The Media Research Center’s schadenfreude over the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s show continued in an Aug. 2 column by Christian Toto:
The Legacy Media circled the wagons to tell us “The Late Show’s” cancellation was, in no particular order:
- The end of DemocracyTM
- The end of Free Speech
- The end of Speaking Truth to Power
- Proof of President Trump’s authoritarian impulses
Never mind that outlets kept talking to folks behind the scenes at CBS and couldn’t find a single fact to back the latter up.
Toto offered no reason it shouldn’t be assumed that the cancellation and the multimillion-dollar payment to Trump by CBS’ parent company to settle a lawsuit — and, even more likely, to ensure federal approval for a merger — shouldn’t be linked. Instead, he played the “late-night-hosts are too partisan” narrative, then huffed:
Blame the five stages of grief: Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and, now, acceptance. Plus, legacy media outlets know the average consumer knows Colbert and co. are deeply divisive, angry and one-sided.
(Even if they rarely label Colbert as “progressive” or “liberal”)
They’ve tried to hide those facts in the days following “The Late Show’s” cancellation. It failed, thanks in part to new media platforms sharing the actual truth.
That embarrassing Colbert protest may have shown reporters we’ve already moved on from the cancellation, even if they haven’t.
We don’t recall Toto ever complaining that Fox News late-night host Greg Gutfeld — an avowed right-winger — is too partisan.
Comedy cop Alex Christy got in a few more whines about Colbert before going on hiatus for the remainder of August:
- Colbert, Reich Smear Reagan As Making America Less Inclusive For Blacks, Women
- Colbert Lets Pritzker Dodge Question on Illinois Gerrymandering
- Colbert To Padilla: ‘Brutality And Cruelty’ Define Trump’s Immigration Policies
Christy also penned an Aug. 5 post going full comedy cop grousing that cancellation hasn’t made Colbert a pliant right-winger like himself:
It has now been over two weeks since CBS announced it was cancelling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in May 2026. However, Colbert has responded by doubling down on the same jokes and guests that made viewers (and advertising dollars) turn away in the first place. According to a new MRC study, Colbert’s political jokes targeted conservatives and Republicans 95 percent of the time, and 100 percent of his political guests were liberals in the two weeks since his cancellation.
In the eight episodes from July 21 through July 31, Colbert told 129 jokes about right-leaning individuals or groups compared to only seven about left-leaning people or groups. That 95-percent disparity is considerably higher than his 2023 number of 86 percent or 2024 number of 82 percent, but in the same vicinity as the Joe Biden-less 2025.
[…]Coming in at less than one joke a day, seven jokes about liberals is extremely low, but numbers do not tell the whole story. Some of Colbert’s jokes about liberals have been directed at his own liberal employer, hitting them from the left for agreeing to settle with Trump in his lawsuit. Although Colbert has never claimed he was canceled because of a corporate desire to appease Trump, he has quipped that Paramount forking over $36 million to Trump is close to the $40 million his show reportedly loses per year.
If CBS canceled Colbert to curry favor with Trump — an idea that has yet to be disproven — it can’t be a “liberal employer,” can it? Christy didn’t mention any of that.
Joseph Vaquez took the comedy-cop talking stick from Christy for an Aug. 9 post:
Lame duck comedian Stephen Colbert went on a tirade against President Donald Trump’s tariffs and heralded the supposedly impending doom of skyrocketing prices, and ended up beclowning himself in the process.
The disgruntled Late Show host snarked to his audience August 7, “I hope you remembered to set your clocks back to ‘more expensive,’” following Trump’s punitive tariffs on India for its continued purchase and resale of Russian oil and Brazil following a showdown with communist president Lula da Silva “over trade, energy, and the high-profile trial of former President Jair Bolsonaro,” according to Fox Business.
Vazquez then rehashed a joke Colbert made in 2022 about gas prices that :“I’m willing to pay $4 a gallon. Hell, I’ll pay $15 a gallon because I drive a Tesla.” As we pointed out the last time Vazquez took umbrage at this, he completely missed the joke — which makes him as effective a comedy cop as Christy.