"This is the way Putin runs Russia. Threaten newspapers and broadcasters that they will be shut down unless they take the Kremlin’s line. ...

Nobody is safe with this fascist regime in power. Free speech is dead so long as Putin’s best friend is in the White House."

~ Lucian K. Truscott

#Trump #CharlieKirk #JimmyKimmel #FreeSpeech #fascism
/2

luciantruscott.substack.com/p/…

Trump is trying to cancel the First Amendment and turn us into Putin’s Russia.

ABC just announced that Jimmy Kimmel Live will be suspended “indefinitely” over comments he made on Monday night about the killing of right-wing Christ figure, Charlie Kirk.

^{Lucian K. Truscott IV (Lucian Truscott Newsletter)}

"Kimmel’s suspension has produced an uproar. Comedian Paul Scheer noted that Kimmel is off the air but Brian Kilmeade of the Fox News Channel, who recently called for killing homeless Americans by 'involuntary lethal injection,' is still employed."

~ Heather Cox Riichardson

#Trump #CharlieKirk #JimmyKimmel #FreeSpeech #fascism
/3

heathercoxrichardson.substack.…

September 17, 2025 (Wednesday)

This evening, John Koblin, Michael M.

^{Heather Cox Richardson (Letters from an American)}

"Do people understand now what the authoritarian project is aiming for? ...

What happens in a society where one side is required to operate at all times and in all places in perfect good faith and the other side faces no such constraints?"

~ Jonathan V. Last

#Trump #CharlieKirk #JimmyKimmel #FreeSpeech #fascism
/4

thebulwark.com/p/emergency-tri…

First, They Came for Jimmy Kimmel

What happens when comedians are held to stricter standards than vice presidents?

^{Jonathan V. Last (The Bulwark)}

"Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show program was indefinitely suspended so billionaires can continue abusing Charlie Kirk’s murder to gain control of our media and lay the red carpet for Trump’s fascist agenda.

That’s the truth. Everything else is just propaganda, obfuscation, and pretext."

~ Wajahat Ali

#Trump #CharlieKirk #JimmyKimmel #FreeSpeech #fascism
/5

thelefthook.substack.com/p/jim…

Jimmy Kimmel Cancelled as Trump uses Charlie Kirk's Murder for his Reichstag Fire moment.

The broligarchy is consolidating power for Trump and MAGA, using Charlie Kirk's murder, to gain control of our media, crush dissent, and punish critics and comedians like Jimmy Kimmel

^{THE LEFT HOOK with Wajahat Ali (The Left Hook with Wajahat Ali)}

"We are governed by liars and crooks whose agenda is to demolish the rule of law and the rights of the rest of us, including our First Amendment right to free speech (Happy Constitution Day, by the way!)."

~ Rebecca Solnit

#Trump #CharlieKirk #JimmyKimmel #FreeSpeech #fascism
/6

meditationsinanemergency.com/t…

The War on Truth Heats Up (just in time for Constitution Day)

Hannah Arendt famously wrote, “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e.

^{Rebecca Solnit (Meditations in an Emergency)}

"What happened to Jimmy Kimmel Live! is not just about a late-night host or a single corporate decision. It is a flashing red warning sign of how fragile the foundations of free discourse have become in the United States."

~ Aaron Parnas

#Trump #CharlieKirk #JimmyKimmel #FreeSpeech #fascism
/7

aaronparnas.substack.com/p/bre…

BREAKING: ABC Pulls Jimmy Kimmel's Show Indefinitely After Trump Pressure

In a stunning move that exposes the fragility of free expression in American media, ABC announced that Jimmy Kimmel Live! has been pulled indefinitely.

^{Aaron Parnas (The Parnas Perspective)}

"Fueled by the rhetoric of prominent politicians, social media platforms have turned into a staging ground for collecting names and orchestrating campaigns to call for firings. Conservative social media influencers have encouraged people to submit posts of coworkers or community members, and then have used their large platforms to amplify calls for punishment."

~ Daniel Moritz-Rabson

#Trump #CharlieKirk #JimmyKimmel #FreeSpeech #fascism
/8

truthout.org/articles/conserva…

Conservatives Are Using Charlie Kirk’s Death to Enact Sweeping Speech Crackdown | Truthout

The US has entered a new era of McCarthyism as the Trump administration equates leftist critique with “terrorism.”…

^{britney (Truthout)}

"It is really important to understand the contrast between Trump’s behavior and those of previous presidents for two reasons [after a highly publicized murder of an outspoken ideologue]: First, to get a clear measure of the extent of our moral descent. And second, to fully understand the authoritarian dangers our republic is facing."

~ Berny Belvedere

#Trump #CharlieKirk #JimmyKimmel #FreeSpeech #fascism
/9

theunpopulist.net/p/other-pres…

Other Presidents Tried to Heal America After Political Violence—Trump Is Dividing It

The contrast between their and his behavior is a measure of America's moral descent

^{Berny Belvedere (The UnPopulist)}

"As the nation reckons with the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, there has been a notable trend from mainstream pundits and press outlets. They have tended to downplay or outright ignore the ugly things that he said and instead to stress the polite ways he said them. It's an emphasis on style over substance."

~ Kevin Kruse

#Trump #CharlieKirk #JimmyKimmel #FreeSpeech #fascism
/10

campaign-trails.ghost.io/the-w…

The White Civility Council

^{Kevin Kruse (Campaign Trails)}

"This approach has been widespread in the punditocracy, which has almost uniformly moved to hold Kirk up as a rare avatar of civil disagreement in an uncivil era.

