CNN’s Jake Tapper tried desperately on The Lead on Friday to connect the news that CBS has cancelled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert with parent company Paramount’s legal drama with President Trump. Tapper admitted he had no evidence for this but still found the whole thing to be “interesting” and promoted anonymous sources to help him advance his conspiracy theory. During his monologue, Tapper recalled an interview Colbert gave with PBS where he called Trump “boring,” which led to Trump calling for Colbert to be fired. After a clip, Tapper observed, “And here we are ten months later, Colbert has been canceled, and PBS is losing its federal funding. Interesting.” Not really, but because Trump reacted gleefully to the news, Tapper continued, “And in case you wondered how the president took the news about Colbert, he posted on Truth Social, quote, ‘I absolutely love that Colbert got fired.’ He's still not satisfied, though. ‘I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next.’ That's what President Trump said.”     Trump’s comments aside, Colbert was not fired. His contract is expiring, and CBS decided re-upping a show that loses $40 mil lion a year wasn’t worth it. Additionally, people like Tapper will surely be keeping a close eye on ABC and Disney now to see what they do with Kimmel after such Truth Social posts, but Kimmel himself has spent the last couple of years openly speculating that he will not renew his contract next year and retire. Nevertheless, Tapper had his anonymous sources to cite, “One former CBS executive told me of this news, quote, ‘The timing seems so obvious and keeping with Paramount's quid pro quo theme. If it were just financial, why announce this now? Why not let RedBird announce it post-transaction and FCC blessing? Seems like a further tribute to me. Shameful.’” Do Tapper and his anonymous sources really believe that waiting until the merger was approved would’ve squashed the allegations that Paramount and Trump made some sort of deal? Tapper has no evidence, other than one nameless person’s opinion, that politics had anything to do with The Late Show’s demise, but he still added, “It is stunning what is being done by men and women who should know better, who do know better in boardrooms and on Capitol Hill, because the most powerful man in the world, a man who has achieved way beyond his wildest life’s dreams, seems shockingly pervious to criticism.” He then admitted he had no evidence for any of this but still accused Paramount of letting Trump think he had something to do with it, “Now, we may never know if CBS ending the Colbert Show was part of some secret deal cut between Paramount and Trump, or if it was just a freebie Paramount threw in, or if it was entirely unrelated and actually because of financial reasons, but Paramount is happy to let Trump think it is in the name of pleasing him.” That’s just not true. CBS’s statement explicitly said the decision had nothing to do with Colbert’s liberalism or other business involving Paramount. Tapper, however, further added, “The fact that so much of corporate America is dedicated to fearing these presidential whims that could result in actual retribution should concern all of us because trends like this don't stop with one president. They start with them. And the First Amendment protecting the free speech rights of comedians and journalists when they joke or cover powerful people, an amendment that our corporate masters will not fight for, that's ultimately just words on parchment.” As the segment would go on, Tapper would welcome former New York Times media reporter and current LateNighter writer Bill Carter to further cast doubt on CBS’s decision. According to Carter, because CBS was willing to renew After Midnight with Taylor Tomlinson before she quit, it shows that the decision to cancel The Late Show is “very suspicious timing, extremely suspicious.” The problem with that is that After Midnight only existed in the first place because it was cheaper than continuing with The Late Late Show. Trump or no Trump, in the age of specialized entertainment journalism, streaming, and podcasts, it makes little economic sense to have a comedy show with a multi-million-dollar host, band, and celebrity interviews at 11:30 p.m. or 12:30 a.m. that only appeals to one side of the political divide. Here is a transcript for the July 18 show: CNN The Lead with Jake Tapper 7/18/2025 6:41 PM ET JAKE TAPPER: And here we are ten months later, Colbert has been canceled, and PBS is losing its federal funding. Interesting. And in case you wondered how the president took the news about Colbert, he posted on Truth Social, quote, “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired.” He's still not satisfied, though. “I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next.” That's what President Trump said. One former CBS executive told me of this news, quote, “The timing seems so obvious and keeping with Paramount's quid pro quo theme. If it were just financial, why announce this now? Why not let RedBird announce it post-transaction and FCC blessing? Seems like a further tribute to me. Shameful.” It is stunning what is being done by men and women who should know better, who do know better in boardrooms and on Capitol Hill, because the most powerful man in the world, a man who has achieved way beyond his wildest life’s dreams, seems shockingly pervious to criticism. Now, we may never know if CBS ending the Colbert Show was part of some secret deal cut between Paramount and Trump, or if it was just a freebie Paramount threw in, or if it was entirely unrelated and actually because of financial reasons, but Paramount is happy to let Trump think it is in the name of pleasing him. The fact that so much of corporate America is dedicated to fearing these presidential whims that could result in actual retribution should concern all of us because trends like this don't stop with one president. They start with them. And the First Amendment protecting the free speech rights of comedians and journalists when they joke or cover powerful people, an amendment that our corporate masters will not fight for, that's ultimately just words on parchment.

