Why Colbert's “Late Show” Cancellation Portends Dark Days for Democracy
Authoritarian Lawfare Threatens to Destroy Free Speech & Journalism
With Stephen Colbert’s on-air announcement that CBS’s “The Late Show”—a 33-year staple—has been canceled and will not return to the air after next year, it’s hard to come to any other conclusion but that this is a repercussions of CBS/Paramount’s $16M settlement with Trump’s presidential library.
This all because CBS’s 60 Minutes aired two contrasting versions of a Kamala Harris interview, prompting Trump to sue for deceptive practices under Texas law. The subsequent $16 million has been described by critics as a “big fat bribe” paid by Paramount to secure approval for its Skydance merger.
Paramount also agreed to stricter editorial policies for its flagship publications.
We’re in a strange and disturbing new world of executive legal profiteering, monopolization, “lawfare,” and financial protection rackets the likes of which we’ve never seen in the modern era. Under Trump-appointed Chair Brendan Carr, the FCC has revived its “news distortion” rule to review the 60 Minutes Harris interview and retroactively enforce punitive measures.
This tying of editorial decisions to approvals for media mergers is only the latest salvo in what can be viewed as a cowardly and collaborative act of fascism in the truest sense of the word. The OG fascist, Benito Mussolini, said: “Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power.”
Elsewhere, ABC News paid $15 million, settling a defamation lawsuit with Disney after George Stephanopoulos erroneously stated Trump was found liable in the E. Jean Carroll case. Meta (Facebook) settled for $25M after Trump sued Zuckerberg, alleging bias in content moderation.
The targeting of media companies is only the tip of the iceberg. Trump signed executive orders pressuring large law firms, such as Kirkland & Ellis and Latham & Watkins, to avoid representing his critics under threat of government retaliation. He also revoked security clearances for all of the attorneys at Covington & Burling who were involved in the firm's representation of former special counsel Jack Smith.
More broadly, Trump’s vengeful “lawfare” strategy has included the weaponization of courts, regulatory agencies, and executive orders with a basic pattern repeating itself over and over: initiate meritless suits or regulatory reviews, then ruthlessly intimidate opponents into sweeping settlements.
Critics of the President’s methods, including legal watchdogs like Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), have called these moves “authoritarian.” While it’s impossible to foresee all the downstream effects of such a broadly enacted imperium against free speech and press freedoms, it’s nakedly deleterious for democracy.