Jimmy Kimmel talkshow taken off air over Charlie Kirk comments

0:02Hi, I'm Charlie Duffield and welcome back to The Standard Podcast. If you're new here, hit follow and give us a rating. For all the latest news, head to standard.co.uk. Coming up later in the show. From the spotlight of global pop superstardom to cutting-edge high fashion, what can viewers expect from Netflix's new Victoria Beckham documentary? There's a definite appetite for the Beckhams at the moment, but the thing is, is it going to be what people want? This was filmed quite some time ago. What people really want to know right now is what is the situation with the Beckhams and with Brooklyn and Nicola.

0:51But first, ABC has taken late night host Jimmy Kimmel off air indefinitely over comments he made about the shooting of right wing influencer Charlie Kirk. Jimmy Kimmel Live will be pre-empted indefinitely, a spokesperson for the Disney-owned network said in a statement. The veteran late-night comic had made several comments about the reaction to Kirk's assassination on his show on Monday and Tuesday nights, including that many in Magaland are working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk. Meanwhile, many in Magaland are working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk.

1:30Yesterday, J.D. Vance, who himself famously called Donald Trump America's Hitler, hosted the Charlie Kirk podcast from the White House, where he pointed his little mascara-stained finger directly at the left. While our side of the aisle certainly has its crazies, it is a statistical fact that most of the lunatics in American politics today are proud members of the far left. And by statistical fact, he means complete bullsh**. Kimmel appeared to suggest that Kirks' alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, might have been a pro-Trump Republican. Here's the moment that triggered him being taken off air. We had 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.

2:21U.S. President Donald Trump celebrated ABC's move, writing in a post on Truth Social, Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done The TV station operator Nextar Media Group called comments the comedian made Offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse Kirk was shot during an event on a Utah University campus on September 10th Tyler Robinson, aged 22, appeared in court on Tuesday facing charges of aggravated murder over the Conservative activist's death. Here's Ireland's Deputy Premier Simon Harris speaking about the assassination of Kirk last Thursday.

3:05Well, I think the killing of Charlie Kirk is appalling. It's horrifying. It's deeply disturbing. Two young children have been left without their dad. A wife has been left without her husband. and political violence is never acceptable and must always be condemned. But it sadly seems we're living in a world now where political violence, political threats, rhetoric around violence and extremism is almost contagious, contagious right across the globe, and it cannot be tolerated. It's very easy for people to condemn violence, political violence, threats of political violence when it's against somebody that they agree with.

3:47It's actually more important that it's condemned when that violence is carried out against somebody whom you may have different views. Kimmel's suspension has been met with outrage by free speech groups. You call it part of an effort by the Trump administration to stifle dissent. The two largest Hollywood unions, the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild, as well as several Democratic lawmakers have voiced support for Kimmel alongside celebrities such as Ben Stiller and Jamie Lee Curtis. And California Governor Gavin Newsom called the firing of commentators and cancelling of shows coordinated and dangerous.

4:27He went on to say that the Republican Party does not believe in free speech. They are censoring you in real time. Likewise, MSNBC political commentator Chris Hayes called it the most straightforward attack on free speech from state actors I've ever seen in my life. Joining us now is the entertainer and commentator Colin Seymour, who recently won a libel battle against the right-wing activist Lawrence Fox and performs as the drag artist Crystal. Colin, what's your response to Jimmy Kimmel's suspension? My immediate response is just one of incredible dismay and frustration. It really highlights the slide to authoritarianism that we are seeing in the US.

5:11I think that it highlights the hypocrisy that exists on the right about protecting free speech. It's just another kind of another blow to what I want society to be like. Do you think this will have a silencing effect on others who are critical of Trump's America? Trump claims to care about free speech, but we've seen him cracking down on free speech at law firms, cracking down on universities, using power to defund universities whose messaging he disagrees with. And now we're seeing it happen to entertainers and people in public spaces. I was reading a BBC article this morning that heavily implies that it was a Trump appointee at the FCC that kind of forced the axing of Kimmel.

5:50And it seems very plausible that it's a Trump agenda to effectively cancel anyone who disagrees with him. I'm so sick of hearing about council culture from the right when it's all they engage in. So did Kimmel's comments justify this action? Absolutely not. Free speech obviously has limits. I think it's really important to say that just because we have free speech doesn't mean we have freedom to incite violence or freedom to spout hate speech. As I know myself, it doesn't include defamation. You can't lie about people. You can't ruin their reputations. But what Jimmy Kimmel said, as far as I can tell, doesn't cross any of those lines.

