After a nearly eleven year run, the final episode of CBS's The Late Show with Stephen Colbert aired this past Thursday, and despite reports that the show was losing ratings and $40 million per year, and was so far to the left that it had turned into the DNC Show, the left wing media has bought into Colbert's claim that his show was The Joy Machine, and they have blamed the show's demise on Donald Trump and censorship.
Friday on CNN's The Arena, there was no mention of the $40 million yearly loss. First up to give the left wing perspective was CNN's Lulu Garcia-Navarro.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: There's the cultural part of it, and there's the political part of it. And then there's the part that where those two things meet. Culturally.... he kind of entered the pantheon as we know it of these late night hosts that have been the narrators of our culture for a very, very long time. And he oversaw its decline. I think we can be honest about that.... Since Paramount, basically took over this franchise, there was a lot of, conjecture that this was politically motivated.... They deny it, but popular culture is now understood this to have been a political act to appease the President so that he would approve the merger.... We see him as a victim. That is the way that he is now commonly understood in popular culture. Leaving aside partisanship, he is seen as a victim of this administration and of freedom of speech.
Leaving aside partisanship? Really? Not a word about CBS losing $40 million a year or about the dwindling ratings, what would she call that? Next up was CNN's Xochitl Hinojosa, and it was more of the same.
HINOJOSA: Part of living in a democracy is you should be able to be a comedian and criticize the federal government and not feel like there's going to be repercussions from your boss. If you crack a joke or two about the leaders in our country, that is part of living in a democracy. ...While they say it was a financial decision, I don't think that the Americans trust that it actually was.
Minutes later over on Fox News's The Five, after playing several clips of the leftist media defending Colbert, Co-Host Emily Campagno turned to Gutfeld! regular Tyrus, and lamented that non of those in the clips mentioned the financial aspect of the firing. He had it covered.
TYRUS: When Colbert tells a joke on CBS, does anyone hear it? No. The show was terrible and he had horrible ratings. He lost $40 million a year.... His show was repugnant. He was repugnant. The whole thing the President can't take a joke...we make fun of him on a nightly basis on the Gutfeld show. Blame the people, blame the American people who didn't want to watch any more. It's the people's fault. Are you saying the people are in step with the President?
Oh the left would never say that, and that includes Jessica Tarlov, who Campagno asked, "Why is Colbert and his legion of fans, why do they continue to blame POTUS for this instead of blaming Colbert for destroying a 30-year legacy?" Tarlov was armed with multiple leftist talking points.
TARLOV: The reason that they are blaming Donald Trump is because Donald Trump and his FCC, Brendan Carr have been coming after networks where they don't like the coverage they are getting. They did this with Jimmy Kimmel and there were Republicans that had to come out and defend Jimmy Kimmel.... and one day the shoe will be on the other foot, hoping soon on that, and you don't want the left coming after the right in this way. CBS paid a settlement of $16 million for, quote unquote, selectively editing an episode.
And then, after acknowledging the huge financial losses associated with Colbert's show, she went on to make little sense.
TARLOV: Yes there is a money element, absolutely, you can't lose $40 million per year but when you look at someone like Anderson Cooper who signed off from 60 Minutes, tearful that he was leaving the job, you get the impression of all of his amazing jobs, maybe his most favorite except for New Year's Eve, you know something is rotten within CBS. and journalists who work there feel that they, under Bari Weiss, are doing favors for the administration.
You can't lose $40 million dollars a year, but? Someone should ask Tarlov, how much of a loss would it take for her to cancel her podcast?
