As Jimmy Kimmel Becomes a Speech Icon, Alex Berenson Fights on Alone

An imperious talk show host won the love of Hollywood and the ACLU, but to stop government pressure on companies, speech defenders need to recognize Alex Berenson - Matt Taibbi
Lame-duck comic Stephen Colbert unironically announced “We are all Jimmy Kimmel,” and 400+ Hollywood celebrities signed an ACLU letter in Kimmel’s defense, with Senators like Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal citing an “unprecedented act of government censorship.”

• It wasn’t unprecedented...

Just like Jimmy Kimmel, former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson was “jawboned” off a public platform.

• He was identified by a combination of White House officials and pharmaceutical executives as a voice they wanted to remove from Twitter for criticism of Covid-19 vaccine.
• Also just like Kimmel, Berenson was actioned just after a high-profile government official made a televised complaint, in this case a July 16, 2021 appearance by Joe Biden.

Not that it matters, but while Kimmel was threatened for inaccuracy, Berenson’s problems stemmed from being too accurate about the mRNA Covid vaccines, about everything from studies showing surprising inefficacy to potential links to myocarditis that even Biden’s CDC eventually acknowledged.