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Former late-night host David Letterman responded to ABC taking comedian Jimmy Kimmel off the air on Wednesday night, hammering President Trump’s administration for purportedly creating “managed media.”
“And then my good friend Jimmy Kimmel. I just, I feel bad about this because we all see where this is going, correct? It’s managed media and it’s no good. It’s silly; it’s ridiculous; and you can’t go around firing somebody because you’re fearful or trying to suck up to an authoritarian criminal administration in the Oval Office. That’s just not how this works,” Letterman said Thursday while at The Atlantic Festival in New York City.
ABC suspended Kimmel’s show “indefinitely” over comments he made about last week’s killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
On Monday, Kimmel said the U.S. “hit some new lows over the weekend,” when the “MAGA gang desperately tried to characterize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.”
The late-night host then accused conservative Republicans of attempting to “score political points” from Kirk’s killing in Utah last Wednesday.
ABC’s decision came after Nexstar Media Group said its affiliate stations would preempt “Jimmy Kimmel Live” starting Wednesday evening because of Kimmel’s remarks about Kirk. Nexstar Media Group owns The Hill, along with NewsNation and CW.
President Trump celebrated the decision by ABC. Democrats slammed the decision, with some calling on Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr to resign, accusing him of “corrupt abuse of power.”
“Well, this is misery and in the world of somebody who is an authoritarian — maybe a dictatorship — sooner or later, everyone is going to be touched. But this is me. For 30 years, I did this for a living. So, I see this happen,” Letterman told The Atlantic’s top editor Jeffrey Goldberg.
“They took care of Colbert. That was rude. That was inexcusable. The man deserved a great deal of credit. He’s in the Hall of Fame nine times! And to be manipulated like that because the Ellison family didn’t want to trouble Donald Trump with this move, so they got rid of him — not only got rid of him, got rid of the whole franchise,” Letterman added, referring to CBS’s decision to cancel “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.” “You’re not going to have to worry about anything, Larry [Ellison]. It’s all gone! It’s fine. Good night.”
