The Media Research Center continued its dubious — but convenient to its agenda — narrative that Stephen Colbert didn’t get fired on President Trump’s demand in a May 17 post by Jorge Bonilla:
In an effort to cast Stephen Colbert as a martyr for free speech ahead of the imminent cancellation of The Late Show, NBC’s Sunday Today sought to cast the owner of CBS’s parent company as “a prominent Trump supporter.” Except that this isn’t true.
Watch as NBC entertainment correspondent Chloe Melas suggests that CBS is owned by MAGA, casts doubts on the financial rationale behind the cancellation of The Late Show, and then brings on a media critic to bolster her point of view:
[…]The idea of Ellison as “prominent Trump supporter” makes for good narrative ahead of Colbert’s cancellation. But it simply isn’t true. As our own Brent Baker noted, in 2024 Ellison donated $929,000 to the Biden Victory Fund. AS CNBC noted, this was “the largest recorded contribution that the Skydance Media CEO ever made to a federal candidate.” Not very MAGA. Also, not very accurate.
The Ellison MAGA rebrand is an important element in the ongoing canonization of late-night comics to Resistance™ sainthood. In Colbert’s particular case this narrative is useful inasmuch as it helps brush off the financial reality of the show as a key element of its cancellation.
Bonilla conveniently omits the fact that Ellison’s father, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, is a major Republican and Trump supporter, as well as the fact that Skydance has promised the Trump administration it would gut diversity, equity and inclusion policies and install an ombudsman to field complaints of ideological bias in CBS news coverage, in apparent attempts to appeal to Trump’s FCC to secure approval for its purchase of CBS. Still, Bonilla went on to whine: “Today is just the beginning. Expect more of the same, building to a vomitous crescendo ahead of Colbert’s CBS finale.”
For Colbert’s final week, Alex Christy was in full comedy-cop mode:
Stephen Colbert kicked off his final week of hosting The Late Show on CBS by looking back at some of the things that, for one reason or another, never aired. This included what the plan was to celebrate a Hillary Clinton victory in 2016, which Colbert revealed included naked male models.
While eating some steamed chicken, Colbert recalled, “So, why do we have all the stuff that never made it to air? A lot of reasons. For one, sometimes the world just doesn’t cooperate, like during the 2016 presidential election. We were doing a live special on Showtime, and no commercial breaks, and as the results started to come in, it became clear that we had planned for a different outcome.”
Putting up a blurred image of the doomed bit, Colbert continued, “We were so sure that The New York Times prediction needle was right, we hired a bunch of naked male models with the words ‘I’m with her’ painted on their full plump butts. Sadly, all of those models had to be put down, but first we tried to save the bit. And as the outcome became clear, we repainted their butts to say ‘We’re [bleep].’”
Ultimately, the bit died along with liberal hopes that night, “And between those two butt bits, this is totally true, our co-executive producer, Matt Lappin, was backstage screaming into his headset, ‘Scrub the butts!’ Right, Matt? Is that right?”
[…]Instead, Colbert was compelled to solemnly lament that his fellow citizens voted for “the asteroid.” It was a theme he would repeat eight years later in 2024 when he lamented that he was switching out his “I voted” sticker for a “I am questioning my fundamental belief in the goodness of humanity” one because voters, apparently, “don’t care that much about democracy.”
Ultimately, in 2016, Colbert ended up being the butt of the joke because he simply assumed his liberal bubble was reflective of the nation as a whole. It was a tendency that plagued The Late Show over the next 10 years as well.
How does that compare to the right-wing bubble Christy and his fellow MRCers live in? Christy doesn’t elaborate.
Christy ranted further in a May 20 post:
Not everything CBS’s Stephen Colbert does for The Late Show makes it to air. Some material is only revealed 10 years later, and some gets puts on YouTube. The latter was the case on Tuesday, as Colbert welcomed The Daily Show’s Monday host Jon Stewart to antepenultimate episode of the show. As the duo were discussing how Stewart is the last one standing at Paramount in terms of late night shows, Stewart made the incredulous assertion that Colbert’s politics are only a “minute portion” of his show and urged the audience to look forward to the joy they will have when “this putrid administration” ends.
Colbert began, “So you now, sir, as I leave, the CBS family, the Paramount Skydance family, you now are the only person in the corporation left in late night. Good luck. You are. There used to be more of us. Now it’s you—”
After Stewart interrupted to claim, “That’s chilling,” Colbert continued, “on Monday, this coming Monday, you’re going to be the only one in late night for the CBS Paramount Skydance Corporation, and I am happy for you.”
[…]Colbert’s politics simply aren’t a “minute portion” of the show. They are the main attraction, and even liberals know this which is why people other than Stewart are acting like they are losing a leader of The Resistance or that Colbert is a free speech martyr. The fact that The Daily Show is also a Paramount property and was promoting communism as recently as last week is just ignored.
Christy would not be complaining so vociferously about Colbert’s alleged politics if he toed the right-wing agenda Christy’s employer would prefer.