CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter said Wednesday on "OutFront" that the United States was a "less free place if late night comedians cannot do and say what they want" while reacting to the suspension of "Jimmy Kimmel Live" due to comments Kimmel made after the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
Host Erin Burnett said, "So let me just ask you, Brian, what more are you're learning about this just in these minutes? I mean, it truly dropped as I think a shock to anybody who heard it, even if they knew that Brendan Carr the pro-Trump chief of the FCC, had made the comments he made on that podcast. I don't think there's anybody who literally thought within hours Jimmy Kimmel would be gone."
Stelter said, "Right, absolutely right. In fact, this was very sudden this afternoon after Carr spoke out on that far right podcast. Then some stations that are owned by other companies but affiliated with ABC started to complain to ABC. We know one of them, Nexstar, which has about two dozen stations with the ABC logo and all the ABC programing. Nexstar publicly announced that they were going to drop Kimmel's show indefinitely. Within a matter of minutes we heard from Disney that the show was being pulled altogether. That suggests to me that other station owners were probably also getting scared. Other station owners were probably also coming up with backup plans not to air Kimmel's show. But even though we're talking about comedy, this is so serious."
He added, "America is a less free place if late night comedians cannot do and say what they want. Of course they can be tuned out. People can change the channel. That's how we vote. That's how we have our say in America. This really does have a chilling effect across the American media."