Debate: If ending The Late Show wasn't about Trump, why's he celebrating?

[0:00] on night one of the colbert rapport back in the day i said anyone can read the news to you [0:05] i promise to feel the news at you and uh i realized pretty soon in this job that our job [0:12] over here was different we were here to feel the news with you and i don't know about you [0:17] but i sure have felt it the late show with stephen colbert went out on a literal high note last night [0:24] rating show it was the most watched weeknight episode of his 11-year run the series finale [0:30] was filled with celebrity guests like brian cranston ryan reynolds and the final guest paul mccartney [0:35] as well as colbert's late night counterparts colbert didn't mention president trump at all [0:42] which is notable given that fans and critics pointed to white house pressure for cbs's decision [0:47] to cancel the show the company insists it was only a financial move but the president has celebrated [0:54] colbert's exit in multiple posts online including this ai generated video he just posted depicting [1:02] himself tossing colbert into a dumpster on his stage and then dancing to the ymca trump also warned other [1:09] late night hosts of a similar fate calling this quote beginning of the end others of even less talent [1:17] to soon follow may they all rest in peace they lost money i mean i wish it part of me laughs like the [1:24] idea that like this got canceled because of trump no it got canceled because the dynamics of late [1:29] night tv have changed and you think that's it is significantly smart they weren't making money [1:33] on the most that's what you're saying but i just say this i know i i really do i really don't believe [1:38] that happens that you say is that you believe it the second thing is this you alienated half the [1:42] country every night because you're nasty to them now you're getting there and you lost half the audience [1:47] you needed leno and letterman yes were not angry mean liberal guys yelling at republicans [1:53] the truth will eventually come out of you i know there's an example we stopped watching this show [1:58] we stopped watching because it sucked go ahead part of the authoritarian ethos is that god shall not be [2:04] mocked and they often go after comedians they have to go after people who mock them and that is what trump [2:12] has done and he has encouraged the entire apparatus of the government to go after people who mock him [2:19] now are there uh financial concerns yeah you can stop for a second financial concerns the times have [2:27] changed all that may be true but you cannot divorce the fact that the president himself has been on a [2:34] rampage against these comedians because he wants them off the air and has said as much [2:40] the most illustrative and indicting example that this was a financial and creative decision rather [2:45] than a political one is that stephen colbert had a bunch of his late night buddies on to argue the [2:50] affirmative case for late night television not a single one of them used the word comedy in their [2:55] response seth meyers even said the purpose of late night tv is actually to impress and inform [3:01] foreign leaders like like what they've lost the plot that badly they haven't been funny in such a long [3:06] time you thought about saying it was like the daily show how did that prove your point about [3:09] money and when you lose half of america and also and they weren't funny and that's why they lost [3:15] a million viewers of stephen colbert's show in under 10 years because you didn't laugh they're not [3:20] funny no you can laugh at him you can laugh at him on wherever he shows up next but it ain't gonna be [3:25] on cbs a 40 drop in advertisement revenue you think that's insignificant no i'm just trying to [3:30] say you're saying that they're not funny that's not that's that's objective what does that even [3:35] mean johnny carson's never waiting to politics on that show 30 years okay okay [3:46] she's just saying that carson never waited to politics that is absolutely [3:51] absolutely i want to bring in one more element to this which is the fcc chair brendan carr and we [4:02] have a slew of headlines that just kind of give you a snapshot of of what the last year and a half has [4:08] has brought but they are this administration is aggressively going after television networks [4:16] and media organizations is that the appropriate thing no hard or are they all losing money it can [4:23] be both okay there's no question that that trump god shall not be mocked and he's got a henchman [4:29] who's willing to use the power of the government in ways that have not been done before as far [4:33] as 50 of the country watching any program doesn't happen anymore no when you but wait wait wait wait [4:37] wait wait wait well and greg that's a bigger audience the last point i want to make is it can [4:49] be both of course it's financial but colbert gave something that these older networks cannot buy and [4:56] that's virality okay was it in maga's uh socials no but it was everywhere else and and watch cbs try to [5:03] do that again he caught the wave of tomorrow's media and made no money but why do you think his [5:10] successor is explicitly apolitical the successor to stephen colbert's show is explicitly not a [5:16] political show why do you think that is he's not explicitly not who's running cbs [5:22] the internet is open and it is free the majority of guests on stephen colbert's show were democrats [5:27] that was the last time you had a non-republican when come on for a lack of an invite that's a [5:32] lot that is an absolute lie i work with ted cruz all the time he used to do all the shows [5:38] political comedy force for obviously more than just the late show but the daily show and colbert [5:44] rapport what's this departure mean uh it means a couple of things there's the cultural part of it [5:51] and there's the political part of it and then there's the part that where those two things meet [5:54] and you know sort of culturally you know colbert came up um you know as this kind of very edgy comedian [6:03] uh playing this character of this conservative media personality and interviewing people in persona [6:09] and then was given this perch and and i think um you know he kind of entered the pantheon as we know it [6:16] of these late night hosts that have been the narrators of our culture for a very very long time [6:22] and he oversaw its decline i think we can be honest about that um but that there's the political part [6:28] of that which is you know since paramount you know basically took over this franchise um there was a lot [6:37] of uh you know conjecture that this was politically motivated and i think what everyone has come to [6:45] understand in popular culture like whatever paramount does or doesn't say they deny it but popular culture [6:50] has now understood this to have been a political act to appease the president so that he would approve [6:55] the merger we've seen cbs move to the right under um the ellisons and so you know we see him as a victim [7:03] that is the way that he is now commonly understood in popular culture leaving aside partisanship you know [7:09] he is seen as a victim of this administration and of freedom of speech yeah and so we talked about [7:18] he talked about how political the show was now i guess that last night was the last uh uh episode what [7:25] does that say about where we are considering he was winning that slot with all the politics yeah [7:30] i mean part of living in a democracy is you should be able to be a comedian and criticize the federal [7:36] government and not feel like there's going to be repercussions from your boss right if you crack a [7:42] joke or two about the leaders in our country um that is part of living in a democracy and i think that [7:51] lulu brings up a great point they it is it opens up the question about what now happens at cbs and other [7:59] places while they say it was a financial decision i don't think that the americans trust that it actually [8:05] was and i think that cbs and paramount have a lot of work to do to gain the trust of the american [8:10] people given the recent actions that they have made you know on at cbs and so i do think that [8:18] if this was a decision that was based on politics there is a going to be a big conversation and i think [8:25] people are just going to see what else happens what else at any time that there is dissent where else [8:31] where who will be silenced because of this administration and we've seen that with brendan [8:35] carr in the fcc right this didn't come out of you know a vacuum this isn't speculative we're not just [8:39] imagining that this is what happened and when we saw brendan carr um the president others make explicit [8:45] explicit explicit threats