We were not fans of Jimmy Kimmel’s riff on the shooting of Charlie Kirk and the implication that President Donald Trump cared more about the new ballroom at the White House than the death of a close ally.

The late-night host’s monologue on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” was tasteless, unfair and, frankly, cruel, given that all the evidence points to Trump’s genuine affection for Kirk and his family; a family and broader community that, needless to say, is in deep pain at present.

More significantly, any reasonable person well knows that it is utterly inconceivable Kimmel and his writers would have used such material if Kirk had been a figure beloved by progressives and there was a Democratic president in the White House dealing with his loss. There would have been hell to pay from the show’s viewers if they had. That so many on the left do not see this as a problem is a problem with so many on the left. This unwillingness to see both sides is, well, getting worse on both sides.

We suspect Kimmel already knows all this, even as he knows which side is watching his show. Indeed, if you analyze the clip, and those forming an opinion should watch the full clip with its associated video, you can see his voice wavering as if he was going down a road he didn’t really want to go but had committed to the journey and could not change direction.

All that said, of course Kimmel had the right to speak that monologue, just as his bosses had the right to preempt his show or take him off the air.

All are forms of speech. Kimmel works for a private company, and any employee of a private company knows that when you take a risk, when you put yourself out there, you had better be sure that the bosses have your back, that the juice will be worth the squeeze, so to speak.

In this case, they did not. They likely made a judgment call that Kimmel offended many viewers, which is correct. They also likely had other corporate considerations, which, hard as it is for some to swallow, also is their right. We all can have and voice our opinions on that action, but our view is that’s between them. If Kimmel wants to quit, he will have many other options. We all know this. He won’t be silenced. His lively voice has too many fans.

The problem arrives when the government gets involved.

And in this troubling case, there is evidence that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr did indeed get involved and pressured Kimmel’s ABC bosses to take action. That’s un-American.

Early reporting indicates that the FCC’s argument appears to be that Kimmel delivered “misinformation” by implying in his monologue that Kirk’s assassin was a MAGA-adjacent character, which is untrue. But it’s worth remembering that this was a satiric monologue and is broadly understood as such. If Kimmel and his writers wanted to make that argument for comedic purposes, a free country allows them to make it without some government goon making official threats or otherwise clamping down on them. They can say the Earth is flat if they wish. This is not a totalitarian nation. There was no role for the FCC in this situation whatsoever.

We’ve said this before, but we’ll still say it again: History teaches us that criminal assassins of famous Americans such as Kirk are typically alienated, disturbed individuals who are far more like each other than the adherents of one or the other side in this silent but deeply disturbing civil war going on in America at present. Their motivations, if that is even the right word, should not be framed in those binary terms. It’s not only inaccurate but also profoundly dangerous, and it should cease, for the good of the republic.

Bad jokes fade. Bad government overreach endures. What matters most in this case is not whether Kimmel offended millions, but whether federal regulators used their power to chill speech.

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