The Mandalorian and Fantastic Four actor Pedro Pascal showed his support for Jimmy Kimmel, who was canceled by two major TV stations after he lied about Charlie Kirk’s assassin.
On Monday night’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! show host Jimmy Kimmel lied to viewers about Kirk’s assassin claiming he was a MAGA activist. Kimmel said, “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
The assassin had already been identified as Tyler Robinson and Utah governor Spencer Cox noted, “There clearly was a leftist ideology with this assassin.” Additionally, he had revealed that Robinson’s roommate was his boyfriend who was transitioning from male to female, “We do know that the roommate that we originally talked about, we can confirm that that roommate is a boyfriend, who is transitioning from male to female. So we know that piece.”
Following the show, TV station owners Sinclair and Nexstar Media Group announced they would no longer run Jimmy Kimmel Live! on their ABC affiliated stations.
After this an ABC News spokesman announced that Kimmel’s show was being pre-empted or canceled. He said, “Jimmy Kimmel Live will be pre-empted indefinitely.”
Pascal reacted to this with numerous posts to his Instagram Stories. First, he shared a post from the Human Rights Campaign with a headline from Vulture declaring Kimmel was pulled off air and a statement reading, “This is what fascism looks like.”
He went on to share a statement from SAG-Aftra which reads, “Our society depends on freedom of expression. Suppression of free speech and retaliation for speaking out on significant issues of public concern run counter to the fundamental rights we all rely on.Democracy thrives when diverse points of view are expressed.”
He also shared a statement from WGA about Kimmel’s firing. It states, “The right to speak our minds and to disagree with other - to disturb, even - is at the very heart of what it means to be a free speech people. It is not to be denied. Not by violence, not by the abuse of governmental power, nor by acts of corporate cowardice.”
“As a Guild, we stand united in opposition to anyone who uses their power and influence to silence the voices of writers, or anyone who speaks in dissent. If free speech applied only to ideas we like, we needn’t have bothered to write it into the Constitution. What we have signed on to - painful as it may be at times - is the freeing agreement to disagree,” it continues. “Shame on those in government who forget this founding truth. As our employers, our words have made you rich. Silencing us impoverishes the whole world.”
These posts are purely attempting to reframe why Kimmel was fired and seemingly to push a false narrative. Kimmel lied and violated the FCC’s Broadcast hoaxes rule. It reads:
No licensee or permittee of any broadcast station shall broadcast false information concerning a crime or a catastrophe if:
(1) The licensee knows this information is false;
(2) It is foreseeable that broadcast of the information will cause substantial public harm, and
(3) Broadcast of the information does in fact directly cause substantial public harm.
Furthermore, from a moral standpoint, as Dr. Edward Feser shares, “free speech is, more precisely, the right to speak the truth and to uphold the good. This clearly entails some limits on the right to free speech. There can be no right under natural law to speak lies or to promote evil, since that would be directly contrary to the end for which the right to free speech exists.”
Nevertheless, Pascal also shared a photo of himself with Kimmel and stated, “Standing with you Jimmy Kimmel. Defend Free Speech. Defend Democracy.”
He went on to add, “Yay gay.”
NEXT: Roseanne Barr Obliterates Barack Obama After He Tries To Pull Free Speech Defense For Jimmy Kimmel
Yo Pedro, where were you when Gina got fired?
"It's a private company! Ow! Who threw that boomerang?"