The big problem with writing an adulatory story about someone is when you have to leave out a highly important fact that would completely upend the very premise of your fable. Such was the case with Simon van Zuylen-Wood singing high praises for Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney as somehow leading the resistance against President Donald Trump in his country.   Mr. van Zuylen-Wood set the adoration scene of Carney early in his New York magazine story on Monday in "The Canadians Are Furious." For months, Donald Trump had been casually threatening to annex Canada and turn it into a state, adding insult to the injury of the trade war he was waging on the country. One prime minister resigned amid Trump’s bullying, and another was elected because voters thought he could stand up to him. In the ordinarily placid provinces, feelings of bewilderment, anxiety, and offense hardened into a defiant resolve against the United States. “Elbows up,” went the nation’s new hockey-inspired mantra. As a Montreal journalist told me, Americans were preoccupied with “12 different crises.” In Canada, this was the crisis. Let us continue to be amused by van Zuylen-Wood's Carney "elbows up" hype until we notice that Canadians are now enraged by the same Prime Minister's "elbows down" reality which van Zuylen-Wood conveniently skips because it would destroy the premise of his creative fiction writing. That month, the central banker and political novice Mark Carney led the underdog Liberals to an upset national victory, which the party owed to the electorate’s view that the once-favored Conservative Party could not credibly stand up to Trump. “Trump is trying to break us so he can own us,” Carney had argued on the campaign trail. Even if most Canadians didn’t deem it likely that Trump would literally invade, there was agreement that he was, for some reason, fixated on crippling them. Carney has since applied counter-tariffs on some $30 billion of U.S. goods, targeting red-state-manufactured products such as bowling balls and bullets. Finally we get this from van Zuylen-Wood: In July, seemingly out of the blue, Trump threatened a new round of tariffs on all Canadian goods, posting an open letter to Carney on social media in which he complained that Canada had “financially retaliated” against the U.S. and doubled down on the assertion that Canada fails “to stop the drugs from pouring” across the border. Carney responded on X: “We are committed to continuing to work with the United States.” But, he added, “we are building Canada strong” and “strengthening our trading partnerships throughout the world.” In July? Notice that van Zuylen-Wood oh so conveniently skipped something monumental that happened just before July at the end of June. An independent Journalist writing at The Globe and Mail of Canada reacted sharply about it in "What was Mark Carney thinking when he walked back the digital services tax?" So much for elbows up. Prime Minister Mark Carney briskly walked back Canada’s digital services tax (DST) late Sunday, after U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to stop trade talks. There was not much of even a hint of a fight from our Prime Minister. When Mr. Carney was elected in late April, we thought we were getting a real fighter, someone who campaigned on the idea that the “the old relationship between Canada and the United States, based on steadily increasing integration, is over.” ...From failing to retaliate on steel and aluminum tariffs to stratospheric defence spending promises (likely to result in austerity and major cutbacks to the civil service), from a border bill that responds to fake fentanyl crisis to folding on a modest taxation policy, Mr. Carney appears to be everything his more lettered critics warned us of. Mr. Carney’s sorry Sunday episode puts in stark contrast his resolve and firmness during the election. We voted for a champion, not capitulation. If Mr. van Zuylen-Wood had included Carney's cave on the Digital Services Tax his story title would have to be much more truthfully amended to "The Canadians are Furious...at Mark Carney." Ironically those Canadians now most furious with Carney are his own fellow Liberals such as the Canadian Union of Public Employees who declared that "CUPE condemns Carney’s caving to Trump on the digital services tax."

