted that he sympathizes with both Kimmel and the ABC network, but argued that “someone’s got to step up.”
“It’s unfortunate that ABC even has to be in this position,” he said. “They shouldn’t have to be in this position. I feel for them too, in this. But someone’s got to step up and be fucking saying, ‘Hey, enough. We’re not going to bow.’”
Stern then declared that though it might “sound stupid,” he canceled his Disney+ account in solidarity with Kimmel.
“I’m trying to say with the pocketbook that I do not support what they’re doing with Jimmy,” he added.
Watch a clip from “The Howard Stern Show” below.
