Activist Headquarters

Sent as an InMail via LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chad-conklin-3435ab167/

Dear Mr. Conklin,

I am deeply disturbed that Sinclair, and my ABC Station KOMO 4, is refusing to air Jimmy Kimmel Live. As the General Manager I urge you to do everything in your power to correct this terrible error in judgement.

Mr. Kimmel has been clear in his condemnation of the shooting of Charlie Kirk. Mr. Kimmel said nothing about the political ideology of Mr. Kirk's killer. He pointed out that people who self-identify as MAGA, which countless analysts agree is a reactionary right-wing ideology, had been fervently characterizing Mr. Kirk's shooter as someone from the left (that is, not one of them).

That is simply a fact. You know it. I don't have to offer examples from the thousands of quotes. The purpose -- the "political points" they score -- is also obvious: To demonize the left.

Mr. Kimmel rightfully made no assertions about the political ideology of the shooter because that ideology is not known. As Nathan Taylor Pemberton pointed out in his Sept 14, New York Times Guest Essay, Charlie Kirk's Killing and Our Poisonous Internet, "The only thing that can be said conclusively about Mr. Robinson, at this moment, is that he was a chronically online, white American male." And, as Elle Reeve, a highly regarded investigative journalist with expertise on social media's role in extremism warns us, "Be careful trying to decipher the true political beliefs of people wrapped in so many layers of irony they're not sure of their own true beliefs."

Mr. Kimmel has nothing to apologize for. Even if he had speculated about the ideology of Tyler Robinson, he would still have no reason to apologize. Such speculation crosses no “red line.”

If anything crosses a "red line" for a media entity that takes its responsibility to serve the public interest seriously, it is the extreme labels and calls to "crush," or otherwise do violence to Americans who peacefully make their opposition to Christian nationalism and MAGA ideology known. (Notably, according to a February 2025 survey from the Public Religion Research Institute, about two-thirds of Americans oppose Christian nationalism.)

On one side you have the reactionary right and Christian nationalists who support an executive branch determined to seize authoritarian power and demonize anyone who does not agree with them as "radicals." On the other side, you have people who treasure essential American values like self-governance, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, rule of law, and equal treatment under that law.

Sinclair cannot make both sides happy.

Sinclair can do the right thing, bring back Mr. Kimmel's show, and have the “MAGA gang” angry at them. Or they can do the wrong thing, keep his show off the air, and have people who believe in essential American values angry at them.

If Sinclair chooses the right course, and the FCC tries to make good on its abusive threats to pull the licenses of affiliates who air the show, I'm sure Sinclair's legal department has a motion to enjoin drafted and ready to file in anticipation of such an action. Given the vindictive actions of Trump's executive branch against media companies to date, if they aren't prepared, they are derelict to the point of gross negligence.

Yours in hopes that you do the right thing, serve the public interest in free speech, and serve KOMO’s viewers in the Puget Sound region by airing Jimmy Kimmel Live,

Patty

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