Yes, Private Employers Can Violate Your Free Speech Rights
In response to Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension, Republicans are arguing that an employer has every right to fire employees for speech it doesn’t like. This is a deeply impoverished idea of basic democratic rights like freedom of speech.
The argument that private employers cannot pose a threat to freedom of speech merely because they are not state actors has always been bad news for anyone on the Left. (Michael Buckner / Variety / Penske Media via Getty Images)
I hate to be that guy on the Left, but I’m going to be that guy on the Left.
One of the arguments Republicans are making tonight about the firing of Jimmy Kimmel is that while they’re unhappy and uncomfortable with the head of the FCC’s threatening to pull ABC’s license, they’d be absolutely fine if the network simply made its own decision, sans government pressure, to fire Kimmel.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said to NBC, “Well, my preference would always be to let the companies make economic market decisions.” Senator Mike Rounds, Republican from South Dakota, said, “I understand that right now it’s an employer-employee issue, and that’s the way I would approach it.” As if there were any doubt about what would bring them all together, Senator Lisa Murkowski explained that “I do think it was very unusual for the head of the agency to issue what seemed to be very challenging comments,” but Kimmel’s statements were “out of bounds” and networks, like all private employers, can fire whomever they want to fire.
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