One more reason to defund PBS: Their reporters and researchers have no respect or understanding of libertarianism or libertarian voices (except on issues when libertarian ideology happens to match their own). Just see how PBS has covered Argentina’s president Javier Milei, whose free-market reforms since taking office in December 2023 have already borne fruit, as the country's notorious inflation, running rampant when Milei won office, has cooled drastically, while the unemployment rate remains steady and things in general have stabilized. Yet PBS ignores his undeniable success in favor of bashing him with any tool at hand, no matter how old. Most recently, PBS News Weekend on Saturday devoted a segment to “The Disappeared,” the political prisoners murdered by the military juntas in charge of Argentina from 1976-1983, during the country’s “Dirty War.”  ANCHOR JOHN YANG: This week, a human rights group in Argentina said it had identified a man who had been taken from his mother at a secret detention site more than 40 years ago during the country`s so called dirty war under the rule of a military dictatorship. He was reunited with his sister who had searched for him for years. But there are concerns that the government of Argentine President Javier Milei is reversing longstanding policy to continue the search for the tens of thousands of citizens who were abducted, never to be seen again, ‘The Disappeared.’ Special correspondent Kira Kay reports from Buenos Aires. Kay had nothing to say about Milei having actually successfully conquered the "economic chaos" she referenced. KIRA KAY: But activists say all this progress is now at risk through actions by Argentina`s new government. In November 2023, Argentina elected President Javier Milei, a libertarian economist who promised to address the country`s economic chaos. Facundo Robles managed the Wilson Center`s Latin America program. FACUNDO ROBLES, Former Latin American Program Coordinator, Wilson Center: In the period that goes from February 2017 to February 2025, inflation was 7800 percent. Milei, he`s drastically decreasing the size of the state. He fired 40,000 people out of the public sector. At PBS, firing government workers is a very bad thing. Stopping runaway inflation, not so much. After Kay reported Milei has “questioned the number of 30,000 junta victims” she returned to Robles, who made a petulant point that “as long as Milei controls inflation, people will be like, say whatever you want.” That was one of the few scattered clues from PBS that yes, Argentina’s notorious runaway inflation is being controlled under Milei. On April 17, economics reporter Paul Solman got on Milei’s case regarding the $Libra meme coin, which “shot up from pennies to dollars when endorsed by Argentina`s President Javier Milei, then crashed back down to pennies within hours. Milei is now under investigation because investors suspect a rug pull.” On November 20, 2023, Nawaz described Milei’s recent election victory as “thanks to an exhausted and angry electorate.” Inevitably, she compared him to Trump (being anything like Trump is bad at PBS) and noted he was a “self-described anarcho-capitalist” who had “pledged to shut down Argentina`s Central Bank, adopt the U.S. dollar as national currency, and make deep economic cuts….” She gave out a warning about Milei's far-right threat in the form of a question to her guest expert, Oliver Stuenkel. NAWAZ: ….Milei is close to the former far-right Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro. He`s also a supporter of former U.S. President Donald Trump. What does Milei`s election mean for the relationship between Argentina and the U.S., led by President Biden, who has warned consistently about the rise of far-right authoritarian leaders? On the November 19, 2023 PBS News Weekend, before Milei's victory was announced, anchor John Yang’s coverage was already being ridiculously biased, a harbinger of the slanted coverage to come from PBS. YANG: In Argentina polls have closed and the tightly contested and closely watched presidential runoff election. Much of the attention is on far-right Libertarian candidate Javier Milei, whose brash style and embrace of conspiracy theories have drawn comparisons to Donald Trump.

On Wednesday night, MSNBC’s Jen Psaki made biased and flat out false claims in the lead up to the recent passing of HR 4 by the Senate early Thursday morning, during The Briefing. Psaki and her guest, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly (D), tried their best to argue against the cutting of taxpayer funding to PBS and NPR by omitting key details. Psaki led up to the interview by making egregiously misleading and false claims about the rescission package: Republicans are using this as a way to codify some of the cuts proposed by DOGE into law. Specifically, cuts to public media and foreign aid. The Republican package would claw back $8.3 billion in foreign aid, which includes subsidies for American farmers who grow food that USAID purchases and gives to starving people all around the world. It would also take away 1.1 billion dollars from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides funding to NPR and PBS.  These cuts were not just about potentially losing beloved PBS shows like Daniel Tiger and beloved PBS news programming, which is important too. And Daniel Tiger, you can see there, my kids loved it, my next guest’s grandchild also loved it. It’s also about access to emergency broadcast alerts and public safety announcements, and a lot of communities depend on it for that. And given the recent flash flooding events that have killed over 100 people across multiple states, and now devastating wildfires occurring in places like Arizona, these emergency systems are proving to be especially vital.       