Does Audie Cornish not realize that some viewers will discover just how rabidly anti-Trump her expert of the day is--or doesn't she care? To discuss the plan to increase by 10,000 the number of ICE agents, on Thursday's CNN This Morning, Cornish brought in Garrett Graff, innocuously portrayed as just a "journalist." Graff was a former staffer on Howard Dean's presidential campaign, and had stints at Politico and Washingtonian magazine. But his main gig now is "Doomsday Scenario," a website that describes itself as "Trying to answer if things are as bad as they seem." The "doomsday" in question is the Trump presidency, and, yes, things aren't just as bad as they seem—they're worse! Sample headlines include: "Today, Right Now, is the Easiest Moment To Draw the Line Against Donald Trump."  And in the context of his chat with Cornish, Graff also wrote: "Four Fears about ICE, Trump's New Masked Monster." Graff began by analogizing ICE agents to Hitler's Gestapo. So Trump's ICE is a masked monster, unleashing Gestapo-like agents! Yup, just the kind of fair 'n balanced expert right up CNN's alley! No one "fact checks it. Daniel Dale's on vacation. Graff claimed that many people "are going to start feeling like they need to carry their passports and their birth certificates to go down to the grocery store." That fear was echoed by CNN Senior White House Reporter Betsy Klein, a member of the Group Chat: "I think it's a really massive concern for any American who is a person of color." ICE is the Gestapo and it's racist! CNN commentator Sabrina Singh fretted that ICE will be "going to go after people that have been in this country for 30 years."  A favorite liberal media tactic is to find the most heart-wrenching example to make its case. But before citing the example of the arrest of a grandfather with two sons in the Marines, Singh turned to former Trump White House communications director Mike Dubke and claimed,  "I'm by no means saying that we shouldn't enforce our immigration laws, but . . . " Right. When Dubke finally got a say, he injected sense into the discussion: "I see an answer to an election that we just had . . . The American people wanted that southern border secured, also wanted something done about the millions of illegal migrants that have come into this country over the last several years, and this is an answer to that." May Graff hear those words. But Graff warned that by having to quickly hire so many new agents, ICE will have to "cut hiring standards, cut educational standards. There are going to be thousands of people selected into ICE who would not have been hired in the normal pace of applications." So, for purposes of meeting DEI/affirmative action goals, does Graff oppose lowering standards for hiring people or admitting them to college? Somehow, we doubt it. For purposes of the interview, Graff had been conveniently situated in front of a wall adorned with Nixon and Goldwater signs [see screencap] that could have misled viewers into imagining that he had Republican sympathies. In fact, as mentioned, he worked on Howard Dean's presidential campaign, and is rabidly anti-Trump. In 2022, he wrote a Watergate history widely praised by liberals. And whereas the chyron described Dubke as a former Trump aide, Singh was cast merely as a former Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary—omitting that she served in the Biden administration.  Here's the transcript. CNN This Morning 7/17/25 6:17 am EDT GARRETT GRAFF: America has never been a, you know, papers-please country before. We associate that with the Gestapo, or fascist Italy or the Soviet-era Iron Curtain.  And there are a lot of people in America who are going to start feeling like they need to carry their passports and their birth certificates to go down to the grocery store.  AUDIE CORNISH: ICE now becomes one of the highest-funded federal law enforcement agencies in the country, all thanks, of course, to the president's new spending bill. It's giving ICE the ability to hire more and arrest more. TOM HOMAN: We do have collateral arrests in in many areas because we're out looking for those public safety threats, but we're going to enforce immigration law, too. CORNISH: So, with all the hiring of new agents and the billions of federal dollars now at their disposal, critics are raising concerns about whether ICE could, in fact, end up growing too big too fast.  That's what I discuss on this week's Assignment with journalist Garrett Graff. He's actually been tracking the growth of ICE and ICE activity across the country for years.  GRAFF: I think one of the things that we're starting to see very quickly is ICE, for most of its 20-year history, has gone after, quote-unquote, bad criminals. Gang members, drug cartel members, people associated with violent crime in the United States.  That's really resource-intensive. And to meet the numbers that the White House is demanding, 3,000 people a day, ICE has to go after America's grandmas. You know, they have to go after the easiest low-hanging fruit that they can find.  