What Jimmy Kimmel suggested to be true --namely, that Charlie Kirk's assassin was MAGA--was false. Did he know when he said it that it was false? I don't know. Did he have reason to know it was false? Yes, but ideology warps people's heads. In any case, we should not want public officials pressuring companies to fire or discipline people for their First Amendment protected speech--even when it's false. It is simply too great a threat to civil liberty. Democrats and liberals are saying that now, but (with honorable exceptions) they have no credibility. When the shoe was on the other foot during the Biden years, they were not ardent free speech defenders. They did not raise their voices against government officers pressuring media outlets and platforms. Too often, they allowed themselves to become apologists for it. Shame on them. But their hypocrisy doesn't justify a complacent attitude today from any of us when government officials pressure media outlets on speech issues. Those of us who did defend First Amendment principles during the Biden years need to be no less outspoken in defending them today. We mustn't be hypocrites. It's bad when media disseminate falsehoods, but the way to fight back is by telling the truth--exercising our own free speech rights to condemn the lying and the liars. It's simply unsafe to trust government officials with the power to, in effect, regulate First Amendment protected speech. It is power too easily abused.