The firestorm surrounding late-night host Jimmy Kimmel reached a boiling point on Wednesday, ignited by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr. Carr’s appearance on a podcast, where he hinted at the FCC’s power to act against ABC, the network airing Kimmel’s show, pushed what was once a simmering online frustration into full-blown outrage.
This eruption of anger didn’t happen overnight. It was a slow burn, beginning more than 24 hours earlier. An analysis by The New York Times, scrutinizing thousands of social media posts and mentions across various platforms like radio, television, and podcasts, reveals how Kimmel’s monologue quietly sparked discontent before escalating into a widespread conservative outcry.
The initial reaction on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday morning was surprisingly subdued. A user, tasked with identifying liberal bias in late-night programming, first shared a clip of the monologue. As the day progressed, conservative influencers and radio hosts began to amplify it, eventually drawing the attention of Fox News hosts by evening.
The situation intensified significantly on Wednesday. Hours before Chairman Carr’s controversial podcast appearance, Elon Musk, the influential owner of X, publicly condemned Kimmel’s jokes as “disgusting,” adding fuel to the growing online fire.
This rapid escalation highlights a key dynamic of modern online discourse: outrage often isn’t organic. Instead, it’s frequently orchestrated by a handful of influential figures who expertly redirect their audience’s focus.
Anthony Kelly of University College Dublin’s Centre for Digital Policy, an expert on the spread of partisan online outrage, explains, “Outrage is fomented by influential figures in both media and politics, for whom outrage is a communication strategy.” He adds that while these key figures are crucial, the algorithms of the platforms themselves also play an increasing role in driving this collective anger.
Critics argue that Kimmel’s monologue contained factual inaccuracies. He notably quipped that “the MAGA gang was desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.” However, charging documents later revealed the accused shooter’s own words about Kirk: “I had enough of his hatred.”
Ultimately, Kimmel’s remarks contributed directly to ABC’s decision to pull his show indefinitely.
An interactive chart, titled “Growing Outrage” and sourced from Tweet Binder by Audiense, illustrates how posts on X demanding Jimmy Kimmel’s firing or his show’s cancellation did not significantly increase until more than a full day after the controversial episode aired. The chart visually tracks the slow build-up of sentiment.
For nearly 24 hours following Kimmel’s broadcast, online and traditional media commentary remained largely muted, according to data compiled from Tweet Binder, an analytics firm specializing in platform data, and Critical Mention, a media monitoring service.
By early Tuesday morning, mere hours after Kimmel’s show, conservative media outlets began publishing articles criticizing the monologue. Breitbart, a prominent right-wing news site, featured the show in an article at 6:40 a.m. Eastern time. Curiously, this initial piece focused primarily on Kimmel’s jokes about President Trump’s grief, with only a brief mention of his controversial “one of them” comment regarding the shooter.
An accompanying image shows a screenshot of a Breitbart article headline: “Jimmy Kimmel: Trump Is Mourning Charlie Kirk’s Death Like ‘How a Four-Year-Old Mourns a Goldfish.’”
One of the earliest X posts to feature a clip of Kimmel’s monologue came from Alex Christy, a staff writer for NewsBusters. This conservative publication’s stated mission is to expose and neutralize liberal media bias. His post, shared at 9:02 a.m. on Tuesday, slowly gained traction, eventually garnering over 15 million views on X and receiving amplification from high-profile users, including Elon Musk.
NewsBusters operates under the umbrella of the Media Research Center (M.R.C.), a media watchdog and non-profit organization established in 1987 by L. Brent Bozell III, a conservative media critic. Bozell, recently nominated by Mr. Trump as the next ambassador to South Africa, has a history of campaigning against mainstream media, advocating for show cancellations and boycotts.
An image displays an X post from Alex Christy, captioned: “A post from a writer for NewsBusters, a conservative media watchdog, highlighted Mr. Kimmel’s monologue.”
David Bozell, president of M.R.C., affirmed their broad scope, stating in an interview, “We’re going to look for media bias anywhere and everywhere we need to go look. Late night included.”
Following a smattering of radio mentions on Tuesday, Fox News’s prime-time round-table show, “The Five,” discussed Kimmel’s comments. Co-host Lisa Kennedy Montgomery questioned, “Isn’t it easier for them to pull the plug on someone like Jimmy Kimmel, given the political and media vibe that we are in right now?” Katie Pavlich, another host, responded, “It’s certainly easy to give them an opportunity to walk it back or to try and clarify exactly what he meant.”
However, the online atmosphere was already shifting dramatically.
Auron MacIntyre, a host for the right-wing media company The Blaze, posted on X Tuesday night, accusing Kimmel of propagating a “conspiracy theory” about the shooter’s political affiliations. He concluded his fiery post with: “He must lose his job, this is deeply evil.” This post alone was viewed over half a million times.
An image showcases Auron MacIntyre’s X post, emphasizing his call for Kimmel’s firing alongside Mr. Christy’s original clip.
“Jimmy Kimmel is disgusting,” Elon Musk echoed the following morning, adding his considerable voice to the chorus of disapproval.
On Wednesday, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s appearance on “The Benny Show,” a livestream and podcast hosted by conservative activist Benny Johnson, proved to be a turning point. Carr, seemingly tapping into the burgeoning online anger, suggested the FCC could leverage its authority against ABC if the network failed to take action against Kimmel.
These official comments catapulted the controversy from an internet squabble into a significant mainstream issue, triggering a fresh wave of outrage against both Kimmel and the FCC’s perceived overreach.
Kate Klonick, an associate professor at St. John’s University School of Law and an expert on misinformation, emphasizes the impact of powerful figures. “What makes a huge difference here is that you now have people in power, people that are highly visible and powerful, that can make actual change happen, who will pick up things that maybe 5 percent or 10 percent of the population is listening to,” she noted.
In the aftermath, calls for Kimmel’s removal surged dramatically online, escalating from fewer than a dozen accounts to hundreds of posts per hour on X, according to Tweet Binder data.
After ABC officially announced the indefinite pulling of Jimmy Kimmel’s show, Benny Johnson, the podcaster who interviewed Chairman Carr, publicly claimed credit for the outcome.
He asserted on X, “Mean tweets are great. But they can be ignored. What can’t be ignored are your paying customers organizing against you and FCC investigations. That is exactly what we did.”