Freedom of the Press

After several more serious pieces, I had already determined in my mind to write something "lighter" for my next blog.  In fact, while having lunch today with faithful blog reader and good friend Justin McGill, I told him I was going to do just that.

Well, I have changed my mind.

Events over the past 24 hours have made me rethink things.  Having this forum to express my opinions on church, state, baseball, travel, etc., CBS firing of Stephen Colbert yesterday has raised my ire, and to be honest, I am furious about it.

Let me say this first, before I dive into what has me so upset.  I am a 100 pct. believer in freedom of the press.  The U. S. Constitution guarantees it.  Anyone, on any forum or means of communication, should be free to express their own opinion, whether it agrees with the masses or not.  As I once heard, "I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."  That is how I feel, that is how I have felt sine I was writing for the Ritenour HS newspaper in St. Louis in the 12th grade.  Freedoms, like freedom of the press, are precious and are not to be treated lightly.  They should never, ever, under any circumstances be taken away.  I firmly believe a free press, is one of the things that keeps our government in check (see Richard Nixon).  So yes, I feel very strongly about it.

Ok, down off my soapbox, at least temporarily.

At the start of last (Thursday) night's episode of the Late Show, Colbert announced that on Wednesday, his bosses at CBS had informed him the Late Show would be coming to an end next May.  Not only that, but they would not be replacing him. The decision has been made at CBS or at Paramount, CBS parent company, to get out of the late-night talk show business altogether.  So what started with David Letterman some 30 years ago, and continued with Colbert, was coming to an end.

The timing of this could not be more curious.  In fact, I will offer it doesn't take a second grader to figure out what is going on.

The official release from CBS itself causes most to raise an eyebrow.  It read, "We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable, and will retire 'The Late Show,' franchise at that time."  But here is the interesting part, in the very next paragraph, CBS wrote, "This is purely a financial decision against a challenging back drop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show's performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount."

As Col. Sherman Potter used to say on M*A*S*H, "horse hockey."

Earlier today, Rolling Stone magazine, which over the past 10 years has been one of the few outlets not afraid to say what they think or see, wrote, "These two ideas aren’t in complete opposition to one another, but they’re nonetheless getting very different ideas across, as if the people tasked with putting lipstick on this particular pig couldn’t decide which approach was better — or, at least, which was less bad than the other — threw up their hands, and tried both."   Clearly, this is not the Rolling Stone I grew up reading.

Earlier this month, Paramount announced they had settled a lawsuit filed against CBS/Paramount by Donald Trump.  The out-of-court settlement was for $16 million dollars.  The basis of the suit was an interview CBS 60 Minutes did with Presidential nominee Kamala Harris last October.  In the suit, Trump alleged that CBS had wronged him with its editing of the Harris interview.  It should be noted 60 Minutes reached out to President Trump to do an interview.  He declined.

Following the announcement of the settlement, Colbert did not spare his displeasure on his nightly show.  "As someone who has always been a proud employee of this network," Colbert said, "I am offended.  I don't know if anything-anything-, will repair my trust in the company, but just taking a stab at it, I would say $16 million would help."

It's interesting that Colbert pointed out Paramount once called the suit, "completely without merit," before putting a price tag on its dignity, referring to the settlement as a "big fat bribe."

It should be noted Paramount is on the middle of a multi-billion-dollar merger with Skydance Media.  That merger is now before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).  Are you connecting the dots yet?   Rolling Stone added, " It requires precious little imagination to see the cancellation of Late Show — a decision that its host was blatantly displeased with — as a quid pro quo to get the FCC to approve the merger."

So, you are the head of Paramount.  It's easier to pay $16 million to make a problem go away, than lose billions in a potential merger.  The network of Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, Mike Wallace and Dan Rather just said, we would rather cancel this show, silence its host, than jeopardize our merger.  CBS has lost its backbone.

In the end, the viewers of Late Night are the losers, but not the only ones.  Jimmy Fallon, Jon Stewart fans as well as other similar type shows are wondering if they are next domino to fall.  

We have already seen the White House vent their anger at the Associated Press, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, the Atlantic and now CBS.  Where does it end?  When does it end?  Silencing the press, whether you agree or disagree with what they say or report, violates the constitution and is just wrong.

I've had enough.

Thanks for reading, I apologize for the tone, but do not apologize for what I said.

Be kind to each other.