The Media Research Center’s gleeful coverage of the CBS’ cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s late-night show continued with a July 24 post by Mark Finkelstein engaging in speculation about a completely different host:
With Stephen Colbert canceled, and Morning Joe in perilous straits as MSNBC is discarded by its parent company, could Joe Scarborough be making a pitch for a late-night gig?
The question arises in light of Scarborough’s antics and bell-ringing stunt this morning, bringing to mind a late-night host’s desperate bid for laughs.
Scarborough went on a rant against Tulsi Gabbard’s White House briefing room appearance in which she laid out accusations against Obama in connection with Russian-collusion conspiracy claims about the 2016 election.
During vaudeville days, a judge would ring a bell to remove failed acts from the stage.
Claiming that Gabbard’s performance fell below even the supposedly low expectations that had been set for her, Scarborough twice rang a bell [see screencap], and promised there’d be many more bell ringings throughout the show.
[…]Since Joe has decided to go vaudeville in an apparent attempt to appeal to the late-night-show suits, here’s a thought. Before turning to movies and television, Groucho Marx was a famed vaudevillian. A regular feature of his “You Bet Your Life” TV show was to have a duck clutching a $50 bill descend from the rafters if the contestant said the Secret Word. Scarborough could do the same. Surefire suggestion for the first Secret Word: “Fascism!”
Comedy cop Alex Christy — who was probably the happiest about Colbert’s cancellation — groused in a post the same day:
Actress Sandra Oh put Stephen Colbert in a tough spot on Monday when she became the first guest to appear on The Late Show after CBS decided to pull the plug. As Oh wished that a plague would descend upon CBS and its parent company, Paramount, Colbert had to look right into the camera and insist that he did not share such views.
Oh did not even wait for Colbert to ask a question, “Stephen, can I just start by saying something that I feel like probably everyone here and everyone who is so supportive outside wants to say, which is that I am so sorry and saddened and properly outraged for the cancellation of late night here.”
A raucous applause from the audience later, Oh tried to turn Colbert into a free speech martyr, “And not only for yourself and for this entire family who are here but for what it means, of what it means where we are in our culture, and what it means for free speech. So, I just want to say sorry, and also if I can have your hand.”
As she held Colbert by the hand, she continued, “To CBS and Paramount, a plague on both of your houses.”
Through some nervous laughter, Colbert addressed his bosses, “I’m very grateful. I think you’ve been great partners.”
Almost certainly alluding to President Trump, Oh added, “And also, a pox on all those that they serve.”
Christy further grumbled by trusting CBS’ evidence-free claim about the show’s alleged revenue shortfall:
Colbert’s response indicates that he knows The Late Show is ending for financial reasons, just as CBS said. The Late Show was reportedly losing the network $40 million per year, and there was no reasonable expectation that was going to significantly improve in the near future because his average viewer is 68 years old.
Christy again took refuge in CBS’ evidence-free revenue claim in a July 25 post:
The Daily Show’s Michael Kosta proved two things on the Monday edition of his Tennis Anyone podcast, so named because in his previous life, Kosta was a professional tennis player. First, apparently everybody has a podcast, but more importantly, the late night shows have an oversized view of their own self-importance, as Kosta demanded CBS take a loss on Stephen Colbert’s show because he is needed to “call the bullshit out” and that by canceling him, CBS is kowtowing to President Trump and his habit of acting like “authoritarian leaders.”
Kosta was not happy with CBS’s justification for the cancelation, “Do you know how much bullshit CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox put outs that loses money? That all loses money. Every once in a while something doesn’t. Flip through Netflix, look through all those thumbnails, 90 percent lose money.”
He then claimed that CBS didn’t even try to save the show, “If this was a financial decision and it was important to you. And this is the thing: it might have been a financial decision that wasn’t important to you, but if this was a financial decision and it was important to you, you would cut back costs, you would tell Stephen, ‘Here’s what we gotta do. Your show’s important to us,’ and you would accept less profit or even breaking even or even losing a little bit of money because it’s important.”
TV is not a streaming library where one popular movie or show can carry the whole platform. There is only one thing on CBS at 11:30 p.m. However, Kosta then claimed Colbert provides a public service of such importance, CBS should accept the losses that come with it, “It’s important to have people and shows that call the bullshit out. And he called the bullshit out. And the problem is the bullshit canceled the show.”
Christy went on to complain that Kosta argued CBS “must be trying to appease Trump” by canceling Colbert’s show, again taking refuge in CBS’ unproven numbers: “If Kosta thinks CBS should’ve simply cut costs to run a smaller loss, that’s his opinion, but it is a fact that democracy will survive without The Late Show and that cancelling it fits a recent pattern of behavior for CBS that predates the lawsuit with Trump.”
The MRC also published a July 25 column by Larry Elder, who dutifully repeated CBS’ evidence-free numbers and insistence that the cancellation had nothing at all to do with its parent company’s desire to seek federal approval for a merger, then insisted that he was canceled because younger voters are getting their information elsewhere and repeating the MRC lament that there were too many liberal guests.
Nicholas Fondacaro used a July 28 post to cheer CBS taking an alleged covert shot at Colbert:
After weathering a week of blistering heat from the rest of the liberal media following the announcement that The Late Show and host Stephen Colbert were being kicked to the curb, CBS seemed to respond in the form of a love letter to Johnny Carson and reminiscing about what late night used to look like. CBS News Sunday Morning put together a piece remarking on how Carson brought people “peace,” “hope,” and laughter at the end of the day instead of being a divisive political silo.
[…]That didn’t sound like the bitter, angry rantings and lectures of the likes of Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel Americans had to deal with today. Instead, those post-show conversations were divided between those who were the target of the hate-fueled ‘jokes’ and those who reveled in the nastiness.
[…]Colbert had several months until his show was slated to be tossed into the dustbin of history. Maybe CBS was trying to give him (and everyone for that matter) a roadmap to what they expected to turn things around.
This covert-slam argument would seem to undercut the MRC’s argument that CBS’ never-proven numbers should be trusted as the cause for cancellation. Did Fondacaro mean to do that?