Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns and operates some 40 ABC stations, said it’s ending its week-long blackout of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, bringing the late-night show back to its dozens of ABC affiliates starting Friday.
“Our objective throughout this process has been to ensure that programming remains accurate and engaging for the widest possible audience. We take seriously our responsibility as local broadcasters to provide programming that serves the interests of our communities, while also honoring our obligations to air national network programming,” Sinclair said in a statement on Friday.
“Over the last week, we have received thoughtful feedback from viewers, advertisers, and community leaders representing a wide range of perspectives,” Sinclair said. “We have also witnessed troubling acts of violence, including the despicable incident of a shooting at an ABC affiliate station in Sacramento. These events underscore why responsible broadcasting matters and why respectful dialogue between differing voices remains so important.”
Disney suspended Jimmy Kimmel last week, after he said during a monologue that Charlie Kirk’s suspected assassin was “MAGA.” Kimmel was unrepentant this week his his return to TV, casting himself as a victim of President Donald Trump’s “authoritarian” government.
Kimmel claimed Kirk’s accused killer doesn’t “represent anyone,” despite mounting evidence to the contrary. He also said it wasn’t his “intention to blame any specific group” for Kirk’s cold-blooded murder, even though he did accuse a specific group by saying Kirk’s killer was part of “the MAGA gang.” Kimmel cast himself as a victim “who gets a lot of threats, I get many ugly and scary threats against my life, my wife, my kids, my coworkers, because of what I choose to say.”
He also said “I have many friends and family members on the other side.”
Kimmel also lambasted Trump and Federal Communications Commission Brendan Carr, saying “a government threat to silence a comedian the President doesn’t like is anti-American.”
He also featured Robert De Niro in a sketch that saw the Goodfellas star play a mob boss caricature of Carr.
The Disney funnyman’s defiance only enraged his detractors. Chief among them, Vice President JD Vance who called on Kimmel to apologize for lying about Kirk’s killer.
“I would love for Jimmy Kimmel to apologize to Erika [Kirk – Charlie’s widow] and all the people he slandered,” Vance said on Fox News Thursday night. “He is trying to say he told a joke. He didn’t tell a joke. He was actually accusing right-wing America, conservative America of killing Charlie Kirk.”
“Charlie Kirk was murdered by a left-wing assassin who was radicalized by some of the rhetoric that we see coming from the far left,” Vance said. “When you accuse the people who have been holding prayer vigils, who have been praying about Charlie Kirk, you accuse them of killing Charlie Kirk, when we know it was a left-wing assassin, you are actually apologizing for his murder.”
Jerome Hudson is Breitbart News Entertainment Editor and author of the book 50 Things They Don’t Want You to Know About Trump. Order your copy today. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter and instagram@jeromeehudson
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