Movies

Commentary: Colbert, Trump, Epstein and the art of capitulation

BBG News

As a passionate cinephile, here’s a potential title for an upcoming film, book, or TV series set in the scorching summer of 2025: “The Season I Mastered Surrender.

July appears to be a remarkable month, unprecedentedly significant, considering the high number of universities, legal firms, television networks, and news outlets that have resolved lawsuits, discontinued programs, scaled back coverage, and possibly even terminated popular late-night shows in an attempt to placate President Trump.

On “The Daily Show”, Jon Stewart expressed his thoughts on the matter during Monday’s episode. As the host who initially nurtured Colbert as a “Daily Show” contributor, he took aim at Paramount Global, the company that owns CBS, following their announcement on Friday regarding the cancellation of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.

Skydance Media’s proposed acquisition of Paramount is pending approval by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), headed by FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, who was appointed during the Trump administration. CBS stated that their decision was purely based on financial considerations. Notably, Paramount recently paid 16 million dollars to settle a lawsuit filed by former President Trump over an allegedly misleading edit in a Kamala Harris interview on “60 Minutes”.

Television

Stephen Colbert delivers a meaningful response following President Trump’s praise for CBS’s decision to conclude ‘The Late Show.’ Fellow late-night personalities Jon Stewart, John Oliver, among others, offer their support to Colbert.

Stewart emphasized that talk shows, indeed, seem to be declining in popularity, drawing an analogy between the format and a Blockbuster video rental kiosk within a Tower Records store. However, he defended himself and other hosts of shows like “The Daily Show,” Jimmy Kimmel, and Seth Meyers, stating that they strive each night to express opinions on television, even though they don’t claim to speak truth to power. He passionately asserted, “If you think you can become so inoffensive that you won’t ever be noticed again by the powers-that-be … you are mistaken.

Stewart, who appears on Comedy Central (a channel owned by Paramount), declared, “I won’t yield! I’m not leaving! … I believe that’s the case.

As a devoted cinephile, I recently had the pleasure of hosting Patrick Soon-Shiong, proprietor of the L.A. Times, on my show. During our conversation, he revealed that the Times is planning to go public within the next year. Instead of delving into the newspaper’s role in today’s climate where journalists and media outlets are self-censoring due to potential backlash from the White House, I chose to focus on Mr. Soon-Shiong’s groundbreaking cancer research, his profound pharmaceutical insights, and the motivations behind his foray into publishing.

On his program Monday evening, Colbert challenged CBS’s reasoning behind his termination, remarking, “It seems hard to attribute this move solely to financial reasons when the show is leading in ratings. It’s perplexing. Many people, particularly the family members of my team, are asking that very question.

Voices

Commentary: Stephen Colbert’s ‘Late Show’ is canceled, but he won’t go quietly into that goodnight

On Thursday, CBS disclosed that ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ is scheduled to conclude in the year 2026. Notably, this decision seems to align with Paramount’s current efforts to be acquired by Skydance Media.

In the last 24 hours, it’s been no one but GOP House members who have adjourned their work early or in greater numbers than others. Given their past experiences, this was certainly a familiar move. On Tuesday, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) declared that the Republican-led House would end its final week of work ahead of schedule before going on a month-long summer break. The intention was to prevent an inquiry into Jeffrey Epstein, the deceased sex offender and financier, who was once linked with Trump, and to delay the bipartisan effort for legislation that aims to make public more documents.

I, following Johnson’s statement, recognized his desire to let the White House handle the release of the Epstein-related information at its own pace. Interestingly, on Monday, the Trump administration did disclose something unanticipated – 240,000 pages of records detailing the FBI’s surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr. prior to his assassination in 1968. Despite this being completely irrelevant to the Epstein case, MAGA supporters and certain members of Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, have seized the opportunity to demand explanations.

The Department of Justice aimed to calm some excitement when they revealed on Tuesday that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche will eventually have a meeting with convicted associate of Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell. Trump and his supporters have been vocal about accusations against the convicted sex offender, claiming that the “deep state” was shielding liberal elites who were Epstein’s clients. However, these conspiracy theories seem to have come back to haunt them, as Trump’s typical methods of instilling fear and manipulating legal procedures to silence critics have proven ineffective this time around.

More recently, articles in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have fueled ongoing speculation about Trump’s connection to Jeffrey Epstein and the women who were trafficked by him. According to The Journal, in 2003, Trump sent a birthday card to Epstein for his 50th birthday that contained sketches of women’s bodies, including breasts, pubic hair, and cryptic messages: “May every day be another delightful secret.

Despite robust speculation surrounding it, the enigmatic Great Fold of 2025 might persistently conceal the hidden mysteries that lie embedded in its layers, even beneath poor verses.

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2025-07-23 04:01

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