Stephen Colbert’s firing is a test of free expression
The White House Correspondents Association s annual dinner is one of the majority of cringe institutions in Washington D C Fatuously known as Nerd Prom the event with its red carpets and celebrity guests is a relic of a time when the press and the political establishment could pretend the country wasn t descending rapidly into total dysfunction By with the country mired in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and Americans souring on President George W Bush the ceremony had already outlived its dubious rationale But the time was ripe for an epic roast of establishment journalism and politics Enter Stephen Colbert The comedian was already establishing himself as one of the master parodists of our time On his nightly Comedy Central show The Colbert Analysis he had perfected the character of a right-wing pundit modeled on then-Fox News star Bill O Reilly that skewered Republicans the conservative press and the Bush administration At that year s WHCA dinner appearing in the guise of his alter ego Colbert did it right to their faces While it caused a stir with several commentary suggesting he had perhaps gone too far nobody sued anyone or had a society tantrum Colbert s political satire remained just as sharp especially when Donald Trump came on the political scene that same year Trump who is not known to have a sense of humor certainly not about himself would not have been amused Colbert would eventually shed his conservative character when he took over CBS s The Late Show after David Letterman retired in But his political satire remained just as sharp especially when Donald Trump came on the political scene that same year Trump who is not known to have a sense of humor certainly not about himself would not have been amused As host of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert the comedian has been fruitful receiving critical praise and leading the plan to regularly becoming the top-rated late-night show outpacing his younger rivals Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel albeit against the backdrop of what Reuters termed late-night TV s fade-out Once an enduring ritual for TV viewers the format has struggled for years as audiences have switched from cable to streaming services and looked online for their entertainment This past week Colbert was fired by Paramount the parent company of CBS in the wake of its million settlement of Trump s lawsuit against the company The suit accused CBS s Minutes of editing an October interview with then-Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris to the candidate s benefit As the campaign was following conventional journalistic practices no one expected Trump to prevail But as has been widely pointed out Paramount Chairwoman Shari Redstone is selling CBS to Skydance Media in an billion merger that will require governmental approval by the Federal Communications Commission Colbert had blasted the company for the settlement on Late Night a move that must have infuriated Redstone Soon after Paramount informed Colbert s firing and that CBS would be ending The Late Show altogether insisting the move was purely a financial decision having nothing to do with the settlement which no one believes Related The cruel joke of CBS ousting Stephen Colbert It s hard to know which would be worse If Trump demanded that Colbert be fired and they agreed to do it or if they fired him as a little gesture of good will to please the president Either way it s horrific But it s also par for the program these days as one institution after another caves to the preponderance serious threat to free speech since the Red Scare of the s For his part Colbert has not gone quietly With months left on his contract he has apparently decided to make the bulk of his time On Monday night s show he responded to Trump who had written in an ecstatic Truth Social post I absolutely love that Colbert got fired His talent was even less than his ratings After quoting Trump Colbert looked at the camera in mock indignation How dare you sir Would an untalented man be able to compose the following satirical witticism As an on-screen frame appeared that announced Eloquence Cam Colbert advised Trump Go f k yourself The late-night host also recruited Lin-Manuel Miranda and Weird Al Yankovic to parody Coldplay s now-infamous kiss cam As Miranda Yankovic and the in-house band performed Coldplay s hit Viva La Vida with Weird Al on accordion the studio s cameras panned the audience and detected a variety of couples who were there to stand in solidarity with Colbert his late-night competitors Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen Jon Stewart and John Oliver and Adam Sandler and Christopher McDonald It would be easy to shrug all this off it s only a comedian losing a job Big deal But as MSNBC s Chris Hayes put it in a post on X Not really an overstatement to say that the test of a free society is whether or not comedians can make fun of the country s leader on TV without repercussions Want more sharp takes on politics Sign up for our free newsletter Standing Room Only written by Amanda Marcotte now also a weekly show on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts Of their settlement with Trump Paramount issued a report saying the agreement does not include PSAs or anything related to PSAs But Skydance didn t comment fueling speculation that this side deal may have come from their side The New York Post and Fox News both disclosed that the company is happy to set aside time in backing of conservative causes in the future If that s true Skydance has agreed to become a full-fledged propaganda arm of the Trump administration which may seem somewhat quaint considering that Fox News already fills that role But such a decision would take conservative media to a whole new level following the playbook of the modern authoritarian states like Hungary and Russia No one is safe not even the right-wing media Last week Trump filed a billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal s publisher Dow Jones and its parent company News Corp which also owns Fox News over the newspaper s decision to publish a story alleging Trump had once sent his one-time friend Jeffrey Epstein a bawdy birthday card Chairman Rupert Murdoch was apparently unmoved by entreaties from Trump and Vice President J D Vance to spike the story before its publication Vance reportedly traveled to Montana last week to meet with Murdoch in person So far the paper has stood by its story But it remains to be seen if Murdoch too will find a way to settle and make Trump feel like a big winner That seems to be how this works But it s still startling to realize that Trump s paeans to free speech and all those of the pro-Trump free speech warriors who called for the fainting couch over the Biden administration s requests that the social media companies monitor COVID disinformation are now absolutely forgotten We need your help to stay independent Subscribe in contemporary times to assistance Salon s progressive journalism These aren t the only examples of Trump and his henchmen cracking down on free expression They are arresting and detaining people based upon their writings in learner newspapers They are demanding that private institutions like universities corporations and law firms ban any discussion of diversity and inclusion or face losing vital funding and civil rights lawsuits from the Department of Justice In what was seen as a bid to distract the media and the American society from the roiling conflict over the department s decision to not release the Epstein files Trump even threatened to pull advocacy for a new football stadium in Washington D C unless the club reinstates the racist Redskins name The president seems to be engaging in blackmail pure and simple With numerous of our institutions caving to his threats to block their ability to do business and refusing to defend their own freedoms it looks like it will be up to comedians to fight the power Read more about this topic Trump celebrates The Late Show cancellation hopes for more late-night turmoil Too corporate to fight for a free press MAGA s narrative warfare gets all mixed up by Rupert Murdoch The post Stephen Colbert s firing is a test of free expression appeared first on Salon com