Psaki pointed to the fact that $8.3 billion will be cut from USAID. What she neglected to mention was the fact that a majority of that funding was going to things like tourism in Egypt and sex changes and LGBT activism in Guatemala.  She then tried to pull on viewers' heart strings by claiming that kids’ shows like Daniel Tiger were going to disappear upon the defunding of PBS. In fact, PBS didn’t have the exclusive rights to Daniel Tiger, it could also be watched on Amazon Prime. Psaki then tried to tie in the recent flooding in Texas to the necessity of PBS and NPR emergency systems, alluding that defunding it would lead to more deaths. In fact, a recent MRC investigation showed that it took NPR 19 HOURS after the National Weather Service posted its first alert to post anything about the flooding. In her interview with Senator Kelly (D), Psaki asked him about the impact the rescissions package could have on rural areas in Arizona:  PSAKI: I know Arizona is one of the states that really relies on. This funding that could also impact that. Tell me about your concern there and what you worry about for rural communities in that regard. MARK KELLY: People's lives and livelihoods have been ruined because of this fire, but some people's lives were perhaps saved because they were notified due to emergency alert systems.  That for some folks in very rural areas, places like around the Grand Canyon or the Navajo Nation in Arizona, which, by the way, is as big as West Virginia, for some of these individuals, this is their only source of information. This is their only source of local news, but more importantly, when something bad is going to happen, like a flash flood or tornadoes or a wildfire, this is how these people are notified. This is how they protect their families, how they save their own lives, and this administration is stripping that away from them.  Sen. Kelly claimed that rural areas, like tribal lands, rely on PBS and NPR as their only source of information on natural disasters and that the administration was stripping that away from them.  That claim was categorically false, the OMB has assured that the Department of the Interior had agreed to implement these emergency services directly to the tribes. The MRC had also published the top ten myths on the defunding of PBS and NPR, which can be read here. The full transcript is below. Click "expand" to view: MSNBC’s The Briefing With Jen Psaki 9:44:49 PM ET July 16th, 2025 JEN PSAKI: The rescissions package is a move by Republicans in Congress to claw back government funds that they had previously voted on and appropriated, and in this case Republicans are using this as a way to codify some of the cuts proposed by DOGE into law. Specifically, cuts to public media and foreign aid. The Republican package would claw back $8.3 billion in foreign aid, which includes subsidies for American farmers who grow food that USAID purchases and gives to starving people all around the world. It would also take away 1.1 billion dollars from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides funding to NPR and PBS.  These cuts are not just about potentially losing beloved PBS shows like Daniel Tiger and beloved PBS news programming, which is important too. And Daniel Tiger, you can see there, my kids loved it, my next guest’s grandchild also loved it. It’s also about access to emergency broadcast alerts and public safety announcements, and a lot of communities depend on it for that. And given the recent flash flooding events that have killed over 100 people across multiple states, and now devastating wildfires occurring in places like Arizona, these emergency systems are proving to be especially vital.   [INTERVIEW WITH ARIZONA DEMOCRATIC SENATOR MARK KELLY] (...) 9:48:18 PM  PSAKI: No question about it, and one of the ways this — particularly this rescission package is putting people at risk. And I know you’ve been outspoken about the response to disasters in your state is about any emergency alert systems, which I know Arizona is one of the states that really relies on. This funding that could also impact that. Tell me about your concern there and what you worry about for rural communities in that regard. MARK KELLY: Well Jen, we’ve got this devastating fire going on in the Grand Canyon. It’s zero percent contained, it’s done a huge amount of damage to historic buildings and infrastructure. We’ve got 500 wildland firefighters working around the clock right now to contain this. People's lives and livelihoods have been ruined because of this fire, but some people's lives were perhaps saved because they were notified due to emergency alert systems.  That for some folks in very rural areas, places like around the Grand Canyon or the Navajo Nation in Arizona, which, by the way, is as big as West Virginia, for some of these individuals, this is their only source of information. This is their only source of local news, but more importantly, when something bad is going to happen, like a flash flood or tornadoes or a wildfire, this is how these people are notified. This is how they protect their families, how they save their own lives, and this administration is stripping that away from them.  

