A prominent free speech advocacy group is criticizing the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel and several Florida teachers for their comments on the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.
Adam Steinbaugh is a senior attorney with the Foundation for individual Rights and Expression, a free speech advocacy group.
“It creates very clear First Amendment problems when the government is pressuring a broadcaster to sideline a late-night comedian for what he says,” he said.
Steinbaugh is talking about the suspension of late night host Jimmy Kimmel, who was suspended from air by ABC for comments he made about the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
This comes after Federal Communications Chair Brendan Carr called for his removal.
“Frankly, I think that it's really sort of past time that a lot of these licensed broadcasters themselves push back on Comcast and Disney and say, listen, we are going to preempt we are not going to run Kimmel anymore, until you straighten this out because we, licensed broadcaster, are running the possibility of fines or license revocation from the FCC if we continue to run content that ends up being a pattern of news distortion,” he said in an interview on the Benny Johnson Show.
Steinbaugh says its wrong for the federal government to pressure private companies for speech because of first amendment protections.
“You have the chairman of the FCC, who is in the process of reviewing proposed mergers involving companies connected to ABC or to Disney, saying we can do this the easy way or the hard way, and claiming that Jimmy Kimmel talking about this on air is not in the public interest,” he said.
Teachers in Florida have been suspended for their comments as well. Steven Walker is an Education reporter with the Orlando Sentinel. He’s been following the cases of Florida teachers that have been suspended for their off-the-clock comments about Kirk’s death.
“On September 11, the state commissioner of education sent a memo to districts in order to have them forwarded to teachers, warning them to like, quote, govern themselves, when it came to social media posts about Charlie Kirk,” he said.
Four teachers have been suspended in Osceola County.
“One teacher who teaches at Celebration K-8, who posted on their Instagram story. It was a quote from Charlie Kirk when he was talking about that ‘some gun deaths were worth it to preserve Second Amendment rights,’ they posted over it with ‘protect your rights, brother. So proud of you for taking one for the team’, something along those lines. And that teacher was one of the one of the four that had been put under investigation and placed on, quote, alternative assignment,” Walker said.
Governor Ron DeSantis has supported those suspensions.
“People say, ‘Oh, well, you know, people can do what they want, free speech.’ Well, yeah, no one's saying the government's gonna put you in jail for doing that. But I do think it's a problem is that someone you want teaching your kids when they say that this is something, this assassination should be celebrated? “Of course not,” he said.
Steinbaugh thinks those Florida cases also have cause for concern.
"So, if you work for a private company that is not at all the government, your private company can take action against you for what you say on the clock or off the clock, with certain limited exceptions. But if your employer is a government entity, and it is taking action against you based on something you said off the clock and about a matter of public concern that raises First Amendment problems, even if your speech is offensive, even if your speech angers members of the public, people have the right to say things and to espouse opinions that are offensive to other people,” he said.
FIRE’s Steinbaugh says both the Kimmel situation and the teacher suspensions set an uncomfortable precedent for both political parties.
“The First Amendment protects everyone, and if we start watering it down to go after the speech we don't like, then it's not going to be there for the speech that we do like, because the tools, the theories, the legal principles that you set for offensive speech today are going to be used against the speech tomorrow, and it might be speech you like. So I think people should defend first amendment rights, especially the people that they don't like and the speech they don't like,” he said.