Sept. 18, 2025

Permission to republish original opeds and cartoons granted.

 

Charlie Kirk Died For Free Speech, But Free Speech Did Not Die With Charlie Kirk

By Robert Romano

“These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on [Jimmy] Kimmel or you know there's going to be additional work for the FCC ahead… I think what you said there [calling for Kimmel to apologize] strikes me as … a very reasonable, minimal step that can be taken. I mean, obviously, look, there's calls for Kimby fired… [Y]ou could certainly see a path forward for … suspension over this. And again, you know, the FCC is going to have remedies that we could look at.”

That was Federal Communications Chairman Brendan Carr on the Benny Johnson Show on Sept. 17 calling on broadcasting companies to change the conduct of some of their on-air personalities, including ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel whose show was suspended later the same day, in the wake of the assassination of Charlie Kirk by an anti-fascist radical. 

Carr added, “As you've indicated, there are, you know, avenues here for the FCC. So, there are … some ways in which — I need to be a little bit careful because we could be called ultimately to be a judge on some of these claims that come up… They have a license granted by us at the FCC and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest. And we can get into some ways that we've been trying to reinvigorate the public interest and some changes that we've seen. But frankly, when you see stuff like this, I mean, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way.”

Jimmy Kimmel Live! was suspended after Kimmel stated in one of his monologues: “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.” 

Here, Kimmel was falsely saying Kirk’s assassin, Tyler Robinson, was a part of President Donald Trump’s supporters and his Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement. That he was “one of them”. It’s a lie.

This was a politically motivated public murder where the killer went to the trouble of engraving bullets exemplifying his radical, anti-fascist, pro-transgender ideology and who confessed to his significant other he thought Kirk was “hateful”. That was also a lie.

Charlie Kirk, one of President Trump’s greatest supporters, was peacefully hosting a public meeting giving his political opponents whom he disagreed with a peaceful platform to challenge his ideas at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10 when he was killed. He died in the public square for the freedom of speech. We must never forget.

Carr’s comments came on the heels of statements by Attorney General Pam Bondi that “We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech” and later clarified in a statement on X she meant “Hate speech that crosses the line into threats of violence is NOT protected by the First Amendment. It's a crime.”

Bondi noted, “Under 18 U.S.C. § 875(c), it is a federal crime to transmit ‘any communication containing any threat to kidnap any person or any threat to injure the person of another.’ Likewise, 18 U.S.C. § 876 and 18 U.S.C. § 115 make it a felony to threaten public officials, members of Congress, or their families.”

We should remember the assassin wanted to police “hate speech” too, by taking matters into his own hands.

As John Stuart Mill observed in 1859’s On Liberty: “the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection. That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.” 

And so, calling out a hit on someone or otherwise directing somebody to commit violence with an imminent threat of harm is illegal. You can parade down the street and call for the overthrow of the government or call for civil war if you want — just don’t do it. That’s the very high standard the Supreme Court established in 1969. 

And so, as FCC Chairman Carr stated, we “need to be a little bit careful…” here. He’s right. We need to be careful what we wish for.

As it turned out, there was no need for the FCC to do anything about Kimmel. Nexstar, which owns 23 ABC stations, wanted Kimmel gone and Disney axed him, with Nexstar President Andrew Alford stating on Sept. 17, “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.”

The marketplace of ideas took matters into its own hands — as it should. As Mill observed, “Society can and does execute its own mandates…” Right now, America is saying it does not condone violence or bearing false witness about it. 

Mill also warned of “social tyranny” that conservatives are very accustomed to and often have been on the receiving end of that can be taken too far, and he cautioned that figuring out what is true and what is not true should “be confined to facts and positive science exclusively. The examinations on religion, politics, or other disputed topics, should not turn on the truth or falsehood of opinions, but on the matter of fact that such and such an opinion is held, on such grounds, by such authors, or schools, or churches.” 

Indeed, how would we like it if the FCC or some other agency governed the issuance of licenses or permits to speak in the public square around whether a political opinion or religious teaching was “true”? We need a much higher standard than that, and we do: The First Amendment. 

Now, the law says false and deceptive, that is, that the Federal Communications Commission can revoke a license if it puts out “false or deceptive signals or communications…” in 47 U.S. Code § 303. 