CORNISH: ICE has to grow under the new law by 10,000 new agents. What are the dangers of growing that big that fast?  GRAFF: A big part of the challenge is, any law enforcement agency that has ever had a surge like this in the past has had to cut hiring standards, cut training standards, cut educational standards, and cut supervision standards of new agents in order to meet those hiring quotas.  Because, in very simple terms, hiring 10,000 agents in the next two years means that there are going to be thousands of people selected into ICE who would not have been hired in the normal pace of applications right now.  . . .  CORNISH: I'm just wondering about this concern he's raising. What did you hear, Betsy?  BETSY KLEIN: Oh, I think it's a really massive concern for any American who is a person of color, who is the collateral damage that we saw Tom Homan talk about. It's a really serious issue for Americans who are living in these areas where they're seeing this kind of enforcement.  . . .  SABRINA SINGH: I also think what was interesting that Garrett raised, and that's known, is that they're being asked to make quotas. And these are quotas on people. This isn't like parking tickets. We're talking about quotas on arresting and rounding up and deporting people. And what's happening is exactly what Garrett said, is that they're going to go after people that have been in this country for 30 years.  And I'm by no means saying that we shouldn't enforce our immigration laws, but when you have a story of a grandfather who has three sons, two of which are serving in the Marines, being pulled and arrested by ICE agents, is that really a good use of resources and funding?  CORNISH: What do you see in kind of what Garrett's talking about?  MIKE DUBKE: Well, I see an answer to an election that we just had, in which immigration and border control was one of the major topics, if not one of the top two topics, for the election.  The American people wanted that southern border secured, also wanted something done about the millions of illegal migrants that have come into this country over the last several years, and this is an answer to that. 

Bill Maher admits he didn’t do his homework in one area before interviewing John Leguizamo. The veteran actor has been married for more than 20 years, but the “Club Random” host assumed he was single and ready to mingle. And, perhaps, debate politics with his squeeze du jour. After all, Leguizamo isn’t shy about his hard-Left politics. Not so, says Leguizamo, who says he’s a happily married man during the chat, released Sunday on YouTube and podcast platforms. They both chuckled about the mistake. Later, the actor uncorked a whopper so large Maher sat in stunned silence.     Leguizamo wears his wokeness with pride, something Maher found out the hard way. “There’s no ‘ultra woke.’ They’re not woke enough for me,” the “Super Mario Bros.” alum said of his fellow liberals. “Well, that’s quite a statement, and we probably should not pursue that at all,” muttered Maher, a devout woke critic. The comic sensed that the two would disagree so sharply that it was better to leave the subject behind. Maher is respectful of his guests, no matter their political affiliations. Leguizamo wasn’t done, though. “America is a centrist country. We don’t have a real Left. We have a real, radical Right, but we don’t have a real, radical Left,” Leguizamo said. “We have a center, and a little center-Left. The real radical Left wants to destroy government just like the Right, wants to upend everything, wants to throw out the establishment. We don’t have any of that, c’mon. What do we have? The Democrats eat their own. They don’t listen to progressives. They destroy them.” Maher sat there, stunned. The radical Left is burning Teslas, assaulting ICE officers, killing health care officials, burning the houses of Jewish governors, targeting Jews across college campuses nationwide. Far-Left radicals demanded President Joe Biden stack the Supreme Court to “fix” its ideological problem and stormed police departments in Portland and Minneapolis during the George Floyd riots. That’s just the tip of the radical iceberg. Most recently, they’ve told Democratic politicians they should be ready to take a bullet for the party. Literally.   'Wow': GOP Senator Floored by Axios Report on Voters Pushing 'Violence' and 'Blood' From Democrats in Trump Fight https://t.co/JhWewY3vVx — Mediaite (@Mediaite) July 8, 2025   Maher knows this. He’s been covering the radical Left for some time and dragging them on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.” He wanted to be respectful to his guest and back out of the topic as fast as possible. So he quipped his way out of the conversation. “I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue,” said Maher, quoting a classic scene from the 1980 comedy “Airplane!”  

