NEWSLETTER: justice for Colbert

Plus a campaign ad from Kentucky.

By Jesse Valentine - July 28, 2025

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Television has always been a corporate enterprise, driven by profit and beholden to advertisers, but even within that system, news divisions and late night talk shows were given a free pass to question power and mock the powerful.

Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS, decided to undo both traditions in one swoop this month; first by paying Trump $16 million to settle an asinine lawsuit against 60 Minutes, and then by firing Late Show host (and Trump nemesis) Stephen Colbert.

At the same time, Paramount was seeking government approval for an $8 billion merger with Skydance—a deal that has now been approved and that Trump had the power to sink. Taken together, it’s led some to wonder: was the payout—and Colbert’s ouster—part of a bribe?

“This looks a lot, smells a lot, sounds a lot like you’re purchasing favors from the president of the United States,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren. “If those facts are proven, that sounds a lot like bribery, and even with Donald Trump as president, bribery is still illegal.”

Warren’s theory got help from Trump himself, who boasted in a Truth Social post that Skydance promised him $20 million in free advertising to sweeten the 60 Minutes settlement. It has also been reported that a condition of the merger requires Skydance to monitor CBS News for bias.

In a separate post, Trump gloated, “I’m so glad Colbert was fired!”

CBS says the firing was financial, and there’s probably some truth to that. Colbert averages about 2 million viewers a night—more than any of his competitors—but far fewer than the 7 million David Letterman drew in the ‘90s or the 15 million Johnny Carson had in the ‘80s. The rise of streaming has robbed the talk show of its cultural cachet and forced it into a permanent state of decline.

But none of this rules out the possibility that both the settlement and Colbert’s firing were, at best, intended to curry favor with Trump—or, at worst, carried out at his demand.

Like many stories in the Trump era, this one can be viewed in two ways: as a case of corruption that should be thoroughly investigated by Congress, and as a deeper, more troubling threat to our democracy.

Corporations have the right to hire and fire whomever they want—but by submitting to Trump, Paramount is choosing to undermine two important symbols of our First Amendment in the name of profits.

As the Epstein saga engulfs the White House and the news cycle, I suspect this story will continue to percolate. If Democrats retake Congress in 2026, don’t be surprised if Stephen Colbert is called to testify—setting the stage for what could be the most dramatic television event of Trump’s second term.

ICYMI

Former Gov. Roy Cooper and RNC Chairman Michael Whatley are both planning to run for North Carolina’s open U.S. Senate seat, setting the stage for one of next year’s marquee races.

Cooper won two terms as governor in 2016 and 2020—even as Donald Trump carried the state in both presidential elections. Cooper’s success has given Senate Democrats hope that he can win again and possibly help them retake the majority.

“If you asked any D.C. Democrat who their top choices would be for the party’s nomination in North Carolina, their number one, two, and three picks would be Roy Cooper,” Michael Bitzer, a political scientist at Catawba College, told WRAL.

WATCH AN AD

Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie has become an unexpected thorn in Trump’s side. He was one of only two House Republicans to vote against the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and, this week, worked with Democrats to push for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Now, Trump’s super PAC is running ads urging voters to “fire Massie” in favor of a more MAGA-friendly challenger. The only problem is that Massie is no moderate. His issue with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act was that its $1 trillion cut to Medicaid wasn’t big enough—and Massie’s district is solidly red.

This creates a fascinating dynamic: Will voters punish Massie for disloyalty to Trump, or stick with him for standing by the principles many MAGA supporters now feel Trump has abandoned? Ads like this could play a major role in determining the outcome. Check it out!