Outkick’s Clay Travis came to the defense of Jimmy Kimmel on Thursday, one day after ABC announced it was suspending Kimmel’s show after the late night host misled his audience about the political allegiances of the man who assassinated Charlie Kirk.
The decision has been celebrated by many conservatives who argue Kimmel’s job performance merited such a punishment, but others have argued that it constitutes a First Amendment violation, given comments made by FCC Chairman Brendan Carr.
Travis weighed in on the matter on X Thursday morning.
“Roseanne [Barr] had the highest rated show on television when she made a Twitter joke and was immediately fired by Disney. Gina Carano had the most popular show on streaming when she shared a social post and was immediately fired by Disney. Everyone on the left cheered,” began Travis. “I like Jimmy and his family and have known them for years now. I don’t like the concept — as someone who talks for a living — of any person in any creative industry losing their job for any one thing they say — Roseanne, Gina or Jimmy. I think we all lose in creative spaces that sometimes require pushing the speech envelope and taking risks when that standard is applied, right, left or independent politically.”
“But you can’t only notice the issue when it happens to people on the same side of your own politics. Especially since the left created the cancel culture universe — which I’ve consistently opposed my entire career — and now is upset because they are being held to the standards they created. A robust defense of Jimmy on the left should also include an apology to Roseanne and Gina and an endorsement of a new more lenient standard for speech in the creative arts for everyone of all political beliefs,” he continued. “This will probably make me the only person on social media to defend Roseanne, Gina and Jimmy. As someone who people have tried to cancel more than almost anyone in media for having ‘unpopular’ opinions, I’m proud of that. If your principle shifts based on who has power, you actually have no principles.”
The post ‘I Like Jimmy’: Outkick’s Clay Travis Defends Kimmel and Trashes ‘Cancel Culture’ first appeared on Mediaite.
