The Media Research Center’s Alex Christy spent a July 15 post not liking Stephen Colbert’s take on Paramount’s bribe-y settlement with Donald Trump:
CBS’s Stephen Colbert returned from two weeks of vacation on Monday, sporting a new mustache and attacking his Paramount bosses for giving President Trump a “big, fat bribe” for settling his 60 Minutes lawsuit. The Late Show host would also continue his faux heroics by suggesting Skydance might pressure or even fire him if their merger with Paramount is approved.
Colbert began his phony shtick where he played the role of the little employee standing up to his corporate overlords by declaring, “And tonight, ladies and gentlemen, my mustache comes to you with a heavy heart because while I was on vacation, my parent corporation, Paramount, paid Donald Trump a $16 million settlement over his 60 Minutes lawsuit.”
He further decried the settlement “for a nuisance lawsuit Trump filed claiming that 60 Minutes deceptively edited their interview with then-candidate Kamala Harris last fall. Paramount knows they could have easily fought it because in their own words, ‘the lawsuit was completely without merit.’”
Of course, 60 Minutes did deceptively edit the interview, but nevertheless Colbert added, “Now, unlike the payoffs from ABC and Twitter, Paramount’s settlement did not include an apology. Instead—that’s good. Instead the corporation released a statement where they said, ‘You may take our money, but you will never take our dignity. You may, however, purchase our dignity for the low, low price of $16 million. We need the cash.’”
As we’ve noted, the interview was not deceptively edited — it fell withing standard TV practice, something the MRC refuses to admit. Christy then complained — but did not counter — that Colbert noted the settlement’s bribe-y nature:
Colbert then claimed the reason for the settlement is that Paramount wants to get on Trump’s good side, “Now, I believe this kind of complicated financial sentiment with a sitting government official has a technical meme in legal circles. It’s ‘Big, fat bribe’ because it all comes as Paramount’s owners are trying to get the Trump administration to approve the sale of our network to a new owner: Skydance.”
Christy got all huffy when Colbert argued that he could be fired for pointing this out:
It’s ironic that Colbert mentioned the ABC lawsuit. Despite the settlement, ABC’s news coverage remains unchanged, This Week anchor George Stephanopoulos remains employed, and Jimmy Kimmel is still telling a disproportionate amount of Trump jokes. Yet, Colbert still raised the possibility that Skydance would target him, “Some of the TV typers out there are blogging that once Skydance gets CBS, the new owners’ desire to please Trump could ‘put pressure on late-night host and frequent Trump critic Stephen Colbert.’ Okay, okay, but how are they going to put pressure on Stephen Colbert if they can’t find him? And even if they do, and even if they do, Mr. Stephen always has his scented oil business to fall back on.”
A lot of that discourse seems to be of clickbait from people who are trying to play into liberal fears of Trump using authoritarian tactics to shut down his critics. Colbert’s future may be in doubt given the uncertain future of the late night comedy talk show format, but the actual possibility that Colbert, by far the most watched late night host not named Greg Gutfeld, gets fired or isn’t re-signed after 2026 due to politics is highly unlikely.
Well, Colbert’s prediction came true, as Christy admitted two days later:
In a surprising move on Thursday, CBS announced that it will cancel The Late Show in May 2026. The show, which debuted in 1993 with host David Letterman, is currently hosted by Stephen Colbert.
CBS was quick to attempt to squash any rumors that the show’s cancellation had anything to do with Paramount’s possible merger with Skydance amid furor at CBS that the company settled in a recent lawsuit with President Trump in an attempt to, in their mind, bribe the president, “This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
Colbert’s contract was scheduled to expire in 2026.
The decision to cancel The Late Show comes after CBS cancelled After Midnight after a year and a half, as host Taylor Tomlinson decided a full-time career in stand-up was better than being tethered to a late-night TV show. Paramount’s other late night program, Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, also runs a tight budget, as it has not had a full-time host since 2022.
