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If you are wondering why Jimmy Kimmel Live! is off the air, there is a contrived reason — and there are a bunch of real reasons. The contrived reason is that the late-night talk show host said some stuff about Charlie Kirk, the right-wing activist who was murdered last week. The real reasons are (in no particular order) corporate greed, an administration drunk on power and hellbent on turning the US into an autocracy, and the fact that malignant narcissists do not like to be ridiculed. 

First, let’s look at the contrived reason.

Nexstar Media Group announced on Wednesday that it would stop airing the show on the more than 30 ABC affiliates it owns because “Mr. Kimmel’s comments about the death of Mr. Kirk are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse, and we do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the local communities in which we are located.” 

Shortly thereafter, ABC said it would yank the show indefinitely. 

So, what is the “offensive” thing Kimmel said about Kirk? 

Honestly, we don’t know. In fact, he didn’t really talk about Kirk at all. 

He did that last week in an Instagram post. 

“Instead of the angry finger-pointing, can we just for one day agree that it is horrible and monstrous to shoot another human?” Kimmel wrote. “On behalf of my family, we send love to the Kirks and to all the children, parents and innocents who fall victim to senseless gun violence.”

On his show, the comedian mostly responded to the reaction of Republicans to the assassination.

You can see for yourself. 

“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang trying to characterize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said during the monologue of Tuesday’s show. 

Now, you can say that he did not practice what he preached last week about finger-pointing, or that there was no evidence that the alleged killer, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was a MAGA supporter, but was this “offensive?” 

Well, perhaps to the only person who matters… and that’s not Kirk. 

After making that initial statement, Kimmel then poked fun at Trump by playing a clip of the president being asked how he is holding up after the death of his friend. 

“I think very good,” Trump said, before immediately starting to talk about the White House ballroom he wants to build. 

And that already brings us to the real reasons for why Kimmel has been suspended. 

As someone who checks all of the symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder, the president cannot stand being ridiculed, which is why he hates the current group of late-night talk show hosts, who are doing so on an almost daily basis.

While Trump previously had to just fume about the jokes being told at his expense, now that he has stopped pretending to be anything other than a budding authoritarian, he and his underlings have the power to stop these mean men from making fun of him. 

In July, CBS announced that it was ending the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, in what is widely viewed as a nod to Trump, whose administration had to sign off on a merger between the network’s parent company Paramount and Skydance and who had just settled a frivolous lawsuit with CBS.

At the time, Trump stated that he “absolutely love[d] that Colbert got fired,” and added that he “hear[d] Jimmy Kimmel is next.” 

And, wouldn’t you know it, the president was right… and mergers once again played a big role. 

This time, both Disney (ABC’s parent company) and Nexstar need the administration’s approval for takeovers that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has to sign off on. 

Disney’s ESPN wants to acquire the NFL Network, and Nexstar wants to take over its rival Tegna in multi-billion-dollar deals. 

And FCC Chairman Brendan Carr made no secret about what it would take to get that approval. 

On Wednesday, he made an appearance on the podcast of MAGA influencer Benny Johnson and specifically called out Kimmel for broadcasting “what appears to be some of the sickest conduct possible.” 

Perhaps pointing out that Trump lacked empathy qualifies as “some of the sickest conduct possible” to a sycophant who once wrote that “political satire is one of the oldest and most important forms of free speech,” which is why “people in influential positions have always targeted it for censorship.” 

But it’s tough to see how Kimmel’s comments rose anywhere close to that level in a week in which a Fox News host called for euthanizing mentally ill homeless people.

On the podcast, Carr laid out a pretty specific roadmap for the companies to follow in order to stay in the good graces of the administration. 

“Look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way,” he told Johnson, who was one of the right-wing influencers Russia covertly paid to churn out content favorable to Moscow, and who crowed later on Wednesday that it was his interview with the FCC chairman that got Kimmel fired. 

“These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead,” Carr said, before floating the possibility of a suspension for the comedian. 

He also explicitly pointed out what he wants licensed broadcast stations to do. 

“Frankly I think it’s past time that a lot of these licensed broadcasters themselves push back on Comcast and Disney, and say ’We are going to preempt — we are not going to run Kimmel anymore until you straighten this out,’” Carr stated. 

And that is exactly what Nexstar did within hours. 

For his part, Trump was happy. 

“Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done,” he wrote in a social media post before setting his sights on his next targets. “That leaves Jimmy [Fallon] and Seth [Meyers], two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!!”

And there you have it, the real reasons for why Kimmel has been suspended. It’s all pretty linear and straightforward… and illegal. 

But don’t take it from us; here is Carr last year: 

“[A]s the Supreme Court has made clear, the First Amendment prohibits government officials from coercing private parties into suppressing protected speech,” he wrote.

Of course, that was when the First Amendment and the rest of the Constitution still mattered.