Prime Video’s We Were Liars, adapted from E. Lockhart’s novel, has been trending in the top 5 on the platform. Its gripping plot and emotional twist deliver, but the “rich, white people bad” narrative sours the experience. The story follows the Sinclair family on their private island, Beechwood, near Martha’s Vineyard- a liberal’s nightmare of wealth and “privilege.” As one character proclaims, the family estate was “built on a foundation of hate.” Told through eldest Sinclair grandchild Cadence’s (Emily Alyn Lind) perspective, the show diverges from the book, per Elle, emphasizing a woke agenda. Notably, teen Johnny (Joseph Zada) is now gay, and patriarch Harris’s (David Morse) “racism and privilege” are emphasized. Cousins Cadence, Johnny, and Mirren (Esther McGregor) spend summers on Beechwood with Gat (Shubham Maheshwari), who joins his uncle Ed (Rahul Kohli), partner to Johnny’s mother, Carrie (Mamie Gummer). Ed and Gat, of Indian descent, are the story’s moral anchors, alongside the “woke” teens rejecting their white, rich privilege. The teens are nicknamed “The Liars” for their childhood antics. The show’s soundtrack, while praised, is marred by songs with lyrics that reject Jesus or ask, “Do you want to be a satanist with me?” The minor teen characters are also heavily sexualized and drink entire bottles of wine in front of their parents. In episode 4, “The Fourth of You Lie,” Gat teases Cadence about her book, Caste, which she calls a “performative social justice how-to-manual” but insists she’s reading to “be a better person. To see.” This echoes episode 3, “The Ties Were Black, the Lies Were White" where she defends challenging Harris, saying, “I’m trying to call out injustice and use my privilege for good.” Later in episode 4, Mirren and water taxi driver Ebon (Dempsey Bryk) bond over disdain for the secrets of the wealthy, citing “transphobe Republican senators with gay escorts on speed dial.” Mirren: You see that guy, Jake? He sells pills to sixth graders. And Deacon is so alt-right, he's a fascist. And Kurt sexually assaulted his best friend's sister when she was too drunk to fight him off. So yeah, I'm sorry, but they don't get to give my cousin any kind of attention. Ebon: How do you know that? Mirren: It's just like you said. People talk around people that they perceive to be invisible. And invisibility isn't just for water taxi drivers. It also applies to girls that they don't think are hot. Ebon: They think you're hot. Mirren: No, they think I'm weird. And weird cancels out hot, so. Ebon: You know, I sort of, uh, pride myself on being the keeper of Vineyard secrets. You know, dark sh*t, secret families, embezzlers, transphobe Republican senators that keep gay escorts on speed dial. Seriously, it sucks sometimes knowing all that. In episode 5, “Lying Together in a Silver Lining,” Harris is chastised by Cadence again while Johnny says he’s just old, not racist: Thatcher: Huh. Is that ivory? Carrie: They were my favorites. Mom actually said that they would be perfect for Red Gate. Penny: There's no way that she said that. Bess: That's not how... Harris: They belong where they are. I am not dead. Yet. Thatcher: You will want to include them in an asset inventory, though. Bess: What asset inventory? Harris: Thatcher and I have been going over the estate plan. Penny: Um, you're changing your will? Harris: To account for new circumstances. Johnny: Isn't ivory illegal, Granddad? I don't mean that illegal is a bad thing. Harris: No, you just need to know how to get it. Never take no for an answer. Yeah, this little slip of a China girl sold those to us in Shanghai. Cadence: Um, they're illegal for a reason, right? Maybe you could auction the statues off and use the money and donate it to a wildlife conservatory or something. Harris: Cadence, you're not to tell me what to do with