Until Wednesday’s shocking announcement that ABC was canceling Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show indefinitely because of comments he made about Charlie Kirk’s killing, it was possible, if one squinted hard enough, to pretend that a broad free speech crackdown was not underway. The down-the-road cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s late-night show on CBS was chalked up to financial concerns, though anyone in the business not paid to think otherwise believes Mr. Colbert’s elegant skewerings of President Trump and MAGA were the real reason.
The silencing of Mr. Kimmel, following an explicit threat by Brendan Carr, the head of ABC’s regulator, the Federal Communications Commission, is the mask of “free speech” coming off for good.
