Time Promotes Protesters Saying ABC, Jimmy Kimmel Promoted 'Genocide' with Chinese Debt Joke

Proving there's never too small a protest to be newsworthy to the Left, Katy Steinmetz of Time magazine reported "On Monday, protesters marched through the streets of San Francisco carrying pictures funnyman Jimmy Kimmel's face - with a Hitler mustache drawn above his lip and a swastika by his side. More than 100 people, largely Asian Americans, were still fuming about a skit that aired on Kimmel's late-night show earlier this month."

Kimmel and ABC were apologizing for a shutdown-mocking skit that aired on October 16, in which Kimmel sat down with school kids to talk politics. When asked what should be done about America's debts to China, a boy replied that one solution might be to "kill everyone in China." (The video can be seen here.) Kimmel chuckled and said, "That's an interesting idea." He jokingly asked a follow-up: "Should we allow the Chinese to live?"

“We have a sense of humor,” the march’s leader Carl Chan said in a speech outside ABC headquarters. “But not at the expense of killing all Chinese.” Emphasizing that “kids will be kids,” many protesters argued that the problem was not the child’s comment but that Kimmel seemed to condone the idea and did not challenge it. Protest signs connected the skit to violence in the news. One alleged that ABC and Kimmel “teach kids killing today” and there’s “a school shooting tomorrow.” [Emphasis mine.]

The line also wasn't funny to the Asian-American group 80-20, though, which complained to the network. That's a "nonpartisan" PAC that gleefully endorsed Obama in 2008: "Save this signed Obama letter to show your grandchildren for your part in Asian Am. history." [Emphasis theirs.]

In response to 80-20, ABC put out the following statement: "We offer our sincere apology. We would never purposefully broadcast anything to upset the Chinese community, Asian community, anyone of Chinese descent or any community at large. Our objective is to entertain. We took swift action to minimize the distribution of the skit by removing it from all public platforms available to us and editing it out of any future airings of the show."

But Time's protesters carried signs saying "Fire Jimmy Kimmel for Promoting Genocide," and more:

The boisterous group in San Francisco chanted, "Fire Jimmy Kimmel," "Boycott ABC" and "No more racial hatred." Through megaphones, they demanded a more elaborate apology and that an ABC representative come receive letters of protest. Many had organized through social media and in response to news on Chinese radio shows. "Today's hate speech," shouted Chan, an Oakland, Calif., resident who works in real estate, "becomes tomorrow's hate crime." When no one emerged from the building, Chan started another chant: "We will be back," he said, echoed by the crowd. "Today is only the beginning."