In this episode, Malcolm and Simone Collins dive deep into the controversy surrounding the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s show, exploring the intersection of free speech, media ethics, and the shifting landscape of late-night television. They analyze the facts behind Kimmel’s suspension, compare it to other high-profile media firings, and discuss the broader implications for truth, comedy, and political discourse in America. The conversation also touches on the evolution of late-night humor, the rise of alternative media, and the challenges of navigating cancel culture. Plus, enjoy candid moments, personal stories, and predictions about the future of media, AI, and global politics.

Malcolm Collins: [00:00:00 ] was Kimmel himself hinting in a 2024 LA Times interview. I think this is my final contract.

That seems like enough Jimmy Kimmel was saying. His contract wasn't gonna be renewed. when Alex Jones gets fired for Sandy Hook very few mainstream conservative commentators we're like, oh, they're silencing free speech the Tonight Show was Conan O'Brien was canceled at around 1.4. So at higher ratings than his show was canceled.

The American Hall Show was canceled at 1.6. Again, much higher than his show when it was canceled,

Simone Collins: your depiction of this as the network taking an opportunity to. Less expensively end a contract that was going to end inevitably.

Makes a lot of sense.

Malcolm Collins: why does the left even think they have a right to be mad about this?

Would you like to know more?

Malcolm Collins: Hello Simone. I'm excited to be here with you today. A lot of people have been talking about free speech in regards to [00:01:00 ] Jimmy Kimmel having his show canceled after.

I will note it wasn't that he disparaged somebody, he just lied. Like what he said wasn't even like a normal lie. It was like the antithesis of what is true. I'll play the clip right here for people who aren't familiar with it. Before we go further

Speaker: 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.

Malcolm Collins: the gist is, is he insinuated that the shooter who killed, charlie Kirk was a Republican, was like a MAGA guy. Like Yeah.

Simone Collins: He used the term MAGA or

Malcolm Collins: Right. Republican. And that, that's funny because, you know, MAGA is killing MAGA and they don't realize it or won't talk about it. Well, that

Simone Collins: MAGA is trying to pin it on their political opposition and he's basically saying they're shooting their own.

Isn't that? Yeah. Which is,

Malcolm Collins: I mean, it's, [00:02:00 ] it's, it's not like a, like he may not have been aware of the evidence or something like this. This is one of the things that is just patently not true. And part of this whole conversation is before I get into he wasn't canceled for the reasons that people are saying, first of all, and I'm gonna go into the data on this, that'll be the first thing we go into.

But the, the other thing that's really important to note here is, and, and go into is why does the left even think they have a right to be mad about this? Like his role. Was as a newscaster comedian which is basically our role as well, except he's working for a major station, like a private company, right.

He says something in his role as a newscaster comedian, which was the antithesis of true, which was literally made to get people to believe the opposite of what was true on a very sensitive topic, which is obviously like going viral and doing the rounds. And [00:03:00 ] so the company that hired him, fired him.

Simone Collins: Well, the show suspended, right?

I Is he fired? I don't think he's fired. It

Malcolm Collins: doesn't, it doesn't matter. The point being is that you should be fired if you are a newscaster for saying something about like a, a mainstream important topic that's just factually untrue. And

Simone Collins: to be fair, there is a. There are many examples of journalists, reporters, et cetera, who have been suspended or fired for reporting inaccuracies.

This is Sure.

Malcolm Collins: A, a great example, when Alex Jones gets fired for saying Sandy Hook is fake very few mainstream conservative commentators we're like, oh, they're silencing free speech or anything like that.

You know, very few. We, we certainly have never argued that Alex Jones shouldn't have faced a lawsuit for that or faced being pulled from air for that. That was something that was factually untrue and very easy to check that it was [00:04:00 ] factually untrue. Yeah. In fact. In many ways, I think what Alex Jones did was less bad than what, what Jimmy Kimmel did.

Why? 'cause at least Alex Jones engaged with the argument and tried to explain why he believed it was fake, whereas Jimmy Kimmel just stated something that was patently false about something that assert as

Speaker 4: sculpted.

Malcolm Collins: No. I'll note here. The way that what Alex Jones did was worse than what Jimmy Kimmel did is he turned the regular civilians who had lost their loved ones into victims.

Whereas Jimmy Kimmel did not do that. Yeah. But I mean, I'm talking about just in terms of somebody whose job is telling news, said something and that they knew was wrong. And, and if you can be like, oh, Alex Jones didn't know this. We know from the court documents that Alex Jones didn't believe this.

Like there's been internal leaks. And there are also

Simone Collins: just general other even political kind of related falsehoods that people have been. We'll say like suspended or censored in some way. Like some Fox News presenters promoted false claims about the 2020 US [00:05:00 ] election and Dominion voting systems. And they, that, that led to lawsuits and, and other things.

And were they fired? Some, some of them were suspended, some were not. But that's another example of them. A a bunch of people have been pulled for just other nonpolitical inaccuracies. Like Brian Williams, he was a really big person for NBC Nightly News in 2015 was suspended, and later his anchor was just totally removed after he exaggerated stories about being under fire during the Iraq war.

So that was just telling a lie about himself. So there, there are lots of people who have been suspended for things people have been suspended for false Michael Flynn reports false Kobe Bryant reporting.

You know, when he, he, when he was killed Matt Guttman of a BC news was suspended for saying that all of the kids died in the plane crash when it was just his daughter. So even just like little, little things. And, and some,

Malcolm Collins: it's, the point is, is it is normal to fire a newscaster [00:06:00 ] for lying, for plagiarism,

Simone Collins: for ethics issues, for lying, for inaccurate reporting, like all of these things.

Malcolm Collins: Why is it, I think the bigger story here is why is it that progressives think that this is a bad thing? Like, oh, and

Simone Collins: don't forget all the COVID stuff. Sorry, I just wanted to point that out. When, when people were seen as, as, as reporting misleadingly on COVID stuff, they got fired and suspended all the time.

Malcolm Collins: But the, the question here I'm saying is why do they think that they can say, we are canceling free speech when some, a newscaster is being fired for lying. Like, why do they think that this is something that somebody shouldn't be fired for? Why do they think that they have a position to throw a stink here?

And I think that this actually tells us more about the current progressive mindset and philosophy than the, the anything else around this. But before I go further, I wanna go into why he was actually fired because this is suspended. People on the right have talked about this, but they really haven't gone into the data.

And I think when you go into the data, you're just like, this is a completely silly situation to be up in [00:07:00 ] arms about. Okay. So in August 26th, 2025, Yahoo Entertainment. So this is before he said this, this is before the Trump stuff AR article reported insider speculation tied to shifting late night landscape.

Post Stephen Colbert's cancellation announcement, A key quote, quote, Jimmy is determined to quit late night before he's axed, quote, confides insider. The context highlights that he was planning to be fired that year. Jimmy Kimmel thought before this that he was going to be fired this year. What happened?

Let's keep going. A July 23rd, 2025 people magazine's piece discussed Trump's claims that Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon would soon be ousted analyzing their contracts. It noted Kimmel's deal expires at the end of 2025 to 2026. Season was Kimmel himself hinting in a 2024 LA Times interview. I think this is my final contract.

That seems like enough Jimmy [00:08:00 ] Kimmel was saying. His contract wasn't gonna be renewed. Now, what's important to note about these contracts, and we'll get into this a little bit more later, is most of them have a clause that if the person embarrasses the company publicly, they can cancel the contract without having to pay a firing fee.

But if they don't, then they have to pay out a bunch of money.

Simone Collins: Oh, okay. There's a very clear economic reason for why things happened the way they happened.<