Stephen Colbert took his Late Show home CBS to task during an interview, pointing out how his parent company’s chief tried to clamp down on stories on Donald Trump.
Colbert asked Rachel Maddow on Tuesday’s Late Show whether MSNBC has tried to interfere with negative Trump coverage—and brought up reports that Paramount Global’s chair Shari Redstone has asked CBS President George Cheeks for reports on Trump-related stories.
The reports came after 60 Minutes‘ executive producer Bill Owens resigned last month after saying his parent company had squandered the show’s journalistic independence. Paramount has sought to settle Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit over 60 Minutes‘ interview with Kamala Harris, which he claimed was distorted, in the hopes of securing its merger with Skydance.
“There are reports that the owner of this company called the president—or called the chairman of this company—and said, ‘Yeah, you’ve got to get the news to lay off any bad Trump stories.’ And the word is that that was not passed on to the news division, I’m happy to say,” Colbert told Maddow. “Have you been getting anything like that at MSNBC?”
“Not at all, and that’s what leadership looks like here,” Maddow said. “Leadership is not that you don’t expect you are going to get inappropriate political pressure. Leadership is hearing that inappropriate political pressure and making sure the people who actually do the work never have to bear the cost themselves.”
“We’re good at MSNBC,” she added.
Colbert then threw another jab in. “You guys aren’t being sued for $20 billion?” he asked.
Redstone asked Cheeks to brief her on upcoming 60 Minutes stories on Trump and opined on which ones she thought were either fair or problematic, according to Bloomberg. The request came after Trump attacked 60 Minutes last month for airing stories on the war in Ukraine and Trump’s pursuit of Greenland.
60 Minutes never amended any of its programs, according to Bloomberg, and aired a detailed story detailing how Trump has gone after law firms that represented some of his political adversaries. But the episode reflected how eager Redstone was to quell Trump’s anger and arrive at a settlement, which she has said she wants, to secure a merger that will give her an estimated $2.4 billion payout.
Colbert’s remark also came just over a week after 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley rebuked the network for interfering in its segments in pursuit of the merger.
“Our parent company, Paramount, is trying to complete a merger. The Trump administration must approve it. Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways,” Pelley said. “None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires.”
“No one here is happy about it, but in resigning, Bill proved one thing—he was the right person to lead 60 Minutes all along,” Pelley added.
