Editorial: Many of the celebrity supporters of Jimmy Kimmel seem to be inconsistent in their defence of free speech

​Hundreds of Hollywood stars are urging Americans to fight to “preserve our constitutionally protected rights” in the wake of the US talk show host Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension.

Stars including Robert De Niro, Ben Affleck, Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep, added their names to an open letter on Monday from the American Civil Liberties Union saying it is “a dark moment for freedom of speech”.

Last week after ABC suspended Kimmel’s show, after comments he made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

This newspaper strongly supports free speech, unless in limited cases such as incitement to hatred. We think that the suspension of Kimmel, a brilliant and witty broadcaster, an outrage.

The reaction of President Trump was crass. He said that “Jimmy Kimmel was fired because he had bad ratings more than anything else, and he said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk”. In fact while part of what Mr Kimmel said about the reaction to the revolting murder of Mr Kirk might have been clumsily worded, some of it was well within bounds of taste, let alone the wider boundaries of free speech.

Kimmel’s criticism of President Trump’s gauche comments, when Mr Trump was asked about how he was bearing up to the news of the murder and talked about the White House, was more than fair. And President Trump in turn was well within his own rights to attack Kimmel verbally, but should have had no influence in his suspension.

This newspaper celebrated its 288th birthday last week. Free speech has evolved since then. But as Graham Linehan complains in today’s News Letter (read the story here), many of the voices who have rushed to defend Mr Kimmel (rightly) have been silent in other assaults on free speech, such as the university campus cancellation of people with conservative views, such as criticising transgender orthodoxies.