I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the Jimmy Kimmel situation is neither cancel culture nor a free speech/first ammendment issue
What we're seeing is partisans sticking to their team
Let me explain
First, cancel culture
Many say this is an example of right-wing cancel culture and some on the right agree
However, almost every case of cancel culture I've seen has involved people getting fired for opinions they stated outside of their workplace. Kimmel clearly was making these statements as a representative of his show, brand, and network
People getting fired for saying offensive things at work has been around forever and has always been separate from cancel cutlure
We have seen cancel culture from the right recently. People getting fired for celebrating Charlie Kirk's death on their own time would be an example of cancel culture
You may agree or disagree with cancel culture, but the Kimmel situation is not that
Free speech
I find it strange that people are framing this as a free speech issue. You have never been able to go on the public air waves and say anything covered by the first ammendment with impunity
The FCC has regularly investigated and fined shows for what they broadcast
Had Jimmy
1. Used uncensored profanity
2. Uttered racial or sexual slurs
3. Aired pornographic material
4. Showed gore and excessive violence
Would everyone be upset that the FCC cracked down on him?
I doubt it. And yet, these are all covered under the first ammendment
Which is more harmful? Dropping an f-bomb on TV or lying about the motivations of Charlie Kirk's shooter?
Now maybe he was misinformed, however, there was no information suggesting what he said was true and plenty of official information contradicting his statement at the time of broadcast. It also appears he has refused to apologize for his inaccurate comments
Now maybe you want to argue the FCC should not police speech and everything covered by the first ammendment should be allowed on the air, but that would be quite the novel argument
What it comes down to is, people who don't like him are happy this is happening and his supports are unhappy
Each will find their reasons to justify their positions, however, cancel culture and free speech ain't it