ABC pulled late-night host Jimmy Kimmel off the air “indefinitely” Wednesday night following pressure from the Federal Communications Commission over comments Kimmel made on the suspect apprehended for the killing of right-wing podcaster Charlie Kirk.

Kimmel’s suspension comes after a monologue Monday night in which he said, “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.” Many read this as Kimmel implying that the shooter himself was right-wing.

Late-night talk show monologues are supposed to be funny, not rigorous journalism. It’s very unusual for a comedian to be suspended because of one, and it’s clear that Kimmel would not have been suspended if President Donald Trump’s FCC had not put extraordinary pressure on Disney-ABC. (In this case, that pressure was applied via Nexstar Media, the largest owner of TV stations in the US, which announced it would preempt Kimmel’s show. Nexstar is currently awaiting FCC approval for a planned $6.2 billion acquisition.) On Thursday morning, amid mounting outcry over Kimmel’s suspension, it was reported that ABC “hopes to have the matter resolved and the show return.”

The whole controversy is a shocking turn both in the Trump administration’s escalating war on its critics and in Jimmy Kimmel’s once pointedly apolitical career. Kimmel, after all, has spent most of his career embodying one archetype: regular American straight white dude. What could be more harmless and less controversial than that?

Kimmel started his career as a comic and radio host, an approachable everyman. In his first major television role as a host of Comedy........

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