Colbert's show was no doubt killed as a reward to Trump

Make no mistake, Trump demanded Colbert's head as part of his outrageous Paramount shakedown. This is what fascism looks like.

Stephen Colbert announced to great surprise last night that CBS is canceling “The Late Show” next year.

And CBS is claiming that they killed the highest rated late night talk show, and one of the high points of CBS’s entire entertainment division, because of “financial reasons.”

Yes, as senators Adam Schiff, Elizabeth Warren and others have said, this stinks to holy hell.

Paramount, which owns CBS, settled with Trump in the asinine lawsuit he filed, claiming “60 Minutes” had edited an interview with Kamala Harris to make her look good, or whatever. Legal experts across the political spectrum agreed this case was easily beatable.

But Paramount’’s controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, had other interests, specifically Paramount’s multibillion dollar sale to SkyDance, which needs to be approved by the FCC, which is now controlled by a Trump-installed chairman, MAGA extremist Brendan Carr. Paramount agreed to pay Trump a whopping $16 million to settle the lawsuit. That was announced earlier in the week.

Colbert, possessing more dignity and integrity than Shari Redstone has ever had in her entire greedy life, took a shot at Paramount on his show that night, calling it a “big fat bribe.”

In what seems extraordinarily brazen, CBS announced just days later the show will go off the air in a matter of months.

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You’d think they’d wait a while just so the timing and the optics weren’t so obvious. But it’s quite possible that Trump demanded this announcement as part of his shakedown, even before Colbert criticized Paramount, since Colbert has been a relentless—and hilarious—critic of Trump’s, humiliating him over and over again. Or Trump demanded it this week after Colbert’s criticism, telling Paramount the “deal” was off unless they fired Colbert.

Whatever way it went down, Trump surely wanted this announced this week, the same week the settlement was announced, so that we all knew he did it. Giving Paramount cover to wait a few months and claim they have some new hot talent or whatever wasn’t something Trump was going to allow Paramount.

He wants all of us to know that he not only will use his power to control the media, but that anyone who speaks out against him will be taken down.

Trump bellowed on Truth Social, saying “I absolutely love” that Colbert got axxed, and made it clear he’s going after Jimmy Kimmel next.

Yes, this is what fascism looks like, playing out the way it has in history, authoritarian power grabs of media and a squelching of speech. It’s how Vladimir Putin in Russia and Victor Orban in Hungary do it today too.

Trump only succeeded, however, because Paramount caved, just like the law firms that caved, and just like Columbia University when it caved. And just like all of the other spineless politicians and corporate CEOs. Trump is only as powerful as these greedy and fearful bastards make him.

Now Trump is threatening Rupert Murdoch of all people with a lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal for its story revealing Trump’s really creepy birthday letter to Jeffrey Esptein years ago—complete with a Trump illustration of a naked woman—during the time Epstein was engaged in sex trafficking minors. Trump of course denies it all as “fake news.”

The rumors of this story have in fact been percolating for a while, as have rumors of the threats from Trump, who apparently called the editor of the WSJ before it was published to warn them not to publish it. But the paper went ahead.

Let’s not give Murdoch too much credit here. His Fox News has reported nothing on the bombshell WSJ story as of this morning, a story that is being covered by all of the media. Murdoch is all about making money, and Fox News makes money by cheerleading Trump and suppressing bad news about Trump.

The WSJ, conversely, makes money by competing with the establishment media like The New York Times, ABC, NBC, the Washington Post and others, and scooping them. They’re not going to pass on a story like this. Murdoch may know Trump for years and support much of his agenda, but, again, Murdoch is all about making money.

And actually, that’s something Paramount—with CBS—and the law firms that bowed to Trump should realize, if they haven’t already. Columbia University did not get Trump off it’s back, as its capitulation has eaten away at its reputation while Trump demands more. The law firms that bowed to Trump have now lost major clients and major talent among their attorneys. The law firms that stood up to Trump—and filed successful lawsuits against him—are getting new business because of it. And Harvard is being lauded for fighting Trump.

So, let’s all give a big “fuck you” to Paramount, which will only hurt CBS, it’s iconic “60 Minutes” and its other brands. Colbert, meanwhile, will soar even higher in whatever he does now.