On Monday night, Jimmy Kimmel delivered an opening monologue on his talk show that addressed the online reaction to the arrest of Tyler Robinson, the primary suspect in the shooting of Charlie Kirk. “We hit some new lows over the weekend, with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” he said. His comment was aimed not at Kirk but at the maelstrom of news around Kirk’s death; it speaks ill not of the dead, but of “the MAGA gang.” Less than two days later, Kimmel’s program has been pulled off the air “indefinitely,” according to his network, ABC.

There have already been signs that President Donald Trump’s administration is intent on punishing perceived critics in the media, no matter what complaints about free speech might arise, but the chain of events that shut down Jimmy Kimmel Live feels particularly direct.