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At the end of the day, Stephen Colbert's job is to make people laugh.
And, night after night, finding new ways to criticize Donald Trump.
Now he's at war with his own network over an interview he was ordered not to do.
The spectacle of the number one late-night talk show host criticizing his corporate bosses is, well, pretty entertaining, but it also raises important questions about free speech and government pressure.
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Late night hosts Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel have found themselves at the center of overtly partisan discussions. (Getty Images)
Anyway, what is CBS going to do, fire him? The new owners, the Skydance billionaires who bought Paramount, had already decided to end “The Late Show” in May. That, in a sense, has freed the chain's biggest star.
The backstory is that the FCC has been making noise about ending the equal time rule exemption for daytime and late-night talk shows.
Under a plan proposed by President Brendan Carr, an appointee of President Trump, these shows, if they interview a candidate, should offer their opponents an equal block of time.
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But when Colbert recorded a largely sympathetic meeting with James Talarico, a Democratic state representative in Texas now running for Senate, the FCC didn't have to lift a finger. CBS took up the matter. Lawyers for the network even subpoenaed Colbert for consultations while taping Monday's show.
Colbert told viewers that these lawyers directly ordered him not to air the interview. By the way, this has been a political gift for Talarico, who is now promoting the meeting as the interview that Trump doesn't want you to see. It raised $2.5 million in the next 24 hours. She is running against another Democrat, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, in the primary.
Carr's argument is that shows like “Late Show,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and “The View” don't deserve to be treated like news shows, with their automatic same-time exemption, if they are too partisan.
Colbert has found himself at war with CBS over an interview with James Talarico, a Democrat running for the seat currently held by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. (Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images)
The problem for conservatives, who are understandably tired of all the attacks on Trump, is that a Democratic administration could use the precedent to crack down on right-wing programming.
Colbert told the audience that he had even been ordered not to talk about the canceled interview, and that's exactly what he did.
On Tuesday, CBS responded with a statement saying no, no, no, we never ordered our man Stephen to cancel the interview, we just informed him of legal options related to the equal time rule. Colbert didn't let it go, proclaiming Tuesday night that every script is pre-approved by legal beagles.
“Without even speaking to me, the corporation issued this press release, this statement,” Colbert said, holding the document up for the audience. “This is a surprisingly small piece of paper considering how many butts it's trying to cover.
“They know very well that every word of my script last night was approved by CBS lawyers, who, for the record, approve every script that goes to air.”
“For lawyers to publish this without even talking to me is really surprising. I don't even know what to do with this garbage,” he said, before throwing it into a bag to dispose of it like a week-old fish.
Colbert wasn't finished: “I'm so shocked that this giant global corporation can't stand up to these bullies.”
For what it's worth, you can watch the interview now posted on YouTube, which is out of reach of the FCC. It has already been viewed more than 5 million times, attracting much more attention than if the segment had aired on CBS as scheduled.
Meanwhile, Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns CNN and other cable outlets, agreed to resume talks with Skydance/CBS – which Trump would prefer – after reaching a deal to sell itself to Netflix. The implied threat of an antitrust investigation if Skydance gets the go-ahead casts a shadow over the process.
Carr, for his part, spoke to reporters at a press conference yesterday and called it a “hoax” that his agency had anything to do with CBS' decision. He described it as “a perfect summary of why the American people have more trust in gas station sushi than the national media.”
What's more, the president said: “I think you should feel a little ashamed for being lied to and then continuing with those lies. I think it was an embarrassing episode for the media.”
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Whatever Carr's influence or lack thereof, it played a role in last year's decision by Disney, ABC's parent company, to take Jimmy Kimmel off the air.
Kimmel made a mistake, after the murder of Charlie Kirk, by wrongly claiming that the murderer was part of the MAGA movement. Carr said this was a biased report and raised questions about the ABC's broadcast licence.
This made it seem, fair or not, that Disney was bowing to government pressure.
The move, as you may recall, turned out to be a big mistake. The reaction was so great that Kimmel returned to the air a week later.
But now Kimmel has crossed another line.
Meanwhile, Kimmel will host a fundraiser for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee next month. (Michael Le Brecht/Disney via Getty Images)
Next month he will host a fundraiser in Los Angeles for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Tickets for the event, which will feature Hakeem Jeffries and Nancy Pelosi, cost a minimum of $25,000. For those willing to pay more, tickets range from $44,000 for the “Leader's Circle” to $310,100 for the “Jeffries 300,” depending on the invitation.
Having played a small role in interviewing Trump about his feud with Jimmy, which escalated his rhetoric, I don't think ABC should allow this. Anyone who watches Kimmel's show for five minutes knows that he is openly anti-Trump.
But helping a political party raise a lot of money should be prohibited. Eliminate any defense against excessive partisanship.
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Fifteen years ago, MSNBC suspended popular host Keith Olbermann without pay after he acknowledged donating the maximum $2,400 to three Democrats running for office, one of whom was a guest on his show.
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But times have apparently changed, with more zeroes involved, ABC really needs to address this. And by the way, so should Jimmy Kimmel.
