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By Don Chmielewski and Lisa Richwine
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel said Wednesday that he believes his comments about the reaction to the murder of political activist Charlie Kirk were “intentionally and maliciously misrepresented” by critics before suspending his show.
Kimmel drew anger from conservatives for saying on his September 17 show that supporters of President Donald Trump were desperate to portray Kirk’s accused killer as “anything but one of them” and were trying to “score political points” from his murder.
“I didn’t think there was a big problem,” Kimmel said after the initial reaction to his comments. “I just saw it as a distortion on the part of some right-wing media networks and my goal was to correct it.”
Speaking at the Bloomberg Screentime conference in Los Angeles, Kimmel said he felt critics “intentionally and maliciously misrepresented” his comments.
ABC parent Walt Disney temporarily aired “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” The broadcast was pulled after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said the host misled viewers about Kirk’s alleged shooter’s affiliation with Trump’s Make America Great Again movement. Carr urged local stations to back down and raised the possibility of the FCC canceling the licenses of local television stations that do not comply.
Kimmel said that after his suspension he spent the weekend talking to Disney Entertainment co-chairman Dana Walden about how to handle the situation.
“It helped me think about everything and it helped me understand where everyone is coming from,” Kimmel said. “I can be reactionary sometimes. I can be aggressive sometimes, and I can be obnoxious sometimes. And I think that really helped me think about those days.”
Disney reinstated Kimmel after six days on the air.
The host said that when he returned to the airwaves he told Disney executives “the spirit of what I was going to say, not specifically what I was going to say.”
Upon his return, Kimmel defended the political satire against “bullying” on the part of Trump and his administration officials.
Moments after receiving a standing ovation, Kimmel’s voice broke with emotion as he said: “It was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man. I don’t think there’s anything funny about it.”
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without any modifications to the text.
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