Democrats condemn CBS for axing Colbert show: ‘People deserve to know if this is politically motivated'
Senator Adam Schiff, a California Democrat who appeared as a guest on Colbert's show on Thursday night, later wrote on social media: 'If Paramount and CBS ended the Late Show for political reasons, the public deserves to know. And deserves better.'
In early July, Paramount settled a 'frivolous' lawsuit with Trump over the president's claim that CBS News deceptively edited an interview with then presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Paramount is also seeking approval from the US Federal Communications Commission for an $8.4bn merger with Skydance Media. On Monday, Colbert called the settlement 'a big fat bribe'.
Colbert's firing would not be the first potentially spurred by a dispute with the president. In February, after MSNBC fired host Joy Reid, Trump celebrated her show's cancellation. Reid, a Black woman, had been a vocal critic of Trump and spoke frankly about the Black Lives Matter movement and war in Gaza. And in December, ABC News agreed to settle a defamation lawsuit Trump filed against the network and anchor George Stephanopoulos with a $15m payment to a Trump foundation and museum, as well as paying $1m in the president's legal fees.
The Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, who has called for an investigation into Paramount's relationship with Trump over the Skydance merger, wrote: 'CBS canceled Colbert's show just THREE DAYS after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount.'
Skydance is owned by David Ellison, the son of a close Trump ally, Larry Ellison.
Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington also posted on social media, writing: 'People deserve to know if this is a politically motivated attack on free speech.'
Bernie Sanders, the independent Vermont senator, echoed similar concerns. 'CBS's billionaire owners pay Trump $16 million to settle a bogus lawsuit while trying to sell the network to Skydance,' he wrote. 'Stephen Colbert, an extraordinary talent and the most popular late night host, slams the deal. Days later, he's fired. Do I think this is a coincidence? NO.'
CBS announced it would retire the Late Show after Colbert's contract ends in May, cutting short a 33-year run that began when David Letterman launched the show in 1993. The show received an Emmy nomination earlier in the week for talk series.
A number of celebrities also voiced their frustration with the cancellation, including concerns that it may have been politically motivated. In a social media post the actor John Cusack wrote: 'He's not groveling enough to American fascism – Larry Ellison needs his tax cuts – doesn't need comedians reminding people they are not cattle.'
In a joint statement, Paramount and CBS executives wrote that the cancellation was 'purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night'.
They said they considered 'Stephen Colbert irreplaceable' and that the show's cancellation 'is not related in any way to the show's performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount'.
Writing on his own social media platform, Trump celebrated the show's cancellation: 'I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert! Greg Gutfeld is better than all of them combined, including the Moron on NBC who ruined the once great Tonight Show.'
Trump has called for the network to fire Colbert since September 2024, when the host called the president 'boring' during an interview with PBS NewsHour.
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The Independent
2 minutes ago
- The Independent
Memory cafes at the National Comedy Center ignite laughter and connection for dementia patients
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The Guardian
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- The Guardian
From Gaza to Ukraine, peace always seems just out of reach – and the reason isn't only political
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'Blessed are the peacemakers,' said Saint Matthew, but today, impartial mediators are in wickedly short supply. Surely everyone agrees: murdering and massacring innocents is morally indefensible. So why on earth is it allowed to continue? This same question is shouted out loud by grief-stricken parents in Rafah, Kyiv and Darfur, by UN relief workers, in pulpits, pubs and parliaments, in street protests and at Glastonbury. Why? WHY? The curse of moral relativism provides a clue. The fact is, not everyone does agree. What is absolutely morally indefensible to one group of people is relatively permissible or justifiable to another. This has held true throughout human history. Yet today's geopolitically and economically divided world is also ethically and morally fractured to a possibly unparalleled degree. Agreed, observed standards – what the American writer David Brooks terms a 'permanent moral order' – are lacking. 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Daily Mail
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