After 10 years, CBS announced it was cancelling Stephen Colbert’s Late Show. This coincidentally came on the heels of his humorous excoriation of parent company Paramount’s $16 million deal with President Donald Trump over what the Republican claimed was bias in the editing of an interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. CBS journalists denied the allegation and legal experts said Trump’s claim was dead on arrival in court.
Colbert meanwhile referred to the payment as a “big fat bribe,” going on to imply that Paramount—led by Chair Shari Redstone—was paying off Trump in the hope he would green-light an $8 billion merger with SkyDance. (On Thursday evening, also the same day this episode was recorded, the FCC approved the deal). Given that Colbert had the best-rated show in its time slot, the move to cancel him was widely seen as a quid pro quo, driving yet another nail into the coffin of free expression. Add to that a GOP-controlled Congress taking back previously approved funding for public media (at Trump’s direction), and some see the end of a free press in America.
Or, less pessimistically, could it just be the end of outdated business models? This week on Everybody’s Business from Bloomberg Businessweek, Felix Gillette joins Max Chafkin and me to break down the Colbert firing. Gillette contends that, despite its ratings, Colbert’s show has been losing money since the pandemic and that it may have been cancelled in the near future anyway. He also points to the most recent episode of South Park, which tackles the issue of Colbert’s cancellation while taking aim at Trump. The creators of South Park just signed a $1.5 billion deal with Paramount (which owns Comedy Central). So maybe free expression is still alive and well, only it’s not so free anymore?
Then we take a look at the federal government. Max and Stacey talk with a former employee of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau about his experience getting fired by the “Department of Government Efficiency,” what he’s seen happen to the department since and some of the CFPB’s work that isn’t being done (and, in some cases, being undone). Also on this episode:
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Max and Stacey discuss the return of meme stocks: Kohls, GoPro, and Krispy Kreme are feeling the boost. Stacey gets reactions from Krispy Kreme customers.
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The underrated story of the week: Starbucks’ big plan for turning business around? Serving more coffee. Max takes issue.
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