Sinclair Still Won’t Air Kimmel Until He Apologizes To Kirk’s Family

While Sinclair Broadcasting Group canceled a Charlie Kirk tribute in response to violent threats against its local TV affiliates, it is holding firm on refusing to air Jimmy Kimmel’s show until he apologizes for lying about Kirk’s assassination on air.

Conservatives appeared to achieve a significant victory in television broadcasting and content creation last week when right-of-center local television affiliate owners declined to air Kimmel’s show after the late-night host tried to launder the lie that Kirk’s assassin was a Trump-supporting conservative. Public outrage combined with the power of station owners Sinclair and Nexstar was successful in pressuring ABC (and its owner, Disney) to take Kimmel off the air — temporarily.

Now it seems Disney participated in a bait-and-switch, announcing Monday that Kimmel would return to the airwaves on the ABC network Tuesday.

“Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country,” Disney announced Monday afternoon. “It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive. We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”

It appears Disney thought it could weather the backlash for a few days by pretending to take its loss of credibility seriously, only to return the low-rated Kimmel to the air in less than a week. Sinclair, however, reiterated its affiliates would not air Kimmel’s ABC program despite fresh leftwing violence deployed against local ABC stations to pressure them to reinstate Kimmel’s show.

According to The New York Post, Sinclair was forced to take off its ABC affiliate airwaves a planned tribute to Charlie Kirk that was supposed to air in the usual time slot for the Jimmy Kimmel Live! late-night program. The Kirk tribute was pulled due to “local threats directed at specific local ABC stations resulting from [the] ABC suspension.” An ABC affiliate in Sacramento endured a gunman shooting into its lobby after the Kimmel suspension was announced. According to The New York Post’s source, Sinclair was concerned about more leftist violence if it aired the tribute.

While making the tribute available on The National News Desk’s YouTube channel, Sinclair announced the ABC affiliates would return to ABC network programming.

While ABC and Disney may be taking advantage of leftist terrorist threats to force Kimmel into Americans’ homes, Sinclair told The Federalist, “Beginning Tuesday night, Sinclair will be preempting Jimmy Kimmel Live! across our ABC affiliate stations and replacing it with news programming. Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return.”

It is unclear if Nexstar will cave to terrorists and broadcast the show. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, last week upon canceling Kimmel’s airtime on the affiliates, Sinclair did make several demands.

“Sinclair will not lift the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live! on our stations until formal discussions are held with ABC regarding the network’s commitment to professionalism and accountability,” it said. “Sinclair also call upon Mr. Kimmel to issue a direct apology to the Kirk family. Furthermore, Sinclair asks Mr. Kimmel to make a meaningful personal donation to the Kirk Family and Turning Point USA. Regardless of ABC’s plans for the future of the program, Sinclair intends not to return Jimmy Kimmel Live! to our air until we are confident that appropriate steps have been taken to uphold the standards expected of a national broadcast platform.”

If the affiliate owner allows Kimmel back on, it will have fully caved. As conservative commentator Auron MacIntyre pointed out in the wake of Kimmel’s return, “ABC wants America to know that terrorism will be rewarded.”

The Federalist reported on a reform attempt underway both from the affiliate owners and within the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to grant conservative-leaning media organizations larger market share. That would allow them to create localized content instead of being forced to broadcast anti-culture Hollywood slop.

FCC chair Brendan Carr said the move from the affiliate owners in forcing ABC/Disney to comply (at least for a while) was “unprecedented,” and left-wing forces in the corporate media and beyond started hyperventilating about “free speech” in pulling Kimmel.

But public airwaves have legal content standards almost certainly breached by lying to say that a left-wing terrorist assassin is actually a part of the MAGA movement — and Carr is interested in finally enforcing those standards. Enforcement is not a “free speech” violation, it is a way of ensuring content creators use the privilege of public airwaves to broadcast content that does not advance the public interest.

“Time for reform to better empower affiliates. Big Hollywood still has too much market power,” Nathan Leamer, CEO of Fixed Gear Strategies and former policy advisor to former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, told The Federalist. “Brendan Carr’s FCC is about initiating reforms to better balance the market and enable more opposing views in the discourse.”

Leamer told The Federalist last week that these affiliates are looking for ways to create their own content so they can stop airing the socially destructive passion projects Hollywood produces.

Breccan F. Thies is the White House correspondent for The Federalist. He previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.