'Pathetic' Trump's silencing of Kimmel by the 'woke right' will 'backfire': analysis
10h
ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel on May 29, 2025 (Image: Screengrab via Jimmy Kimmel Live! / YouTube)
Joining the growing chorus of experts condemning the firing of late night host Jimmy Kimmel is New York Magazine political columnist Ross Barkan, who says the move by ABC was not only "disturbing," but a battle that President Donald Trump will lose.
Kimmel was abruptly terminated Wednesday after the FCC chairman threatened to pull ABC’s license because of a joke he made about President Donald Trump's tepid reaction to the death of slain conservative podcaster Charlie Kirk.
"Trump is not a popular president, Kirk was nowhere near as revered as conservatives seem to believe he was. They cannot force millions of people to suddenly pretend to think Kirk is a fallen martyr who should never be critiqued again," Barkan says.
And although, Barkan says, "The Trump administration longs to systematically silence dissent," their efforts, he says, are failing.
With experts calling Trump's latest defamation suit against The New York Times "a meritless publicity stunt" designed to intimidate the media, Barkan says that eventually, this will backfire.
"Trump himself is repeatedly suing news outlets that defy him, and he’s hoping a ludicrously specious $15 billion lawsuit against the New York Times will force the newspaper to retract their tough reporting on his administration and career," Barkan says.
Those calling for Kimmel's—among other late night hosts who ruffle the president's feathers—head, are what Barkan has deemed "the woke right, a resurgent regime that is stifling free discourse and justifying it through the same logic that social justice activists and certain Democratic politicians employed in the 2010s and early 2020s."
The biggest difference between the "woke right" and their perceived enemies on the left, Barkan explains, is "the power of the state: if the Biden administration could pressure tech platforms over certain content about the pandemic, it never wielded the Federal Communications Commission to force a major news conglomerate to suspend a comedian who offended the president."
In fact, FCC Chair Brendan Carr doubled down on that move, telling Fox News, that Kimmel's ousting "is not the last shoe to drop." He also praised Trump for creating a “massive shift” in the media ecosystem.
"It’s remarkable to witness how fast conservatives have abandoned any pretense of caring about the First Amendment after years of decrying illiberalism on the left," Barkan says, adding, "Now it’s the right that is making speech taboo."
Barkan says Trump will lose this battle against free speech, pointing to open defiance as the war strategy.
"Artists, writers, intellectuals, politicians—anyone with a voice must use it now. Trump can bend America, damage America, but he cannot break it," Barkan says.