my earnings. Your gran loved ivory. And, luckily, Orientals, they care far more about money than they do legalities. Cadence: I mean, you can't say "Oriental." Harris: Oriental? Cadence: Or "China girl." Harris: Oriental- it's an academic term. Just ask Edward Said. Your generation is so damn eager to be offended. Johnny: It's true. Outrage addiction. It's an epidemic. I blame TikTok. Cadence: You could have had my back. You know what he said was wrong. Johnny: I didn't say it. I didn't f*cking say it, okay? Also, it's not like he's racist, okay? He's just old. You just need to stay on his good side. If he says the kids these days are a bunch of woke freaks, then there's no harm in nodding and smiling. By episode 7, “Everybody Knows the Captain Lied,” the teens agree Harris is a “racist piece of sh*t” after Cadence calls lemons a “symbol of colonization": Cadence: Did you know lemons are kind of a symbol of colonization? It's true, Granddad. Yeah, Columbus brought citrus seeds from the Americas. So technically, our yearly lemon fest tradition only exists because of a genocidal slave trader. Harris: Whoa, fascinating. Penny: Well, that is her AP history talking, because she is determined to get into Harvard on her own merit, Dad. Harris: Well, I've been thinking a lot about Harvard lately. I think it might be nice to leave a good portion of my estate to my alma mater. Cadence: Actually, you know, I didn't learn the thing about Columbus and the lemons from history class, Mom. Gat read about it. He's the smartest Liar, right? We also learn Harris forced Carrie to choose between marrying Ed or having Harris cover up a crime Johnny committed. When Cadence confronts him over the matter, Harris insists he can’t be racist because he’s a Democrat: Cadence: Hey. What did they mean about Gat and Ed and the inheritance? Harris: Franklin? Eleanor? Cadence: Granddad. Harris: Where are the dogs? Cadence: Asleep in the laundry. Did you tell Carrie you would cut her off because she was with Ed? Harris: Carrie's a grown woman. She had a choice to make. Cadence: You never liked them, did you? Gat and Ed. You could barely stomach them. That's why you never use their names. Harris: On the contrary. They never liked us. No, I have high standards, Cadence. I will not apologize for them. Cadence: White standards? Harris: Are you saying I'm racist? Cadence: I think you don't like Gat with me, and you don't like Carrie with Ed. I think you tolerated them for a long time because you wanted to believe certain things about who you are. Harris: No, I believe in who we are. Who we have been for centuries. It's my duty to protect this family. Cadence: You tolerated Gat and Ed. But when Carrie talked about babies, it made you sick. You couldn't let them mess up the family. Sinclairs are blonde and square chinned. We freckle in the sun. That's what this is, isn't it? You don't want Indian grandchildren. You don't want to ruin the pictures. Harris: Oh, for Christ's sake, Cadence, I'm a Democrat! The writers think they’re clever by slapping a “Democrat” label on Harris as if they’re not biased, but they’re obviously implying only Republicans are racist. It’s a cynical sleight-of-hand as they wink at the audience and feed the tired narrative that all roads to racism lead to the political right. In episode 8, “My Friends are Lying in the Sun,” Harris softens after a tragic twist (a powerful, tear-jerking one at that), but Cadence still rejects him and Beechwood entirely. In the end, We Were Liars is a glossy, well-acted drama that hooks you with a twisty plot and sun-soaked island vibes, but its heavy-handed, woke sermonizing on wealth, whiteness and privilege feels more like a liberal college lecture than entertainment. Racism is evil, of course, but the show’s sanctimonious tone makes it hard to enjoy without rolling your eyes.