6:22He disagreed strongly with the way the right are politicizing this man's death, which is something I totally agree with. And it doesn't cross any of those lines I've just mentioned. And it definitely shouldn't result in someone having their popular show canceled. I think it's very chilling, very distressing. It's the job of entertainers to shine a light on politicians, to hold them to account. Especially there's a tradition of late night talk show in the US, which is about pointing out the hypocrisy in government. And I'm sure Jimmy Kimmel has a long history of criticizing Democrats as well. I'm not here to defend Jimmy Kimmel in all of his stances.

6:56It's just very important that we have people in those positions who are able to say, look at what's going on here. Do you agree with it? Because I don't. I saw a clip from someone on Fox News the other week talking about how they wanted to reclaim the word Nazi. That's apparently appropriate as long as it's on a right wing broadcast station. The hypocrisy is so rife. And the more you look, the more you see. All I can say is it's very distressing. For listeners who aren't already aware, tell us a bit more about your own libel battle.

7:48with the people in power without suffering consequences. I haven't heard anyone on the right criticizing the arrests of the thousands of people who were arrested in London a couple of weeks ago just for holding a sign that says, I support Palestine action. That, to me, seems like a clear example of an attack on free speech and an attack on our liberty to express disagreement with the government. But we don't hear people talking about that. We just hear the right wing talk about free speech when it's their speech. It's important for them to protect their speech. They're not particularly interested in free speech.

8:18So how worried are you that the UK media landscape could emulate what we're witnessing in the US? I think the poisonous drip of the US definitely is having its reach here, but it doesn't seem to have gone so far. And thankfully, we don't have an authoritarian government in power, despite what I just said about the arrests of the Palestine action supporters. I'd say for the most part, we live in a society in the UK where you can boisterously voice your opinion. I am constantly, of course, frustrated by the media landscape in the UK, the way that a violent protest of right-wing people protesting immigration gets painted in the media versus a peaceful protest of people who are supporting Palestine.

8:55Of course, there's always issues with our media landscape. And I think it's really important to highlight that. I also do believe that I can come on a podcast, express my opinion, and I won't suffer any government-sponsored consequences. And Trump has opinions about free speech in the UK, doesn't he? Yeah, he certainly has. He implied that the UK is Orwellian in its overreach, which is just so galling when you watch what's happening in the US. It's just another example of someone saying one thing and doing another. And it's so frustrating. It's bewildering. And it's impossible to understand how anyone still falls for it.

9:27All he does is lie. Finally, is there anything else you want to add? The US is in a really troubling period. And I hope that they can get out of this one. I have a lot of friends in the US who I'm very concerned about. And I know people are talking about what are their red lines. And certainly one of the things that we've discussed is when they start arresting journalists, and we're maybe not quite there yet, but it seems to be edging closer. I don't know what the solution is for the US, but we just have to keep calling it out when we see it. Let's go to a break. Coming up in part two, the new Victoria Beckham documentary promises to paint a picture of a woman who has continually reinvented herself in the public eye.

10:08But will it address the family's public feud? We'll see you back here in just a moment.

10:19Welcome back. Now following the success of David Beckham's smash hit Netflix doc Beckham, his wife has decided to try her hand at a tell-all docuseries too. The three-part show will be released on October the 9th and here's a sneak peek from the trailer. Victoria! Smile! People thought I was that miserable cow that never smiled. But I do. Don't be shocked. I have never forgotten where I come from. Performing was my dream. The Spice Girls made me accept who I am. And then all of a sudden, it stopped.

11:05That uncool kid at school that's awkward, that was me. But I desperately wanted to be liked, have a sense of worth. Fashion was this creative outlet. The series comes from the same team behind her husband's Netflix docuseries and the director of Michelle Obama's Becoming. Victoria Beckham tells the story from her formative years and rise to unprecedented success with the Spice Girls through her high-profile relationship with football legend David and relentless work to establish herself within the cutthroat world of haute couture fashion. Joining us now is the standard celebrity correspondent, Tina Campbell.

