Daring Fireball
★ Curse Not the King
https://daringfireball.net/2025/07/curse_not_the_king_cbs_colbert_trump
Curse Not the King

Why CBS’s cancellation of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” stinks to high hell.

Daring Fireball
Jul 18 at 11:34pmDF Tootbot
Show threadSouprMattJul 18

@daringfireball Regarding Jimmy Fallon: The value Conan O’Brien restored to The Tonight Show after Jay Leno’s disastrous run… Was completely obliterated by Fallon. He wouldn’t have even made the cut for a short stand-up routine on Carson’s version of the show.

If any late night show deserves to be flushed, it’s Fallon’s.

Show threadJamesonJul 18
@mls14 He’s apparently a very decent guy, and his writers come up with fun games for him to play with guests, but yeah, he exemplifies the opposite of everything you want from a late night host. Only Chevy Chase was arguably worse.
Show threadJamesonJul 18
@daringfireball I find it telling that it’s announced now but doesn’t take effect until May. At first, I assumed this related to contracts already in place—that it’d be too expensive to buy those out, and easier to let Colbert finish out the next TV season. But, as you mention, the cost has nothing to do with it. Perhaps instead they’re banking on the president’s famously non-existent attention span. Curry extra favor for the merger approval now, and when May rolls around, who knows what happens? Maybe they still torpedo their late night cash cow, maybe not.
Show threadAnton LeuskiJul 19
@daringfireball there used to be plenty of government-focused satire and criticism on Russian TV before Putin came to power. It was almost like Yeltzin didn’t care or didn’t care to intervene. And, Putin didn’t kill those shows, the owners did, slowly, over few years.
Show threadChris MackinJul 19
@daringfireball hey John, just a typo note. First paragraph after the first quote should be “breathe” instead of “breath”
Show threadEric JJul 19

@daringfireball it pains me to read a piece that is essentially about the contradictions inherit in corporate-owned media that fails to mention that this whole mess was created by the Telecommunications Deregulation Act of 96.

The Clinton administration is responsible for the modern media landscape, not the Right.

Show threadruffinJul 19

@Eric_Neue @daringfireball Was going to say something similar, more sweeping & less specific.

“with a normal US president (that is to say, not crooked)”

Point taken, but was the lesson from the parable about the fishes again?

We’re in a US where the quiet part is said out loud, but that part has always been here. We’ve spent the last thirty-five years slowly taking the mufflers off.

Slowly and then all at once.

Show threadswingerofbirchJul 19

@daringfireball Typo:

"which title sort of says it all"

probably meant "the title of which says it all"

Show threadZoran NešićJul 19
@daringfireball @gruber should this be "again"?
Show threadJohn GruberJul 19
@znesic Fixed both, thanks. (No need for “again” at all in footnote — “resurfaced” implies “again”.)
Show threadZoran NešićJul 19
@daringfireball @gruber one more, I think "be" is missing.
Show threadMartin the paranoid androidJul 19
@daringfireball @gruber again* #dftypo
Show threadJohn GruberJul 19
@DonSqueak Actually, no need for "again" at all. Thanks as ever.
Show threadMartin the paranoid androidJul 19
@daringfireball @gruber +be #dftypo
Show threadTed TodorovJul 19
@daringfireball “In 1969, CBS canceled the top-rated variety series “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.” While the network claimed that it was because of a contractual issue, most Americans saw it as a response to the show’s criticism of the Vietnam War
In 1982, amid controversy over the actor Ed Asner’s political activism, particularly his criticism of President Ronald Reagan’s policies in El Salvador, CBS canceled Mr. Asner’s show “Lou Grant.” The network cited declining ratings as a reason.”
Show threadTed TodorovJul 19

@daringfireball That was from a NY Times letter. As awful as Trump and those who keep trying to bribe him are — media folding for political reasons is nothing new. Is Trump genuinely worse than the Vietnam War, Nixon era was or the McCarthy era that preceded it? Only time will tell.

The first sign is whether Colbert ends up back on another streaming service or network by the end of next year or not

Show threadSeanJul 21
@TedTodorov @daringfireball yes he’s worse. Even if you just look at the Americans he’s killed during lockdown, with all the anti-vax stuff and removing aid from starving children in African countries.
Show threadJason Anthony GuyJul 19
@daringfireball @gruber Perhaps your best (non-tech) piece I've read in a while. 🫡
Show threadDelricJul 19
@daringfireball typo — we’re not drifting-into, we have full-on authoritarianism
Show threadZany NinjaJul 20

@daringfireball Ah yes, Colbert. While Israel was so courageously bombing Iran's nuclear facilities located in *checks notes* TV stations, prisons, and civilian population centers, Colbert was making fun of the fact that Iran's negotiators had been assassinated. And his audience burst out laughing when he said "They're all dead now!"...

Yeah, I won't be shedding a tear when he's gone...

Show threadZany NinjaJul 20

@daringfireball I used to be a fan of Colbert, he was a thorn in the side of the establishment with The Colbert Report. But now he's a tool of the establishment.

In the last couple of years, it's actually been kinda funny to see Colbert literally go 2 shades paler and his eyes open 2 inches wider whenever the Middle East is brought into the conversation...before he'd predictably nervously sputter the usual talking points, muddy the water, and defend the indefensible.

Show threadZany NinjaJul 20

@daringfireball For much of the world, the Democrats and Republicans have to date been the two cheeks of the same backside, especially in terms of America's often vile and disgusting foreign conquests.

And now we have seen Colbert is a team player. Principles and truth be damned.

Show threadZany NinjaJul 20

@daringfireball I take no pleasure in saying it, but Trump just might prove to be the kick up the backside America...needs? had coming? The US turning on itself like this might be an overdue reckoning for the breathtaking arrogant hypocrisy, perfidy, and corruption of the US political establishment. It might, hopefully, prove to be the trigger of the corrective the US needs. In the long run.

Fingers crossed.