Christy offered no reason why anyone should trust at face value CBS’ explanation that Colbert’s firing had nothing to do with the lawsuit. He then whined that Colbert was not a docile right-winger like himself:
As for Colbert, he was a leading voice for America’s religious left. He would call conservatives bad Christians on spending cuts and immigration while championing abortion and so-called “gender-affirming care.”
He was the epitome of the downfall of late night comedy into what could be called late night clapter, where the applauding of conservative misfortunes replaced wit or cleverness. Under Colbert, The Late Show became an avenue for liberals to vent their frustration at conservatives through cathartic booing.
Colbert was the most likely of all the permanent late night hosts to bring on liberal guests. His show would have been a must-visit place for 2028 Democratic hopefuls. Even on this Thursday, Colbert is scheduled to have Sen. Adam Schiff on.
It should be noted that Christy, in his role as the MRC’s comedy cop, has never complained about the right-wing bias of Gutfeld.
Curist Houck rehashed Christy’s comedy-cop attack lines against Colbert in a July 18 post:
On Friday, it wasn’t that surprising CBS Mornings would be inconsolable over the “very sad” “kick in the stomach”Thursday night that parent company Paramount would be canceling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in May, the home for late-night group therapy for liberals. While CBS said they “love this man” and are in awe of him, NBC’s Today even joined in and celebrated his “signature political commentary.”
It’s a farce to act as though he has broad appeal and given the mountains of research compiled by our Alex Christy. For example, 82 percent of Colbert’s political jokes in 2024 targeted Republicans at 2,340 vs. only 479 to the left and 15 jokes about Fox News to a combined two about CNN and one about MSNBC. And for political guest, Colbert has cozied up to 29 liberals thus far in 2025 to zero on the right.
To give one last example for good measure, Christy found in February Colbert and his fellow nighttime lefties focused on Trump nine times more in his first four weeks as President in 2025 vs. the first four weeks of Biden in 2021.
Houck didn’t mention that Christy has refused to evaluate Gutfeld’s joke bias. Instead, he whined further that Colbert wasn’t a right-winger like himself:
NBC’s Today was crestfallen, starting with having three teases about a competing network. Co-host Craig Melvin and Carson Daly said in the first and third teases respectively they would take a look at Colbert’s “place in TV history.”
Entertainment correspondent Chloe Melas – who would admit she was a Colbert Report intern – conceded this was something “none of us expected, and it is pretty shocking news for late night fans, who were confused and angry about why CBS would pull the plug on such a popular show.”
There again, the disconnect between the left and the rest of the country as the former views Colbert as a unifying force and the place to be, rather than late-night group therapy for liberals where potshots at conservatives as ignoramuses are played for applause and laughter.
But doesn’t Gutfeld take regular potshots at liberals for applause and laughter? Houck doesn’t explain the double standard.
Jeffrey Lord spent his July 19 column lamenting that Colbert wasn’t another Johnny Carson:
Carson would never, -ever!- have gone down the road of making himself into a nightly political critic of a President – any President – knowing full well that perhaps as much as half of his audience had voted for his target. He just didn’t see it as his job to harangue a President he didn’t agree with – or cheer on a President he did agree with. Their foibles? Sure? But that was always done in a way that made his audience laugh uproariously. He could and did occasionally send a hilarious zinger a President’s way – and with a sly smile he made everyone on all sides laugh.
That wasn’t Colbert’s thing. Colbert was about carrying the flag for an unapologetic far left-wingism. And if his potential audience didn’t like it? In short? Tough.
Lord offered no evidence Colbert represented “far left-wingism.” He huffed further:
Good comedy, by definition, is about making people laugh. All kinds of people. In this case that would mean Trump supporters and Trump haters. It would get laughter from conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats, adults and coming of age late teenagers.
But that’s not what Colbert was about. And when that was understood, his audience of Americans staying up late enough looking for laughter and relief from a long working day either went elsewhere or simply turned off the TV.
Which, in turn, has now cost CBS a considerably pretty penny.
If you live inside the liberal CBS bubble or the liberal media bubble? Shocking.
If you live in the real world?
Not shocking. Not shocking at all.
Lord made no mention of Gutfeld and his lack of appeal outside the right-wing media bubble.