UPDATE, Friday, Sept. 26, at 12:21 p.m.:

A couple dozen protesters, give or take, have gathered outside KAEF-TV’s Eureka studio to picket in opposition to Sinclair’s decision to prevent “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” from airing on its affiliate stations. 

When Outpost reporter Andrew Goff reported to a few of the protesters that Sinclair has relented and will allow Kimmel’s show to return to its stations starting tonight, they were generally pleased, he said.

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UPDATE, Friday, Sept. 26, at 11:38 a.m.:

Sinclair announced this morning that it will resume airing “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on its affiliate stations starting tonight.

The company’s statement reads, in part:

Over the last week, we have received thoughtful feedback from viewers, advertisers, and community leaders representing a wide range of perspectives. We have also witnessed troubling acts of violence, including the despicable incident of a shooting at an ABC affiliate station in Sacramento. These events underscore why responsible broadcasting matters and why respectful dialogue between differing voices remains so important.

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Original post:

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An armed security guard has been hired to stand outside local ABC affiliate KAEF-TV’s Eureka studio amid concerns of political violence as the station’s parent corporation, Sinclair Broadcast Group, continues to boycott “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

ABC’s parent corporation, Disney, set off a national uproar over free speech last week when it acquiesced to pressure from Donald Trump’s administration by suspending Kimmel, ostensibly over comments he made about the political response to Charlie Kirk’s assassination. 

Kimmel returned to ABC airwaves on Tuesday, but the nation’s two largest owners of local ABC stations — Nexstar and Sinclair — have refused to air the program, setting off another wave of First Amendment concerns both nationally and locally. 

Andrew Killmer, a sales assistant for KAEF, told the Outpost this afternoon that Sinclair has hired security for all of its local affiliates in response to an incident in Sacramento on Friday when a man opened fire into the lobby of an ABC affiliate. 

“It’s a corporate thing,” Killmer said of the decision to hire security guards. “It’s kind of a blanket thing that they’re doing for all of the Sinclair stations during this [time].”

The group Humboldt Democracy Connections is planning a “popup protest” tomorrow at noon outside KAEF’s studio. 

“Their local censorship is detrimental to America’s protection of free speech,” the group says in an email announcing the protest. “Comedians should have the right to criticize our leaders without interference from corporations that lease our public airwaves.”

Other local activists, meanwhile, are encouraging a boycott of businesses that advertise on KAEF. 

Killmer said he’d been answering phones all day and explaining that local employees have nothing to do with the Kimmel ban. 

“It’s all corporate decisions,” he said, “and [people] can and should, you know, protest what’s going on. … Everybody has their personal politics, you know. When people call, I’m trying to make them feel heard.”

Killmer also noted that many individual employees within the corporate structure share the views and beliefs of outraged viewers, but when he receives their angry calls he has a phone number at his disposal to send their complaints “up to corporate.”

Incidentally, the guard who’s been hired to stand outside KAEF’s studio, Christofer Berg, mentioned that he also works for Lear Asset Management. He’s one of four men charged with battery and false imprisonment after dragging a woman out of a town hall meeting in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, in February. He and the other defendants pleaded not guilty.

As seen in video of the incident, Berg and his cohorts were dressed in dark pants and black tactical shirts with no indication that they were security guards. They were later identified as employees of Lear, a private security firm with a history of raiding California weed farms.

Berg told the Outpost that he feels a responsibility to be a servant through his security work. He also voiced frustration about security guards being misrepresented in the media. 

KAEF-TV is considered a “semi-satellite” of Redding-based KRCR-TV. Sinclair Broadcast Group owns or operates 193 stations across the country in more than 100 markets, covering 40 percent of American households.