In Defence of Cancelling the Left

This past fortnight has seen an explosion of interest in free speech in the United States. First there was the political assassination of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA. Then there was the decision by Disney (owner of the ABC TV broadcasting network in the US) to remove late night host Jimmy Kimmel from the air. A lot is going on in the name of ‘free speech’ so let me start with some facts.

Firstly, Charlie Kirk not only believed in free speech, he practised it. He would go onto college campuses, set up his desk and microphone, and debate any and everyone. And he was respectful. He heard people out. He believed in the exchange of ideas. He insisted no one be booed. And he was very good at what he did, a first-rate debater. Many outside observers attribute to Kirk and his Turning Point outfit the incredible surge in young voters’ support for Trump in last year’s Presidential election, especially amongst young men who now markedly, even mightily, lean Republican.

Secondly, the assassin was motivated by hard-Left identity politics concerns. He lived with a man who was transitioning to be a trans-woman. He left behind clear evidence he was motivated by DEI-type concerns. He thought Kirk’s views were hateful and that that fact warranted not just physical violence but death. Yes, the killer came from a conservative Republican home. But that just shows how effective the indoctrination can be at some universities (where the assassin went for a semester) and online. If you look at the post-Obama incidents, there is a good deal more ‘Left on Right’ violence than vice-versa.

Now to the immediate aftermath of the Kirk murder. It is undeniable that many on the Left (explicitly or implicitly) celebrated or condoned or justified Kirk’s homicide. The evidence is overwhelming and readers will have seen myriad examples online from Hollywood types to professors and teachers to medicos to a few Democrat politicians. Many lost their jobs as a result.

And that brings me to late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel. Kimmel has for years been an open and ardent supporter of the Democrats. The old Johnny Carson days of bipartisan humour and trying to attract all political points of view to your broadcast are dead in the US – which explains why Kimmel’s audience has collapsed by about 70% (much like the audience of his late-night competitor Stephen Colbert). Anyway, last week Kimmel’s opening monologue lied about the shooter of Kirk. Kimmel asserted the killer was a MAGA type. Kimmel could not possibly have believed that given the evidence widely available. Kimmel’s monologue caused outrage across a huge chunk of America. Kimmel’s ABC (again, owned by the Left-leaning Disney corporation) does not own all the affiliate TV stations across the US and one of the biggest ABC affiliate owners announced it would no longer air the Kimmel show. Disney then opted to pull the Kimmel show.

And then many, many of those on the US political Left erupted in fury. ‘This is the end of free speech,’ they lamented. ‘This is the start of authoritarianism.’ Etcetera. Etcetera.

So let me add some nuance. One: many, many conservative TV and sports commentators in the US who have voiced conservative views have been fired by what (outside of Fox) is a wall-to-wall progressive-Left media landscape. Roseanne Barr had the most popular sitcom on TV when she made a tweet – so on her own time not while working as with Kimmel – and she was fired. Almost universally the Lefties applauded this Barr firing as wholly compatible with US First Amendment free speech principles – which it is, by the way. The US Bill of Rights offers citizen-government speech protections, not person-to-person or person-to-corporation protections. The same fate that Barr suffered was dished out to at least three notable ESPN sports commentators who voiced conservative views (while Leftie sports people can hold moments of silence against Trump and against Supreme Court decisions and say just about anything with never any consequences). I could give you all sorts of other conservatives in media who have been fired by their privately-owned networks without a peep of complaint from the political Left. Only with the firing of Jimmy Kimmel have these Lefties shown any concern with free speech. Here’s the truth of the matter. Cancel culture is and was a Left-wingers’ creation. They have used it to silence Right of centre views as far as possible.

So here are two big questions. First off, what should we make of the Kimmel axing? Over 60 ABC affiliate TV stations had opted not to air his show. Plus, the Disney-owned ABC was already bleeding money on this show because Kimmel (and Colbert) had long ago moved to only making Left-friendly jokes and monologues, costing him three-quarters of his audience. There is no free-speech principle that your boss can’t fire you for losing him loads of money. Nor is firing someone for what he did today equivalent to searching through emails from 15 years ago to find some undergraduate tweet that can be used to cancel someone just appointed to some big job today – the way the Left-side of politics went after Toby Young in the UK.

I’ll be honest. I would prefer to live in the 1970s world of bipartisan humour where comedians are left alone because they dole out the hits to all sides. But we don’t live in that world. And attempts to claim, in effect, that one of the first things the Nazis (a.k.a. Trump) did was to cancel underperforming late night talk shows, are risible. Yes, Trump’s Attorney General was an idiot to broach hate speech laws. Yes, Disney has other business concerns that will need Trump administration approval. But the Fox network and conservatives live with these administrative state idiocies all the time.

And that brings me to the biggest issue confronting conservatives who believe in free speech. Do we hold ourselves to a higher standard than the Left and refuse to cancel and ask for the firing of those on the Left (who would most definitely suffer that fate were they conservatives)? Or, given that the political Left has created this cancel culture world, do we make them live up to the standards they created? Do we demand they be fired too, enjoying a soupçon of schadenfreude when it happens?

Sadly, I’m afraid it has to be the latter. This is not some Sir Walter Scott romantic jousting match where chivalry is all. We know from game theory and from evolution that those who are always generous and benevolent lose. Those sort of genes die out. Reciprocity is the approach that works. I’ll be nice and play by the rules as long as you do. But when it’s plain that you are not – for you it will be cancel culture and attempting to silence voices you dislike – well then right back at you on steroids. What’s good for the Roseanne Barr goose will also be good for the Jimmy Kimmel gander. Remember, Kimmel is not banned from every major social media app (as the Left banned then candidate Trump). No one is trying to put Kimmel in jail or bankrupt him (ditto). No one is sending bullets his way (ditto). He lost his job, as did a whole bunch of Lefties who celebrated Charlie Kirk’s murder (showing their distinct lack of humanity, by the way).

Boo-hoo. I’m now for applying their rules to them. Disney has now, predictably, caved in to the Left and is bringing back the Kimmel show. This is yet more evidence the Left plays under a different set of rules than the Right – two-tier cancel culture if you will. The good news is Kimmel bleeds Disney money. For how long we shall see.

James Allan is the Garrick Professor of Law at Queensland University. This article was first published in Spectator Australia.