Sean Hannity was called out for attempting to claim that no conservatives were actually calling for the cancellation of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel's show, which was pulled "indefinitely" by ABC following comments Kimmel made about the assassination of far-right activist Charlie Kirk.
The cancellation came shortly after Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), criticized Kimmel and hinted his agency could take action against ABC over comments the host made during Monday’s broadcast. President Donald Trump, a longtime critic of Kimmel, saw an opportunity to take Kimmel off the air and took it.
Kimmel's suspension amounts to government censorship and has been condemned by media watchdog groups and organizations dedicated to safeguarding First Amendment rights.
But to hear Hannity tell it, the suspension doesn't amount to "conservative censorship" at all, and he denied that any conservatives have actually called for Kimmel to be taken off the air despite Kimmel's past public criticisms of Trump:
"The left already, starting with humpty-dumpty fake news CNN, JB Pritzker, [and] Gavin Newsom [are] predictably claiming, ‘This is a conservative censorship. The MAGA crowd, Donald Trump, got Jimmy Kimmel. That is false."
"I can’t find a single prominent conservative voice in the country that even remotely wanted or hoped or was pushing to get Jimmy Kimmel taken off the air.”
“It was simple. People changed the channel. They didn’t watch him. Not one person can I think of, maybe there’s one, but I can’t think of him.”
You can hear Hannity's remarks in the video below.
Except Hannity's claim is patently false.
Trump himself gloated on Truth Social—to the glee of conservatives—about Kimmel's suspension and congratulated ABC "for finally having the courage to do what had to be done" and had called for Kimmel's firing back when it was announced that Stephen Colbert's show was ending. Trump also set his eyes on Kimmel's fellow late-night hosts Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers and called on NBC to take the "total losers" off the air.
Trump has since raised the idea that television broadcasters could lose their federal licenses over what he views as hostile coverage. He argued the FCC should revoke licenses, claiming many late-night hosts are “against me” and provide only negative press.
Speaking about late-night programs, he added:
“All they do is hit Trump. They’re licensed. They’re not allowed to do that. They’re an arm of the Democrat Party.”
Hannity was swiftly criticized.
Carr, the aforementioned FCC chair, told CNBC that “we’re not done yet” with the changes in “the media ecosystem,' adding that Kimmel had chosen to "directly mislead the American public about a significant fact that is probably one of the most significant political events we’ve had in a long time, for the most significant political assassination we’ve seen in a long time."
Carr defended ABC's move to suspend Kimmel, stressing that the Trump administration's "goal and our obligation here is to make sure that broadcasters are serving the public interest."
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