Colbert, Trump, Epstein and the art of capitulation
July is shaping up to be a bend-the-knee month like no other, and that's quite an achievement given the record number of universities, law firms, TV networks and news outlets that have settled lawsuits, shuttered programs, curtailed coverage and perhaps even canceled a top-rated late-night show in the hopes of appeasing President Trump.
'The Daily Show's' Jon Stewart summed it up on the show Monday when the host who gave Colbert his start as a 'Daily Show' correspondent ripped into Paramount Global, CBS' parent company, for its announcement Friday that it was canceling 'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.'
Paramount is in the process of an acquisition by Skydance Media that will require approval from the Federal Communications Commission, run by FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, a Trump appointee. CBS said its choice was 'purely a financial decision.' Paramount recently paid Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit the president filed against '60 Minutes' for a Kamala Harris interview he said was 'deceitfully edited.'
Stewart pointed out that, yes, talk shows are a dying art, likening the format to a Blockbuster kiosk inside a Tower Records, but he defended what he and his fellow 'Daily Show' hosts and brethren like Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Meyers do on a nightly basis. 'Believe me, this is not a 'We speak truth to power.' We don't. We speak opinions to television cameras, but we try. We f—ing try every night. If you believe, as corporations or as networks, you can make yourselves so innocuous that you can serve a gruel so flavorless that you will never again be on the Boy King's radar … you are f—ing wrong.'
Stewart, whose show airs on Paramount-owned Comedy Central, proclaimed, 'I'm not giving in! I'm not going anywhere! … I think.'
L.A. Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong was Stewart's guest and announced that The Times would be going public over the next year. Stewart skirted questions about the role of the newspaper in an era where journalists and outlets are censoring their work under threat of repercussions from the White House and instead focused on his guest's cancer research, pharmaceutical knowledge and reason for getting into publishing.
Colbert also took on CBS' explanation for his firing on his show Monday night, saying, 'How can it purely be a financial decision if the show is No. 1 in the ratings? It's confusing. A lot of folks are asking that question, mainly my staff's parents and spouses.'
But no one person or body folded faster or in greater numbers over the last 24 hours than GOP House members. They've had plenty of practice, of course. Tuesday, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced that the GOP-controlled House was cutting short its final workweek before taking a month-long summer recess. The goal was to thwart an investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted sex offender, financier and former friend of Trump, and slow the bipartisan push for legislation that's aimed at forcing the release of more documents.
Johnson said he wanted to give the White House 'space' to release the Epstein information on its own. The Trump administration did release something Monday — 240,000 pages of records related to the FBI's surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr. before his 1968 assassination. Curiously, the information totally unrelated to Epstein didn't stop MAGA supporters, some congressional Republicans and Democrats who have seized the moment from demanding answers.
The Justice Department tried to quell some of the fervor when it announced Tuesday that Deputy Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche is set to meet with convicted Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell — at some point. Trump and his base have pushed accusations about the convicted sex offender, insisting the 'deep state' was protecting liberal elites that were Epstein's clients. Now the conspiracy has come home to roost, and Trump's usual scare tactics and legal maneuvering used to silence and destroy critics has not worked.
Recent reporting in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal provided more red meat for the feeding frenzy around Trump's involvement with Epstein and the women allegedly trafficked by the late convicted felon. The Journal reported that in 2003, Trump sent Epstein a birthday card for his 50th birthday, replete with doodles of women's breasts, pubic hair and clandestine wordage: 'May every day be another wonderful secret.'
Even against a powerful conspiracy theory, the Great Fold of 2025 may continue to protect whatever secrets lurk beneath the bad poetry.
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