Jimmy Kimmel’s new resume photo

I’m not a constitutional attorney, or an expert on constitutional law. So, maybe you could say that I’m just blowing smoke even trying to comment on the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel “indefinitely” from his show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Personally, I have never watched Jimmy Kimmel’s program, so I’m sure you can dismiss my opinion on that fact alone. Or perhaps argue that I am not part of Kimmel’s “target audience.” Honestly, I’ve no idea if I am or not, nor do I know what would make one a member of Kimmel’s “target audience.”

The whole thing seems blown way out of proportion. For one thing, Kimmel did speak falsely when he implied that Charlie Kirk’s murderer was a MAGA type. He wasn’t, he isn’t, and by the time Kimmel got around to making his really stupid comment implying that he was, even Kimmel should have known that he wasn’t. So, he lied. Not only did he lie, but he told a lie that pert near everyone knew was a lie when he told it. So, why did he tell such a massive lie on national television when everyone knew it was a lie.?Because, I think, Jimmy Kimmel is so filled with rage at Donald Trump that he can’t help himself. He so desperately wanted to believe that what he said was the truth that he was going to make it the truth just by his saying it. Unfortunately, most of us know it doesn’t work that way. Now, Jimmy Kimmel knows, too.

But, let’s face it: Kimmel had spent the last ten years transforming his “variety” show into a Trump-bashing extravaganza (while losing over 70% of his “target audience” in the process) that he prolly truly believed that he could say almost anything anti-Trump and it would either be embraced by his producers and his audience, or his producers and audience would let it slip by once again. If the ends justify the means, and in a lot of minds out there they do, then most of Kimmel’s more rabid audience members would even justify Kimmel’s lie, if it meant effectively tearing down Trump. Poor Jimmy Kimmel is livid, they say. More to the point, he’s prolly beside himself, flummoxed at the idea that anyone would dare to punish him at all, much less suspend him. When you’ve been at it so long, and you’ve been allowed to get away with it for so long, why would you think that this time would be any different?

This is not censorship. I have no idea what part, if any, Donald Trump played in Jimmy Kimmel being suspended, other than appointing Brandon Carr as Chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Carr threatening ABC’s licence if they allowed Kimmel to continue his lying ways. I hope Trump was smart enough to stay off the phones so that he didn’t call anybody and tried to influence no one on this matter. That would be disturbing if he had wanted Kimmel gone and told Carr or others to make it happen, even if the end result was the right one. I don’t know if it was the right one and, frankly, I don’t care, because this is NOT the actions of a egomaniacal dictator hell-bent on taking over the airwaves and the TV screens. Jimmy Kimmel got suspended because he said something stupid and false during a politically and culturally sensitive moment. He should have known better. That he didn’t testifies to the real possibility that Jimmy Kimmel had been allowed to hold on to his show for longer than he should have. Now Jimmy is huffing and puffing that anyone would dare take action against him. HIM! JIMMY KIMMEL! I mean, who does everyone else in the universe think they are? Clearly, like our federal government, once a variety show is given the go, and once it’s been off the ground for a few years, you have a mandate to continue the program until the host is tired of it, the people be damned!

And it seems that’s what Jimmy has been telling the potential viewers of his program who became either never viewers or former viewers: “I don’t care that my program isn’t funny, or relevant, or that it never speaks to any other issue at all than whatever bee I have in my bonnet about Trump. I’m not going to change. I’m going to beat this dead horse until it’s nothing but mush. And you must put up with me – or at least my producers and the company I work for must, because they clearly have for this long, even while my viewers have abandoned my program in droves.” And that’s what the viewers did. They stopped watching. They knew the tune Kimmel was playing. It was the only tune he had been playing for years. The only time I ever even saw a clip of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” was when it was on some other channel for making news about — guess what? — bashing Trump!

Jimmy Kimmel does not and never did have a right to say whatever he wanted on his TV show. He had an obligation to make money for the people who were paying him a lot of money to do so. As it turns out, it seems that Kimmel was the only one making any money off his show because he was still, presumabely, being paid to do it. Though I wonder if he’d have done it for free if it meant he could continue bashing Trump. And, ultimately, that was the problem. Jimmy Kimmel stopped making money for the people who sign Jimmy Kimmel’s paycheck. In fact, it appears that he lost money.

Losing money in any industry is not an option. No matter what you think your Constitutional rights are.

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.