On Friday, it wasn’t that surprising CBS Mornings would be inconsolable over the “very sad” “kick in the stomach” Thursday night that parent company Paramount would be canceling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in May, the home for late-night group therapy for liberals. While CBS said they “love this man” and are in awe of him, NBC’s Today even joined in and celebrated his “signature political commentary.” It’s a farce to act as though he has broad appeal and given the mountains of research compiled by our Alex Christy. For example, 82 percent of Colbert’s political jokes in 2024 targeted Republicans at 2,340 vs. only 479 to the left and 15 jokes about Fox News to a combined two about CNN and one about MSNBC. And for political guest, Colbert has cozied up to 29 liberals thus far in 2025 to zero on the right. To give one last example for good measure, Christy found in February Colbert and his fellow nighttime lefties focused on Trump nine times more in his first four weeks as President in 2025 vs. the first four weeks of Biden in 2021. CBS Mornings had a remarkable four teases in the first half-hour and a brief discussion after the Eye Opener before the six-minute-plus segment to lead off the second half-hour. Co-host Nate Burleson first brought up even before the teases, assuring viewers they’ll discuss “the shocking, late-night shake-up[.]” Co-host Gayle King acted in the brief banter like Colbert and not the show had died: “I know this is not going to be the same late night without Stephen Colbert. A lot – a lot of us waking up to this news going, what? Am I reading this right?” She then added the show had “changed the media landscape forever.” For a Democrat donor and Obama family friend, that kind of reaction squares.     Featured co-host Vladimir Duthiers opened the lengthy wake with a tell on his politics (and as someone who’d know far-left “comedy” as his wife is a lead producer for HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver): The Late Show with Stephen Colbert often brings the laughs, but he went on to say CBS is ending the number one show in late night. The final episode will air in May. CBS calls it a business decision. Colbert shared the news head-on, adding just a little bit of that trademark sense of humor. Fretting this was “the end of an era of one of the crown jewels of late night,” Duthiers went down memory lane through David Letterman’s opening spin on The Late Show before describing Colbert’s tenure this way, which was a tacit admission the show they’ve been heralding all morning is an indictment of their liberal bias: “Over the next few years, Colbert drew in millions with his biting sarcasm and critical commentary of the Trump administration.”     Duthiers hawked Colbert’s awards before arriving at the Paramount settlement with President Trump over last fall’s 60 Minutes Kamala Harris interview. Then, to his credit, he played sound from Puck’s Matthew Belloni, who broke through with a reality check about the financials of largesse, late-night productions on linear TV being black holes (click “expand”): DUTHIERS: The show is now the highest rated in its time slot and has earned 33 Emmy nominations and a Peabody award. It comes days after Colbert made headlines for criticizing leadership of Paramount, the parent company of CBS, for paying $16 million to settle a lawsuit with President Donald Trump. COLBERT [on CBS’s The Late Show, 07/14/25]: I am offended, and I don’t know if anything will ever repair my trust in this company. But just taking a stab at it, I’d say $16 million would help. [LAUGHTER] DUTHIERS: Trump’s lawsuit alleged CBS News deceptively edited an interview with Democratic nominee Kamala Harris before last year’s presidential election, an accusation Paramount has always said was completely without merit. Democratic Representative [sic] Adam Schiff, a guest on Colbert’s show last night, tweeted, "If Paramount and CBS ended [T]he Late Show for political reasons, the public deserves to know. And deserves better.” In a statement, Paramount said: “This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.” MATT BELLONI: This is a total shock to Hollywood. DUTHIERS: Matt Belloni, founder of Puck, says late-night shows on every major network are seeing ratings decline as viewers turn to digital media instead. BELLONI: Late-night television, as we know it, is a dying breed. In five years, it is very doubtful that there will be any of these shows left. The economics simply does not make sense anymore because people are not watching linear television late at night. They are watching the clips from these shows on digital platforms, but the monetization of that content is not the same. Also on Friday, Belloni wrote at Puck that Colbert’s 200-person show cost “more than $100 million” to run but had been losing “more than $40 million” a year. Yikes. Duthiers resurfaced live with the other co-hosts, emphasizing “we’re all sad about this,” but we “we’ve got ten months to talk about…the legacy of The Late Show” and Colbert, whom he called “one of the nicest human beings in television.” The gush overflowed as they called him “genuine,” “immensely talent,” “sweet,” and “very good” and “a kick in the stomach” to see him go.     