Administration Finally Responds To A Petition… About Something A Child Said On The Jimmy Kimmel Show

Too Much Free Time

from the wow-such-power-to-the-people dept

As we just noted, the administration has put a wide variety of We the People petitions on the back burner with the average wait for a response currently sitting at 298 days. This includes one of the petitions to first hit the signature threshold back in 2011. While we’re still waiting for the government to address the labeling of GMO foods, the dismissal of charges against Ed Snowden and allowing Tesla to sell vehicles in all 50 states, the administration has stepped up to declare it won’t be removing Jimmy Kimmel from the airwaves.

Confused? Here’s the petition in all of its clumsily-worded glory.

Investigate Jimmy Kimmel Kid’s Table Government Shutdown Show on ABC Network

I was very disturbed by Jimmy Kimmel’s ‘Kids Table’ show. It was aired on ABC recently and talked about killing all the Chinese so that the states do not need to pay back their debts to China. The kids might not know anything better. However, Jimmy Kimmel and ABC’s management are adults. They had a choice not to air this racist program, which promotes racial hatred. The program is totally unacceptable and it must be cut. A sincere apology must be issued. It is extremely distasteful and this is the same rhetoric used in Nazi Germany against Jewish people. Please immediately cut the show and issue a formal apology.

A single quote from a single child was construed by this petitioner as being indicative of Jimmy Kimmel and ABC’s inherent racist attitudes and the petition itself achieved full Godwin in less than seven sentences. It also instructed to government to trample the First Amendment by removing Kimmel’s show from the air and apologize on its behalf. Lost in the shuffle is the title’s request for an investigation, but apparently just killing the show without checking anything out would also be acceptable.

The administration has responded, pointing out that both parties have already apologized and that instructing ABC to remove the show would be a gross misuse of government power. It then invites the 100,000+ troubled petitioners to contact the FCC, presumably because their use of the We the People site shows they don’t mind being ignored by government agencies.

This particular petition isn’t even that old. It was created on October 19 and its deadline for a response would have been a month later. Less than 90 days from creation to response. That’s some sort of land speed record for the Administration of the People, whose approach to open government is long on talk and short on action. And of the limited actions, it’s most famous creation is the We the People site, which serves to remind users just how ineffective it is to petition the government directly. If nothing else, lobbyists can point to the ~300-day wait time (and the often-ineffectual, long-delayed responses) as an indication of the worth of their services. Not exactly the sort of message the administration should be sending.

Filed Under: jimmy kimmel, petitions, responsive, transparency, we the people