Nobody else has to write about this asshole here—it is an open forum, after all—but I want to get my ethics call on the announcement that CBS is canceling “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” out of the way lest it fester and turn into a fatal brain tumor.
That ethics call is “GOOD! It’s about damn time!” Never mind that I don’t find Colbert funny and never have; my opinion of his smug style of humor is irrelevant. But he has been for more than a decade a divisive force in American culture, exacerbating political divisions and intolerance, misleading people foolish enough to take his partisan talking points as fact, and one of many Axis of Unethical Conduct allies who have been deliberately ripping at the connective tissue that holds the nation together. He’s an ethics villain.
Naturally, the Axis is upset and, as usual, lying. “CBS canceled Colbert’s show just THREE DAYS after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount for its $16M settlement with Trump — a deal that looks like bribery,” Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote on social media from her tee-pee. “America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons.” It was cancelled because CBS decided that a an expensive late night TV show with pretty miserable ratings that was dedicated to insulting and denigrating half of the country was probably not a smart investment, and was never an ethical one. Warren, a lawyer, former professor and U.S. Senator apparently doesn’t even know what “bribe” means. No, come to think of it, she’s just calculating that enough citizens don’t know what the word means to mislead them.
Over on CNN, they were wailing and teeth-gnashing on Abby Phillips’ show, where the host uttered this whopper: “There are shows I won’t name that spend all of their time making fun of liberals!” Typical CNN journalism. She wouldn’t name them because there are no “shows,” plural, just a single show, and it is on Fox News. It is not a variety/talk show, it is not on a broadcast network, and it is alone against the late night shows on CBC, NBC, and ABC, plus Saturday Night Live, Comedy Central, Bill Maher, and more. Making jokes about the President of the United States playing a lot of golf (Ike), having a funny accent (JFK, LBJ, Carter) and looking shifty (Nixon) or wooden (Ford) is one thing, calling one “Putin’s cock-holster” is something else. Our system depends on basic respect for the Office of the President, and Colbert and Company have been deliberately making that impossible.
One fan quoted in a Times article says, “It breaks truth, and he was the arbiter of truth. He is. Colbert is the staple.” Well, allow me to retort! You’re a moron. Your arbiter of truth never mentioned the fact that Joe Biden was a babbling mess until everyone was; he was part of the cover-up. He never made a joke about Kamala Harris’s cackling incompetence, which should have been comedy gold. He had her on his show and lapped her metaphorical heinie, but didn’t have the guts to have Trump on, and you know he would have accepted an invitation. Anyone who can’t see what a phony he was, eschewing opportunities for satire and humor when it wouldn’t advance progressive agendas, is either a mark, or a fellow activist.
I’d call this a fact: Stephen Colbert is one of the most destructive entertainers in U.S. history. Good riddance.
OK, I got that out of my system. Now you go…
Ethics Alarms 
If we were collectively tasked as a country to explore new frontiers in idiocy, it would be hard to say how we could do more!! But let me do my part:
As an aggrieved viewer, I would also like to declare that “America deserves to know” why HBO Max canceled Tokyo Vice after 2 seasons! And Wheel of Time! There’s a pattern here….Perhaps there should be a Congressional inquiry…. or maybe a special counsel? …to look into these highly suspicious business decisions to see if perhaps they were….. business decisions?
Bingo.
There’s evidently a DNC talking point going around about the firing being a First Amendment violation! This from the Daily Mail reportage;
“‘If Paramount and CBS ended the Late Show for political reasons, the public deserves to know. And deserves better,’ California Sen. Adam Schiff – who is set to appear on Thursday night’s episode – posted on X.
Woke Sen. Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts, similarly noted that the announcement came just three days after Colbert’s controversial segment – in which he appeared to dance around and openly mock his network.
‘America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons,’ she wrote, with Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington adding that: ‘People deserve to know if this is a politically motivated attack on free speech.'”
Did Schiff and Liz skip Con Law in law school?
Devastating way Stephen Colbert learned about Late Show cancelation after blasting ‘big fat bribe’ to Trump | Daily Mail Online
I have been the victim of a raccoon eating my chickens. I don’t own a gun, but I have a hatchet and a bucket of water. Which is more ethical dispatching the raccoon by hacking or drowning?
Based on what I see on the roads, I recommend hitting it with your car.
Reinforce your chicken coop. Racoons have friends and family and they talk.
Have nice day and keep the faith…🤠
Buy a gun.
Let’s talk about Kiss-CamGate:
On July 16, a Coldplay concert Jumbotron “Kiss Cam” inadvertently exposed a couple having an affair when the couple was featured on the camera and quickly reacted suspiciously, prompting Coldplay frontman Chris Martin to quip that, “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.”