Los Angeles correspondent Carter Evans’s recent trend of stories on CBS Evening News highly critical of immigration law enforcement continued on Friday as he claimed deportation efforts are making it difficult to rebuild Los Angeles after recent wildfires. Evans began by showing the interior of a home under construction, “This construction site has just about everything you need to build a traditional family home. Everything except enough workers.”     His human interest story for the segment was Jason Pietruszka, a general contractor, and Pietruszka declared, “We have probably three people on-site, four people on-site, and normally we would have about double, we would have about 8-10 people.” After Evans asked, “Where are they?” Pietruszka claimed, “They’re hiding. People are going to come to work.” Evans elaborated in a voiceover, “Jason Pietruszka is a general contractor in Los Angeles. He says he only hires builders here in the country legally, but he also relies on companies that employ highly skilled undocumented labor. Many of those workers are now no-shows because they're fearful of the ramped up ICE raids.”’ Following additional comments from Pietruszka, Evans elaborated further, “The labor shortage comes at a time when more than 12,000 homes destroyed by recent fires in L.A. County need to be rebuilt. About 41 percent of the construction workers in California are foreign-born, and according to a report, the rising deportations will deplete the construction workforce statewide, including those specializing in drywall, flooring, and roofing. Pietruszka says this is already causing longer construction delays and greater competition for fewer crew.” “Foreign born” is not the same thing as being in the country illegally. Additionally, left-wing sources claim that about 23 percent of construction workers are illegally in the country. As it was, Pietruszka lamented, “When you find the people who are willing to do the job, they want, probably, double the hourly rate.” Looking around the job site, Evans wondered, “So, what does that mean? Like, for this home that is getting to the end stages here?” Pietruszka claimed, “That means that the consumer is paying more.” Even if one took Pietruszka’s 41 percent number and other concerns seriously, it still doesn’t answer the question of why California should be able to dictate national policy. Here is a transcript for the July 18-show: CBS Evening News 7/18/2025 6:39 PM ET CARTER EVANS: This construction site has just about everything you need to build a traditional family home. Everything except enough workers. JASON PIETRUSZKA: We have probably three people on-site, four people on-site, and normally we would have about double, we would have about 8-10 people. EVANS: Where are they? PIETRUSZKA: They’re hiding. People are going to come to work. EVANS: Jason Pietruszka is a general contractor in Los Angeles. He says he only hires builders here in the country legally, but he also relies on companies that employ highly skilled undocumented labor. Many of those workers are now no-shows because they're fearful of the ramped up ICE raids. PIETRUSZKA: If a company has five trucks and there's two guys per truck and half their crew doesn't want to come, that's literally three jobs or two jobs that can't be performed. EVANS: The labor shortage comes at a time when more than 12,000 homes destroyed by recent fires in L.A. County need to be rebuilt. About 41 percent of the construction workers in California are foreign-born, and according to a report, the rising deportations will deplete the construction workforce statewide, including those specializing in drywall, flooring, and roofing. Pietruszka says this is already causing longer construction delays and greater competition for fewer crew. PIETRUSZKA: When you find the people who are willing to do the job, they want, probably, double the hourly rate. EVANS: So, what does that mean? Like, for this home that is getting to the end stages here? PIETRUSZKA: That means that the consumer is paying more.

New York Times columnist and the allegedly conservative half of PBS News Hour’s weekly Friday news recap, David Brooks, unleashed an unintentionally hilarious counterargument to Congress’s decision earlier in the week to rescind federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. According to Brooks, not only is PBS not on the left, but it also provides local news to the state of Maine. Brooks began innocently enough by recalling his previous life at National Review and how conservatives have been trying for decades to strip partisan liberal organizations of their federal funding. However, now, he sought to protect his own, “And so that defund the left, which conservatives have talked about since I was a baby pundit many centuries ago, now they're actually doing it. The problem is that, say — well, we’ll talk about ourselves, Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Republicans have been going after that since diapers, since we were all on diapers.”     He then added, “But there were always enough Republicans who understood what Jonathan just said, that, ‘Hey, I'm in Maine here, and I like having some local media.” And so there was always that rump that would stop it. But that rump is gone. And so all the defunding the left that conservatives have been dreaming about for decades, now they're doing it.’” The insinuation that if it weren’t for public broadcasting, Maine would be like some untouched tribe without the benefits of modern media is as hilarious as it is offensive. The Portland, Bangor, and Presque Isle markets all have private TV and radio options. Brooks also lamented that anyone would associate PBS with the left, “And I should say perceived left. It's not always that the institutions they think are left are left. And anybody who doesn't agree with them is left. And so they're having their way.” If a news organization is 27 times more likely to describe something as “far-right” than “far-left,” covers the Republican National Convention with 72 percent negativity compared to the Democratic National Convention at 88 percent positivity, and who’s “conservative” commentator voted for Barack Obama and still sounds like a liberal, then what is that if not a liberal outlet? Here is a transcript for the July 18 show: PBS News Hour 7/18/2025 7:44 PM ET DAVID BROOKS: And so that defund the left, which conservatives have talked about since I was a baby pundit many centuries ago, now they're actually doing it. The problem is that, say — well, we’ll talk about ourselves, Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Republicans have been going after that since diapers, since we were all on diapers. But there were always enough Republicans who understood what Jonathan just said, that, “Hey, I'm in Maine here, and I like having some local media.” And so there was always that rump that would stop it. But that rump is gone. And so all the defunding the left that conservatives have been dreaming about for decades, now they're doing it. And I should say perceived left. It's not always that the institutions they think are left are left. And anybody who doesn't agree with them is left. And so they're having their way.