Sinclair Broadcast Group says it’s “not enough” that ABC has pulled “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” off the air over the late-night host’s comments about the man charged with killing Charlie Kirk.

The Baltimore County-based media conglomerate, which owns TV stations across the country, called for Kimmel to make donations to Kirk’s family and to Turning Point USA, the young conservatives group he founded.

“Sinclair also calls upon Mr. Kimmel to issue a direct apology to the Kirk family,” Sinclair said in a statement that also notes the company will air a “special in remembrance of Charlie Kirk” on its ABC affiliates Friday night during Kimmel’s regular time slot.

Sinclair’s demands are the latest example of the broadcast group using its vast reach and influence to try to sway public opinion toward the beliefs of its executive chairman, David Smith.

Kirk, a 31-year-old activist and ally of President Donald Trump, was fatally shot during a public appearance at a Utah college Sept. 10. Kimmel discussed the shooting in one of his monologues this week.

“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said Monday night.

Utah prosecutors have charged Tyler Robinson, 22, with aggravated murder and said they will seek the death penalty.

Following Kirk’s death, partisan commenters have sought to assign a motive to the killing, which authorities are still investigating. Robinson’s mother told prosecutors that her son had shifted left and been more “pro-gay and trans rights.”

Brendan Carr, chair of the Federal Communications Commission, said on a right-wing podcast Wednesday that Kimmel’s comments appear “to be some of the sickest conduct possible.” Carr added “there are avenues here for the FCC.”

Carr was nominated by Trump to oversee the broadcast industry last year. At the time, Trump described Carr as “a warrior for Free Speech.”

Following Carr’s threatening comments, ABC late Wednesday suspended Kimmel. Sinclair then entered the fray with its statement Wednesday night.

Even if ABC decides to restore Kimmel’s program, Sinclair said, its affiliates will not air the show “until we are confident that appropriate steps have been taken to uphold the standards expected of a national broadcast platform.”

Sinclair began about 50 years ago in Baltimore with the WBFF Fox45 station. The company says it now owns, operates or provides services to 178 TV stations.

Smith, who also owns The Baltimore Sun, regularly uses his media holdings and personal wealth to champion causes important to him. Tax records show Smith has given $400,000 to Turning Point USA through a foundation he controls.

During last year’s elections, Smith backed an opponent of Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and funded a measure to shrink the City Council. (His efforts to boost Sheila Dixon and reduce the council size were unsuccessful.)

Also last year, Smith had to sit for a deposition after The Banner revealed he’d been secretly funding a lawsuit against city schools through a shell company.

In the past, Sinclair has required its local news stations to recite scripts or air segments at the direction of headquarters in Hunt Valley. That practice came under scrutiny in 2018 when Sinclair directed all of its anchors to read from a script warning against fake news and biased reporters.

The script’s lines included: “Some members of the media use their platforms to push their own personal bias” and “This is extremely dangerous to our democracy.”

Some of Smith’s companies have hired reporters with openly partisan pasts, leading to conflict with local Democrats.

Last week, Scott publicly admonished Sinclair reporter Gary Collins, whose work appears in The Sun and on Fox45 for asking “racist” questions about violence interruption workers.

Collins, according to an email from Collins that Scott shared on social media, insinuated that SafeStreets employees who wore blue were gang members.

“This is ridiculous, this is racist, this is dangerous and this is unacceptable,” Scott wrote online, calling Collins a “MAGA activist.”

Before working at Sinclair, Collins was a vice chairman of the Maryland Republican Party and a paid consultant for at least one Republican campaign, campaign finance records show.

Sinclair did not respond to a request for comment.

On Wednesday, as Sinclair sought more penalties for Kimmel and as Trump celebrated the show’s suspension as “Great News for America,” others accused the federal government of violating the right to free speech.

Rolling Stone described Kimmel’s monologue comments as “relatively innocuous.” The American Civil Liberties Union called the host’s suspension “beyond McCarthyism.” The Writers Guild of America said: “If free speech applied only to ideas we like, we needn’t have bothered to write it into the Constitution.”

Comedian Wanda Sykes had been scheduled to appear on Kimmel’s show Wednesday. Instead, she shared a video on social media in support of the host.

“So let’s see, [Trump] didn’t end the Ukraine war or solve Gaza within his first week — but he did end freedom of speech within his first year," she said.

WMAR, Baltimore’s ABC affiliate — which is not Sinclair-owned — stressed to its viewers Wednesday that Kimmel’s suspension was not a local decision.

“Please don’t call the newsroom and yell at us,” WMAR wrote on Facebook. “We are learning about this just as you are.”