11:45So, Tina, David's Netflix doc focused on the legend that was Golden Balls, but what can we expect from Victoria Beckham's documentary? The new documentary is going to be primarily focused on her fashion empire. But also there appears to be lots of nods to her Spice Girl roots. She says very clearly, I have not forgotten where I came from. So Spice Girl fans are not going to be disappointed. Now, the big question is, will she be honest? Will she address her fallout with her son, Brooklyn? Well, there was a kind of elephant in the room with the Beckham documentary in that he wouldn't speak so much about the Rebecca Luz incident.

12:20It was alluded to, but didn't outright go there. With this, we do get a glimpse of Brooklyn in the trailer. and it is set during her fashion show in Paris, which we do know that Brooklyn and Nicola Peltz's wife were both at. As to how honest she will be about her feelings, I don't know because I think if she can, she would very much like to mend that fence and if she speaks out, then that might make things worse. So tell us more about this family feud. The Beckham family have always been notoriously very close over the years. There's three boys and a girl and they have always featured on their parents' social media.

12:59They've always been out supporting them. However, when Brooklyn married Nicola Peltz, the actress, moved over to America, so he's now logistically not very close to his family and there have been a lot of reports that they fell out over the planning of the wedding and that Victoria and David don't really get on with Nicola. Was this documentary filmed before all this? The documentary appears to have been filmed just around the time where there were whispers that there were cracks in the relationship. Brooklyn and Nicola tied the knot in 2022, the April of that year, and Victoria's big fashion show was in the September.

13:35So Victoria having Nicola and Brooklyn there was seen as a massive move of solidarity for the family. They were trying to say, there's no feud here. It's all good. It's all fine. However, since then, things appear to have gotten worse. Cracks have appeared further. Brooklyn is said to not even really be in contact with his family. he doesn't acknowledge big public things like David being knighted, his 50th birthday. And the only one he has commented on has been his younger sister's birthday, who he's to be very close to still. Do you think this has damaged Bran Beckham? Certainly big concerns that this could damage Bran Beckham.

14:09However, I think that the documentary is hoping to send the message out very clear, no, we're still good. Obviously, David's documentary was a huge, huge success. And And Victoria came off very well in that. Victoria will be hoping that this will continue that. And also she's hoping it will show people a different light of her because she says very clearly in the promo, people think I'm a miserable cow and she can be seen cracking jokes with David. I think we're going to get to see a bit of a lighter side of her. And what about her fashion brand? What will we learn? A bit like how David spoke about in his documentary, he went through tough times following the World Cup incident.

14:45she talks about the moment she decided to step away from the Spice Girls and to really focus on fashion how people kind of laughed at her and she says it and you've even got Eva Longoria her friend in the promo talking about it people didn't think this was serious she was a pop star and the wife of a footballer she admits that there was a time when her fashion label was really struggling she said it was in the red x amount of billions that it owned she's in tears however she's definitely come out the other side and I think we're going to really get to see how she came from being that girl whose dad drove her to school in a Rolls Royce to the Spice Girls to what we all know her as today.

15:20Victoria is notoriously tight-lipped. How difficult do you think it was to get her to agree to something like this? I think probably because she was so involved with David's one and she saw how that played out and she got to be more comfortable talking in front of the camera. Maybe that was what encouraged her to finally give her take. People don't know that much about her really because she is very guarded and so I think it probably was very difficult for her to open up but it looks like we're going to see more of her she does find it hard to escape that stereotype people think she's too serious that she wants to sort of airbrush that she was in the Spice Girls but she's saying she's very proud of where she's come from any final thoughts Tina what I do think will be interesting is if we do I mean the other children do feature as well if we get to see more of that because each of them has tried to sort of carve their own path.

16:08Romeo in football and Cruise in music. And also we know that Harper is also looking to step out into more maybe the influencer model type area. So it would be interesting to see if we get to see more of them. When the Beckhams promoted the Beckham the first time around, Brooklyn and Nicola were at premiere. So it'll be interesting to see if they get involved this time around or if they show any kind of interest or support for it online. And also how much Brooklyn is actually featured.

16:40and that's the standard for all the latest news head to standard.co.uk if you'd like to get in touch please do drop us a line at podcasts at standard.co.uk we'll be back here tomorrow at 5 p.m we'll see you then