CBS Cow Tows To Trump
19/07/25 07:37
July 19, 2025 (Vol. 19 No. 29) - CBS's decision to end its top-rated late night show. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, is just the latest example of media corporations cow towing to threats made by Donald Trump. The network claims that the show's content, often featuring some of the most blistering attacks on the White House's incompetence, has nothing to do with decision to end The Late Show next May. There's some truth to that, as the audience for late night television has been dwindling. But it is also true that the decision to axe Colbert comes as CBS is merging with Skydance, a corporation owned by Trump allies. Another consideration is that the merger requires Trump Administration approval. Trump has been exalting over the decision to cancel the show. This is just the latest in a series of legal battles in which Trump has won meritless victories over the media. Disney, ABC's parent company, and Paramount, CBS's owner, have recently settled lawsuits, each paying $16 million to Trump, to end lawsuits that legal experts say were slam-dunks for the media. They did so out of fear. Now the Big Orange Turd has filed a $20 billion lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal for its reporting of the close connections between Trump and Jeffery Epstein, the sexual predator who hanged himself in his cell in 2019. This suit pits Trump against Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul who helped put Trump into office in the first. Once again, it isn't a question of whether Trump can prevail. For Trump's claim to stick, he will have to show that he has been defamed, that the defamation has been communicated to a third-party, that he has clearly been identified as the target of the defamation, that the defamation has resulted in damage, and that The Wall Street Journal's reporting is false. Because Trump is a public figure, he carries the additional burden of proof: actual malice, which is defined as a knowing falsehood or reckless disregard for the truth. Considering the careful editorial process used with this story, Trump has a snowball's chance of hell of winning such a lawsuit. The only question whether Rupert Murdoch, once a close ally of Trump, is going to back down when confronted by the wannabe dictator. To put it another, albeit ironic, way: Rupert Murdoch, the father of Fox Faux News, has now been cast as the latest champion of press freedom. May God have mercy on our souls. Before you celebrate yet another attack on the media, consider this: You cannot have a democracy without a free press. Trump's ongoing assault against media companies is just another example of him undermining our nation's institutions to enhance his oligarchical and dictatorial powers. If you are rooting against the media in this barrage of meritless lawsuits, you are rooting against your own best interests. It's time to pick sides. Choose wisely. That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.