This isn\u2019t a joke. They\u2019ve made that clear.<\/p>\n
\n
CBS \u201cLate Show\u201d host Stephen Colbert condemned parent company Paramount Global\u2019s\u00a0settlement of President Donald Trump\u2019s lawsuit\u00a0over a \u201c60 Minutes\u201d story as a \u201cbig fat bribe\u201d during his first show back from a vacation.<\/p>\n
Colbert followed \u201cThe Daily Show\u201d host Jon Stewart\u2019s attack of the deal one week earlier. Stewart works for Comedy Central, also owned by Paramount, making the two comics the most visible internal critics of the $16 million settlement that was announced on July 1.<\/p>\n
Colbert\u2019s \u201cbribe\u201d reference was to the pending sale of Paramount to Skydance Media, which needs Trump administration approval. Critics of the deal that ended Trump\u2019s lawsuit over the newsmagazine\u2019s editing of its interview last fall with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris suggested it was primarily to clear a hurdle to that sale.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am offended,\u201d Colbert said in his monologue Monday night. \u201cI don\u2019t know if anything \u2014 anything \u2014 will repair my trust in this company. But, just taking a stab at it, I\u2019d say $16 million would help.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the technical name in legal circles for the deal was \u201cbig fat bribe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jon Stewart terms it \u2018shameful\u2019<\/h2>\n
Stewart began discussing the \u201cshameful settlement\u201d on his show a week earlier when he was \u201cinterrupted\u201d by a fake Arby\u2019s ad on the screen. \u201cThat\u2019s why it was so wrong,\u201d he said upon his \u201creturn.\u201d<\/p>\n
He discussed the deal in greater detail with the show\u2019s guest, retired \u201c60 Minutes\u201d correspondent Steve Kroft, making his views clear through a series of leading questions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would assume internally, this is devastating to the people who work in a place that pride themselves on contextual, good journalism?\u201d Stewart asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cDevastating is a good word,\u201d Kroft replied.<\/p>\n
A handful of media reports in the past two weeks have speculated that Skydance boss David Ellison might try to curry favor with Trump by eliminating the comics\u2019 jobs if the sale is approved. A representative for Ellison did not immediately return a message for comment on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
It would be easier to get rid of Stewart, since he works one night a week at a network that no longer produces much original content. Colbert is the ratings leader in late-night broadcast television, however, and is a relentless Trump critic.<\/p>\n
The antipathy is mutual. Trump called Colbert \u201ca complete and total loser\u201d in a Truth Social post last fall, suggesting CBS was wasting its money on him. \u201cHE IS VERY BORING,\u201d Trump wrote.<\/p>\n
Colbert slips in a quip<\/h2>\n
Colbert alluded to reports about his job security in his monologue, pointing to the mustache he grew during his vacation. \u201cOK, OK, but how are they going to put pressure on Stephen Colbert, if they can\u2019t find him?\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n
Colbert and Stewart both earned Emmy nominations this week for outstanding talk series. Together with ABC\u2019s Jimmy Kimmel, all three nominees are tough on Trump.<\/p>\n
CBS News journalists have largely been quiet publicly since the settlement\u2019s announcement. Two top executives, CBS News CEO Wendy McMahon and \u201c60 Minutes\u201d executive producer Bill Owens, both\u00a0quit or were forced out<\/a>\u00a0prior to the settlement for making their dissatisfaction about the idea known internally.<\/p>\nReporting about the settlement on the day it was announced, \u201cCBS Evening News\u201d anchor John Dickerson said viewers would have to decide on their own what it meant to them.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan you hold power to account after paying it millions?\u201d Dickerson asked. \u201cCan an audience trust you when it thinks you\u2019ve traded away that trust? The audience will decide that. Our job is to show up to honor what we witness on behalf of the people.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This isn\u2019t a joke. They\u2019ve made that clear. CBS \u201cLate Show\u201d host Stephen Colbert condemned parent company Paramount Global\u2019s\u00a0settlement of President Donald Trump\u2019s lawsuit\u00a0over a \u201c60 Minutes\u201d story as a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":718,"featured_media":5274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[485,6559,659,2540,6561,2255,925,6562,2560,1260,1185,6560,30],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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