Even though he would say he “love[s] the guy” and even “get[s] nervous” around him, co-host Tony Dokoupil implicitly brought up Fox News Channel host Greg Gutfeld crushing all of them and plummeting TV revenue (click “expand”): DUTHIERS: Such a sweet guy, such a genuine guy, an immensely talented guy. Whatever he does next is going to be successful, I’m sure. KING: Very good at what he does. DUTHIERS: So good at what he does. KING: When you get the news, though, it does feel like a little bit of a kick in the stomach. DUTHIERS: For sure. KING: It’s very difficult to hear that this morning. DOKOUPIL: You have to explain to people, number one network show in late-night, but that slot has been shrinking. DUTHIERS: As Matt explains in our piece. BURLESON: The late-night slot. DUTHIERS: That late-night slot because people aren’t watching linear television. DOKOUPIL: And people are watching comedy of a right-wing variety on cable. That’s still growing. And, so, you got to put it into larger context. You’ve got hosts like Trevor Noah walking away….You have James Corden’s show….Other shows have been canceled, like Samantha Bee, not replaced. And revenue is apparently down 50 percent in the last six, seven years in the late-night category. DUTHIERS: Yeah. I’ll just say: many years ago, when I was at this Paramount and CBS party, all these famous people around, and I’m sitting wallflower against the wall, I don’t know anybody, I’m sort of holding my drink, and Stephen comes over to me and goes, “Vlad, good to see Ya. How you doing? Merry Christmas.” And I was like, “Stephen, you don’t have to talk to me.” (….) DOKOUPIL: I get nervous around him. He is such a genuine star. DUTHIERS: He really is. DOKOUPIL: I love the man and I wish the show was still going to be with us. BURLESON: No doubt it’s a tough pill to swallow. KING: He may be done at CBS in ten months, but I don’t think he’s done. DUTHIERS: Boom. I agree. DOKOUPIL: I agree, Gayle. He’ll be fine. DUTHIERS: I agree. BURLESON: And I’ll be watching whatever he does. KING: Me too. NBC’s Today was crestfallen, starting with having three teases about a competing network. Co-host Craig Melvin and Carson Daly said in the first and third teases respectively they would take a look at Colbert’s “place in TV history.” Entertainment correspondent Chloe Melas – who would admit she was a Colbert Report intern – conceded this was something “none of us expected, and it is pretty shocking news for late night fans, who were confused and angry about why CBS would pull the plug on such a popular show.” There again, the disconnect between the left and the rest of the country as the former views Colbert as a unifying force and the place to be, rather than late-night group therapy for liberals where potshots at conservatives as ignoramuses are played for applause and laughter. “Stephen Colbert’s announcement sending shockwaves through the television world…It’s a major shift in the late-night landscape and for the famous host. Colbert got his start on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show and later won fans on the satirical The Colbert Report before taking over the network’s seat from David Letterman,” she added. Melas gushed the Colbert took over in 2015 by “making his own mark with interviews, performances, and his signature political commentary.” “Political commentary?” What quackery. Given the guest and joke breakdowns our Alex Christy chronicled, it’s wildly misleading to make it seem anything except for fiercely liberal.     No word on whether Melas believes it’s just “political commentary” for Colbert to say Trump is Vladimir Putin’s c**kholster. She ignored Gutfeld’s success and touted the partisan claims of “Senator Adam Schiff” (so no party ID) (click “expand”): MELAS: Despite an overall decline in late-night ratings, Colbert had the number one show for nine straight seasons. BILL CARTER: There’s nobody bigger on CBS than Stephen Colbert right now. Literally, they’re dropping their – their biggest star. MELAS: CBS executives saying in a statement: “This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related to the performance or content or other matters happening at Paramount. Colbert recently criticizing the $16 million settlement CBS’s parent company Paramount made with President Trump ahead of a pending merger with Skydance. Last night’s guest Senator Adam Schiff, saying: “If Paramount and CBS ended the Late Show for public reasons, the public deserves to know. And deserves better.” Colbert thanking his 200-person staff, leaving fans to wonder what’s next when the show ends in May of next year. Back live, Melas admitted “other hosts have found success beyond late night” with Letterman having had a Netflix series and Conan O’Brien branching out to travel specials for HBO Max. Melvin expressed concern for his staff, which Melas reiterated is 200 strong. Daly had a smart follow-up, though: “Chloe, do you think this is a sign of like a decline of the late-night franchises across the board or does it seem like a one-off that’s related to the merger?” Melas intimated what her fellow corporate liberals have since said openly, which is Colbert is the victim of ruthless censorship by dictator Trump: “I think that this could be related to the merger. But at the end of the day, ratings for late-night are on the decline. I think that other late-night hosts should be a little concerned because these shows are really expensive to make and I want to point out that many – Stephen’s such a good guy. I interned for him.” She closed by taking a shot at CBS: “If they wanted to cut costs, there were other ways that CBS could have done this, cutting a night out of the lineup Colbert. Maybe reducing the staff size.” To see the relevant transcripts from July 18, click here (for CBS) and here (for NBC).