But it also says “Nothing in this chapter shall be understood or construed to give the Commission the power of censorship over the radio communications or signals transmitted … and no regulation or condition shall be promulgated or fixed by the Commission which shall interfere with the right of free speech…” in 47 U.S. Code § 326. 

That is the FCC’s First Amendment cover-your-ass statement since “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press” that is, the spoken or written word.

That is the limit to the government’s ability to revoke broadcast licenses based on content and in the name of the public interest and is subject to judicial review. And when it is used, it will be challenged. 

The government’s police powers can be taken too far, and has been in the past. In fact, President Trump was one of the victims of that as former Special Counsel Jack Smith prosecuted Trump as the former president for what Smith said was a fraudulent election challenge. Ultimately, the cases were dropped, as they should have been, and in any event, right or wrong, true or false, President Trump had a First Amendment right to legally challenge the 2020 elections and to give his speech at the National Mall on Jan. 6, 2021 — and the Justice Department had no business trying to criminalize those legal challenges, which were clearly protected on First Amendment and Article II grounds. It was lawfare.

Which is why we have a Constitution, the First Amendment and a judicial system to sort those things out. Perhaps President Donald Trump wishes to test out this provision of law — or threaten to do so — to steer the nation’s conversation to a less provocative place. Disney and other media companies like Comcast and Paramount are taking actions, too. Now there is a deterrent against the advocacy and celebration of violence. And where it does not pose an imminent threat violence, society can police itself usually.

In a similar vein, hundreds maybe thousands of Americans have lost their jobs because of social media postings celebrating the death of Charlie Kirk. 

Now, media companies might be reminding their on-air personalities not to create an imminent danger of breaking the law, urging, celebrating or otherwise condoning violence, or accusing people of violence who didn’t. 

Right now, the investigation into Charlie Kirk’s murder is still ongoing and the facts prosecutors produce will be used at trial — and they will be challenged by defense attorneys at trial but also on cable talk shows. The facts will be disputed and then a jury will render a verdict. That is our system. 

There are very good reasons for concern. As we saw during the Biden administration, we do not want the government in the misinformation, disinformation and malinformation game, as social media platforms were directed to remove content deemed false, whether over the 2020 elections, the Covid pandemic, Russiagate and other content.

It is something then-Commissioner Carr testified in 2023 against: “You can see it in the Administration’s campaign to pressure Internet companies into censoring Americans’ protected speech—a coordinated effort to flag and suppress political viewpoints expressed on social media.” Right, so “be… careful…”

Kimmel was talking about MAGA, making it a political statement as much as it was a lie to falsely accuse MAGA of killing Charlie Kirk. Political speech is protected but lies are not. In any event, Disney and Nexstar decided for themselves that they did not want to continue broadcasting Kimmel’s lies. There was no need for the FCC to do anything. In the meantime, his YouTube channel, not governed by the FCC, might continue or he’ll go do something else. There are alternatives to being on television.

Similar standards illegitimately applied during the Biden administration might have seen broadcasters’ licenses threatened over news broadcasts that the voting machines themselves were rigged during and after President Trump’s 2020 election challenge or in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol that federal agents and anti-Trump radical agitators were said to have provoked the pro-Trump riot. Some of those claims were subjects of civil litigation too in addition to the bogus political, criminal charges that were brought against Trump. Yes, “be… careful…”

Common sense dictates that we should only impose those standards that we would be comfortable being imposed on us by the other side. It is ultimately a pragmatic approach that protects our ability to have conversations, especially difficult ones and most especially with those that we disagree with in the public square. Maybe this essay won’t be popular, but that’s okay.

And it is the gentle framework of the civil society that we must restore: To do unto others as you would have them do unto you. 

Charlie Kirk died for free speech, but free speech did not die with Charlie Kirk.

Robert Romano is the Executive Director of Americans for Limited Government Foundation. 

To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2025/09/charlie-kirk-died-for-free-speech-but-free-speech-did-not-die-with-charlie-kirk/ 

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Cartoon: Off The Rails

By A.F. Branco

Click here for a higher level resolution version.

To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2025/09/cartoon-off-the-rails/