Everyone’s favorite (or least favorite) late-night talk show host, Jimmy Kimmel, recently found himself in some hot water after being suspended by ABC for his comments surrounding the death of Charlie Kirk earlier this month. Kimmel’s remarks were aimed at the reaction to the identity of Kirk’s killer. Kimmel stated, “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.”

This, among various other reports of people being either fired or suspended from their jobs around the country, has raised the question of free speech.

Freedom of speech is ‌part of the First Amendment of the American Constitution, and one of the principles that the country was founded on. Freedom of speech is the idea that the government should never interfere with or impose a law that stops someone from speaking their mind. For better or for worse, the Constitution states that everyone has the right to their opinions and has the right to voice them.

Now, there’s obviously a time and place for things; you can be tasteful in how you voice your opinions, and of course, people are going to disagree with you sometimes. Criticizing politicians has been something the media has done for years, from “South Park” and “Family Guy” and making fun of presidents during SNL skits about current events. Satire and comedy have always been used as tools of criticism by the media.

Love Kimmel or hate him, he was just doing something that’s been done as long as I can remember: using his voice and his platform to try to hold the government and political speakers accountable. You don’t have to like what he’s doing or what he’s saying, but having the network interfere and suspend him discourages free speech in an enormous way. I personally think it’s a little unfair to offer the benefits of free speech only to those with whom we might agree.

While Kimmel has now returned to host his show, this situation presents us with an interesting new reality. While the government didn’t step in and demand that Kimmel be suspended, ABC almost certainly felt pressured and worried about potential consequences. There might be plenty of other people who end up out of a job for exercising their right to free speech. So that begs the question, where do we draw the line when it comes to free speech? I think either we let everyone have a voice, or we risk no one having a voice at all. But you can argue that hate speech is protected under the First Amendment, and there is plenty of harm that can come from people’s words.

There’s probably no right answer to this question, but Kimmel had a very insightful remark in his first show back. Kimmel said, “This show is not important. What’s important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this.”