These pundits' paeans to Charlie Kirk's 'civil' approach to politics ignore the many illustrations of his incivility."

#Trump #CharlieKirk #JimmyKimmel #FreeSpeech #fascism
/10

"Trump and MAGA did not get Kimmel suspended for a joke. They got Kimmell suspended for a show of power. They are sending the message to stick to their approved MAGA script or they will come for you."

~ Dean Obeidallah

#Trump #CharlieKirk #JimmyKimmel #FreeSpeech #fascism
/11

deanobeidallah.substack.com/p/…

Kimmel wasn’t suspended for a joke about Kirk-he was suspended for mocking Trump.

Time for a boycott!!

^{Dean Obeidallah (The Dean's Report by Dean Obeidallah)}

"Don't you dare call us fascists, they say, as they force people off the airwaves for criticizing them while vowing to crush and criminalize their opposition."

~ Mehdi Hasan quoted by The Bulwark

#Trump #CharlieKirk #JimmyKimmel #FreeSpeech #fascism
/12

“You may think you’re angry over Colbert and Kimmel but as someone who is familiar with the history of Nazi Germany I promise you, you’re not nearly angry enough yet.”

~ J David Clark

#Trump #CharlieKirk #JimmyKimmel #FreeSpeech #fascism
/13

threads.com/@officialjdavidcla…

J David Clarke (@officialjdavidclarke) on Threads

^Threads

"Kimmel’s accusation that Trump is using the Kirk murder for political payback was right on the money.

It’s not as if this is surprising. It’s not as if we haven’t been warned about what’s coming again and again. It’s not as if the President of the Right hasn’t signaled his yearning for absolute rule day after day after day."

~ Lewis Grossberger

#Trump #CharlieKirk #JimmyKimmel #FreeSpeech #fascism
/14

grossbergerbulletin.substack.c…

Jimmy Kimmel's Show Assassinated By the Right

Free Speech Shot Down By Trump

^{Lewis Grossberger (Lewis Grossberger's Raw Truth Bulletin)}

"It’s not just about one late-night comedian or even one assassination.

It’s about when America will finally wake up.

Or fail to."

#Trump #CharlieKirk #JimmyKimmel #FreeSpeech #fascism
/15

"Donald Trump and his loyal enforcer Stephen Miller have once again revealed the heart of their political project: to recast the state as an instrument of vengeance against dissent. ...

Trump and Miller do not simply want to punish their critics—they want to reshape America into a machine of loyalty and fear. Their vision requires enemies because enemies justify repression."

~ Mark Mansour

#Trump #CharlieKirk #JimmyKimmel #FreeSpeech #fascism
/16

mmansour.substack.com/p/the-de…

The Death Of Free Speech

the murder of Charlie Kirk has freed the regime to do what it has always wanted to do

^{Mark Mansour (America’s Fractured Politics)}

"And while they cloak their project in American flags and talk of law and order, the blueprint is the same one authoritarian regimes across the twentieth century wrote in blood: silence the critics, glorify the leader, criminalize dissent."

#Trump #CharlieKirk #JimmyKimmel #FreeSpeech #fascism
/17

"One of the necessary conditions for an authoritarian takeover is control of the media. It’s a critical step to quash dissent—turning a free press designed to hold power accountable into a propaganda organ that amplifies the state’s message."

#Trump #CharlieKirk #JimmyKimmel #FreeSpeech #fascism #media
/18

messageboxnews.com/p/does-maga…

With Kimmel and TikTok, Trump Takes Control of the Media

The Kimmel suspension is a scary sign for the future of free speech

^{Dan Pfeiffer (The Message Box)}

"That could never happen here, right? Not with our long tradition of a vibrant, free media?

Well, the MAGA Right is on the verge of controlling the vast majority of the American media ecosystem.

A dynamic highlighted by the fact that Disney announced it was bowing to pressure from the Trump Administration and pulling Jimmy Kimmel off the air indefinitely because of comments he made about Charlie Kirk."

#Trump #CharlieKirk #JimmyKimmel #FreeSpeech #fascism #media
/19

"Time and again, the corporate media would rather surrender than fight for their First Amendment rights.

But ownership is also driving the shift. …

There are exceptions, but much of the corporate press is now too loyal to, or too afraid of, Trump to act as a true check on power."

#Trump #CharlieKirk #JimmyKimmel #FreeSpeech #fascism #media
/20

"The timing isn't coincidental. This is happening while people are still being fired for not mourning Charlie Kirk appropriately. Karen Attiah lost her Washington Post column. Airline pilots got grounded. Hospital workers were terminated. Now a comedian with one of the longest-running shows on television gets yanked off the air for making a joke about Trump…."

~ Parker Molloy

#Trump #CharlieKirk #JimmyKimmel #FreeSpeech #fascism #media
/21

readtpa.com/p/read-the-jimmy-k…

Read the Jimmy Kimmel Monologue That Led to an FCC Crackdown

The comedian condemned Kirk's murder and called it "monstrous." That wasn't enough. He had to mourn correctly or lose his show.

^{Parker Molloy (The Present Age)}

"Welcome to the new normal, where a late-night comedian making fun of the president is 'the sickest conduct possible,' but calling for trans people to be institutionalized was just Charlie Kirk practicing politics the right way."

#Trump #CharlieKirk #JimmyKimmel #FreeSpeech #fascism #media
/22