Comedian Rob Schneider told Newsmax on Thursday that liberals' outrage over ABC's suspension of "Jimmy Kimmel Live" highlights a double standard on free speech.
Schneider told "American Agenda" that liberals have been quick to defend Kimmel after his monologue on conservative leader Charlie Kirk's killing sparked backlash, but were silent when conservatives faced career-ending consequences.
"What you really have is selective outrage," Schneider said. "I don't remember any of these liberal comedians crying about free speech when Roseanne [Barr] got fired off the number one show in America, or when the Twitter Files were released. … [And] there was proof that the Biden administration on day one censored Robert Kennedy and others."
The former "Saturday Night Live" cast member argued that Kimmel's suspension was a business decision and was not about censorship.
"Free speech doesn't mean free of consequences," he said. "You don't have the right to be employed if you upset your boss — and clearly that's what happened."
Kimmel drew fire after suggesting that Trump supporters were trying to portray the suspected killer of Kirk as "anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it."
The remarks prompted Nexstar Media Group, which owns more than 200 ABC affiliates, to announce it would no longer air the late-night show. ABC soon followed with a network-wide suspension.
Schneider added that viewers and advertisers made their voices clear.
"Each of those stations were getting calls from their viewers saying, we don't want this anymore," he said. "Advertisers were going to drop out. That's why Nexstar acted."
While stressing that he does not wish harm on fellow comedians, Schneider said Kimmel's remarks crossed a line.
"It was false advertising — there were no jokes, just a political diatribe trying to score points," he said. "The American people are good people, and they don't want this really despicable behavior [against] somebody who is a great American who passed away."
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Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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