Free speech rally takes over Main and Moody

Photos by Maureen King, contributing photographer

Indivisible Waltham called on residents last Friday to stand up for free speech after ABC suspended comedian Jimmy Kimmel indefinitely. 

ABC announced the suspension last Wednesday, saying it was in response to Kimmel’s comments about Charlie Kirk, a conservative podcaster who was shot and killed Sept. 10 while speaking to students at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. 

On the day Kirk was shot, Kimmel condemned the killings and expressed condolences to Kirk’s family in an Instagram post. Then on Sept. 15 during his monologue on his late-night show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” the comedian mocked President Trump for what Kimmel said was his indifference to Kirk’s killing when a reporter asked him how he was doing. Trump responded “very good” and turned to the subject of the new ballroom he is building at the White House. Trump’s response to Kirk’s death “is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend,” Kimmel said. “This is how a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish, OK?”

Kimmel also joked about “The MAGA gang is desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.” 

ABC’s move came after FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said during a Sept. 17 interview with podcaster Benny Johnson, that Kimmel’s statement was “an intentional effort to mislead the American people.” He warned Disney, ABC’s parent company, that they could “do this the easy way or the hard way” and that licensed broadcasters “are running the possibility of fines or license revocation.”

Broadcasters Nexstar and Sinclair also stated they would drop Kimmel’s show from their ABC-affiliated stations. ABC, Nexstar and Sinclair all have deals and operations that are subject to federal regulatory approval. 

ABC’s move has fueled the ongoing debate about the state of free speech in the United States. Indivisible Waltham’s website states that it is a group of “Waltham residents who believe in preserving and strengthening American democracy. We are coming together and taking action to prevent the dismantling of our country by people and groups pushing an authoritarian vision of America.”

A few dozen people turned up for the Sept. 19 late-afternoon rally. Many passing vehicles honked their horns in seeming support of the rally. 

On Monday, Sept. 22, ABC announced it was reinstating Kimmel’s show. “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,” the network stated.