Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, who host two of the leading talk shows on Paramount’s networks CBS and Comedy Central, hit out at the company over its settlement agreement with President Donald Trump over a segment on "60 Minutes."
Paramount Global agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit over a "60 Minutes" interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris that aired ahead of the 2024 presidential election that accused the network of deceptively editing the segment.
On "The Daily Show" last week, Stewart interviewed former "60 Minutes" correspondent Steve Kroft, who compared the deal reached by Paramount and Trump to "a shakedown."
Stewart said during the segment, "It doesn’t feel like scrutiny on news networks — it feels like fealty. They are being held to a standard that will never be satisfactory to Donald Trump. No one can ever kiss his ass enough."
On the Monday evening episode of "The Late Show," Colbert called the deal a "big fat bribe" and said it "offended" him.
"As someone who has always been a proud employee of this network, I am offended," Colbert said. "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."
He added that the network never admitted wrongdoing in the settlement and joked that Paramount released a statement saying, "You may take our money, but you will never take our dignity. You may, however, purchase our dignity for the low, low price of $16 million. We need the cash."
During the segment, Colbert also donned a fake mustache and joked, "Some of the TV tappers out there are blogging that once Skydance gets CBS, the new owners’ desire to please Trump will 'put pressure on late-night host and frequent Trump critic Stephen Colbert.' Okay, okay, but how are they going to put pressure on Stephen Colbert ... if they can’t find him?"
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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