When ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel on Wednesday for comments he made about Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer, outrage poured out of all corners of the liberal body politic. It was an example of “government silencing dissenting voices,” Sen. Bernie Sanders said. Pod Save America’s Tommy Vietor called it “a wild overreaction.” If you fall for it, according to commentator Hasan Piker, “you’re an easily tricked adult and a fucking loser.”

In light of threats from Trump’s Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, ABC’s move to crush Kimmel over the comments stands as a particularly craven example of capitulation by the corporate media — especially given the relatively banal and careful wording Kimmel used.

The corporate media has not covered itself in glory during President Donald Trump’s second term. Poor coverage decisions, a willingness to give the powerful the benefit of the doubt, and an eye toward profit at the expense of journalistic integrity are nothing new.

Yet the Kimmel affair is a prime demonstration of how the president’s vindictiveness and greed have pushed those failures to a new low.

What might be more telling about the mainstream media’s failure to stand up against the assault on free speech, however, was something few commentators have bothered to mention: what happened to sometime student activist Mahmoud Khalil just hours earlier.

Cowardice Begets Cowardice

Khalil, who was detained by immigration authorities for three months earlier this year over his advocacy for Palestinian rights, was ordered deported........

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