BREAKING: CBS ERASED COLBERT ON HIS FINAL DAY
CBS News had all morning and all evening to say goodbye to Stephen Colbert.
It did not do it.
On the final day of The Late Show, a CBS franchise launched with David Letterman in 1993 and built inside the Ed Sullivan Theater, CBS Mornings devoted its spotlight to the Survivor finale. CBS Evening News found time to salute CBS News Radio, another victim of the modern media age.
But Colbert got silence.
Not a tribute. Not a farewell. Not even the basic acknowledgment owed to one of the network’s signature stars.
That was not an oversight. That was a message.
Colbert criticized Paramount’s settlement with Donald Trump, a case that never should have been rewarded with millions of dollars. Days later, CBS announced The Late Show was done. Not handed to another host. Not retooled. Done.
Now the franchise CBS built to compete with NBC, back when networks still acted like competition and independence mattered, is being pulled off the air and replaced by canned comedy that reportedly avoids politics.
Billionaire David Ellison got his merger. Paramount paid Trump. Bari Weiss is now reshaping CBS News into Fox News lite. And on Colbert’s final day, CBS News acted like he had already been scrubbed from the building.
I worked at a CBS affiliate, WBNS in Columbus, Ohio, back when there was pride in those three letters. CBS News meant something. Scott Pelley carried that tradition with dignity during my time. Before him, Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite helped define what broadcast journalism could be.
CBS just lost the most popular late night show of the era.
Trump is not hiding his glee. On the day Colbert leaves, the president of the United States is teasing that he has a “message” for him later. More retribution may be coming as Trump creates a $1.7 billion slush fund for those who tried to keep him in power illegally.
This is bad for viewers, bad for comedy, bad for journalism, and bad for the country. CBS did not just lose Colbert. It lost another piece of its credibility.