Politically Incorrect, which eventually led to the show getting cancelled.
The comments:
"We have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, not cowardly."
The response:
-There was a sizable public outcry from people who felt he was victim-blaming and/or calling soldiers cowards
-The show lost sponsors.
-Some ACB affiliates dropped the show.
-The White House Press Secretary said "people have to watch what they say and watch what they do."
-Maher apologized.
The outcome:
In June, 2002, nine months later, ABC cancelled Politically Incorrect.
I can already see people saying what happened to Kimmel is the same as various people getting fired for saying things, but this is a close proximity -- even the same network, Disney-owned -- and Maher lost his job after nearly a year had passed and the show had not recovered from the incident. They decided his show was now a liability and they cancelled it.
On the episode that is being pointed to, Kimmel said nothing about Kirk as a person, nothing about the shooter and only really criticized Trump for showing a lack of concern for Charlie by playing a clip of him being asked about Charlie and saying that he was fine -- and then immediately talking about the new White House Ballroom.
Then he said that Trump was in the 4th stage of grief -- construction.
"This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend. This is how a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish."
Instead of the public outcry, a reaction from sponsors and affilates dropping the show, the FCC threatened the network and the show was halted immediately.
I don't think anyone here needs any of this pointed out to them, really. I just thought it was interesting to revisit the facts of Maher and see how different they are, because I know people are already trying to say this is the same thing as Roseanne being fired for making racist comments. It has far more in common with Maher -- but you can see how it's also completely different from what happened to Maher.
