“Maybe now our progressive friends understand why these columns oppose government control of business and fought liberal cancel culture. Regulatory power in the hands of a willful President can too easily become a weapon against political opponents, including the media.
That’s what happened Wednesday as Brendan Carr, President Trump’s man at the Federal Communications Commission, threatened Disney and its affiliates if they didn’t punish late-night host Jimmy Kimmel for comments about Charlie Kirk. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Mr. Carr told a podcaster, in words that could have been uttered by a New Jersey mob boss.”
~ Wall Street Journal editorial, September 18,, 2025
From 1988 to 2021 conservative pundit Rush Limbaugh hosted a radio show in the United States. A friend of mine said he listened to Limbaugh for an hour a day five days per week for 18 years. That is commitment!
The federal government never interrupted Limbaugh’s first amendment right to host the show. The content of the show was never at question by the government.
In 2017 far right activist Nick Fuentes began his podcast America First. Mr Fuentes is alleged to be a white nationalist, he has made many antisemitic statements on his podcast and elsewhere.
Since the inception of Mr. Fuentes’ podcast to the present day (2017 to 2025) the federal government has never censored his podcast. Mr Trump and Mr Biden have been President during this eight-year period.
I find Mr. Fuentes’ views vile, disgusting, and I will oppose them with every fiber of my being. But I refuse to endorse the federal government censoring him. Mr Fuentes’ views will be defeated by ordinary citizens showing that his worldview is at least hollow and at most evil.
The cancellation of Jimmy Kimmel’s show on ABS due to comments he made about President Trump’s response to Charlie Kirk’s death should be seen for what it is: The US government denying Mr Kimmel his first amendment right to free speech. His words would not be considered “hate speech” under the Constitution, even though the current Attorney General seems confused by what about the concept of hate speech.
We may like Mr Kimmel’s humor or we may not. I despise the words of Mr Fuentes and believe that his rhetoric causes serious decay to American culture. But I am not writing to my congressman asking that Mr Fuentes’ podcast be cancelled. And the Federal Communications Commission should not do so either.
For years much of the media in America has had a left-leaning bias. Personally I do not believe it is to the extent that people on the political right perceive. However, even if you believe that the media has been wildly and even recklessly left, the remedy cannot be to create a right wing version of the same thing. Unfortunately President Trump appears to be obsessed with doing just that.
I speak out on these issues because I am afforded this freedom by the US Constitution. I periodically receive threats on social media about my speech, and because I lead an organization that is distinctly named The Isaac Ishmael Initiative.
The last thing I should do is to be silent because that is precisely what people who do not believe in First Amendment rights of citizens would want.
Charlie Kirk had every right to speak as he did, and he should not have been killed for it. It is more than horrific that he was assassinated.
Rush Limbaugh had the same free speech rights. So does Nick Fuentes.
And so does Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel.
If you support “cancelling” any of these voices you are telling the world you do not believe in the United States Constitution.
And then the oath of office taken by the President, members of Congress, judges and other federal officers, “to protect and defend the Constitution” is meaningless.