The memes descended and we’ve all had fun with them, but now the exposed couple – Astronomer CEO Andy Bryan and his HR chief Kristin Cabot – are facing the consequences and Andy has decided to fight back with the following statement:
“I want to acknowledge the moment that’s been circulating online, and the disappointment it’s caused.
What was supposed to be a night of music and joy turned into a deeply personal mistake playing out on a very public stage. I want to sincerely apologize to my wife, my family, and the team at Astronomer. You deserve better from me as a partner, as a father, and as a leader.
This is not who I want to be or how I want to represent the company I helped build. I’m taking time to reflect, to take accountability, and to figure out the next steps, personally and professionally. I ask for privacy as I navigate that process.
I also want to express how troubling it is that what should have been a private moment became public without my consent. I respect artists and entertainers, but I hope we can all think more deeply about the impact of turning someone else’s life into a spectacle.
As a friend once sang, ‘Lights will guide you home, and ignite your bones, and I will try to fix you.’
Andy”
Observations:
But, Andy, I do thank you for distracting me from the idiotic letter President Trump allegedly wrote to Jeffrey Epstein that uses words like “enigma” the meaning of which Trump is unlikely to know much less use in any communication.
Nice work, AM. Thanks. A post in itself. I need to check the apology scale to see where it comes in. I’m guessing it’s pretty low. The “It’s not who I am” is nearly fatal.
I see no reason it can’t be ranked as a 10.
No doubt at all that it’s far below exceptional. I wonder if he used AI to write it or just copied/pasted from every other ridiculously wordy useless apology some one’s lawyer or PR department originated that has become the template for this type of statement?
Coldplay plays at venerable Camp Randall tomorrow night, within listening distance of our house.
Not a fan and won’t miss it; for better or for worse, we’ll be ~12 miles/19.3kms south of Lake Superior by the time they take the stage.
PWS
Yoop!
The tour is evidently ridiculously called “Music of the Spheres.”
I believe it’s a reference to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musica_universalis.
Which makes naming a rock band tour with the term so pretentious.
Fair enough; unless it’s a pun of some kind, it does seem a bit odd for the genre. I guess I’d have to listen to the actual songs to see if they do the title justice.
“Which makes naming a rock band tour with the term so pretentious.”
I’ve always been partial to Primordial Gelatinous Ooze Mavens…
PWS
RE #5, it’s from the Coldplay song, “Fix You”. Amusingly (to me at least) a number of the comments on the official Youtube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4V3Mo61fJM) now refer to this incident.
The published statement has been denied by the predator CEO in question. So it’s apparently not real.
I have just now read that TMZ has debunked at least the privacy complaint part. Sorry, folks. I really believed this was legit.
What do people think of this article detailing how and why to practice ethical and effective persuasive techniques? https://www.clearerthinking.org/post/how-to-persuade-people-ethically
I read this article and think it’s interesting. I do believe it’s ethical to determine where another person is coming from and why they hold the beliefs they hold. It’s really the only way to persuade effectively; otherwise, people are just talking past each other.
This article is reminiscent of training materials the USDOJ Community Relations Service used in the early 1990s to help law enforcement achieve better communications and mutual understanding with the communities they serve. My agency utilized their resources extensively as we transitioned to the community policing model. I found it quite useful.
Proudlly i hav enot a late night show since Carson left, except for an occassional Leno.
Two reasosn,
Jack:
I thought you would appreciate the attached excerpt from the Yale Law School Class of ’85 Class Notes in the latest Yale Law Report. (I’m only sending page one. I will spare you the full five pages).
Earlier this year, I sent you the Secretary’s request for content, which was a fairly unhinged call for news about classmates’ efforts to resist the Current Administration’s Assault on Democracy. In response to some blowback (mentioned in the Notes), the Secretary (the “Lawyer for the Rule of Law” in the photo) sent out a half-hearted acknowledgment that perhaps he had gone too far. Apparently though, the Trump Derangement Syndrome could not be suppressed, and it has appeared again, more shrill than before, in the Class Notes, wherein the Secretary singles out for special praise and at length our classmates who have actively opposed “this administration’s attack on the rule of law and our government in general.”
I shouldn’t be, but I am stunned by the total ignorance of and isolation from the rest of the world and the smugness that radiates from the Notes. Did I go to law school with these people? Were we brought up in the same country, or even on the same planet? I don’t know, but I do know that I’m not planning to attend our 40th Reunion in October!
“more shrill than before“
T’was ever, thus….
PWS
https://x.com/officialalamo/status/1946208336451432941?s=46
I leave this with no comment.