[This article first appeared at Common Dreams on July 21, 2025.]
Stephen Colbert’s Firing: The Critical Unanswered Question
Timing is everything.
The news that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will end in May 2026 has focused on whether his termination was part of a “deal” (implicit or explicit) to get Federal Communications Commission approval of the pending merger between CBS’s parent company Paramount and Skydance Media. If so, it was another “bend-the-knee” moment in the media’s ongoing capitulation to Trump’s attack on democracy’s foundational institutions.
But the timing of the announcement itself is raises a critical unanswered question: Why now? It was either pandering to President Donald Trump, management’s incompetence, or both.
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The Belly of the Beast 