Late-night becomes free speech battleground

Late-night hosts have always mocked the current president. ... The difference now is Trump’s willingness to use the levers of power to silence his critics and those reporting news the administration finds unfavorable in ways previous presidents, outside of Nixon, never attempted.”

Rob Tornoe, digital editor and writer, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Stephen Colbert will host his final episode of “The Late Show” on CBS next month, exiting the show at the top of his game and an unlikely champion of free speech.

Late-night hosts like Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel are having a moment. Despite the continued trend of cord-cutting and the decline of cable television, they have become targets of the Trump administration, which has, ironically, made them more popular and relevant than ever.

“They’ve kind of become the front line of the resistance,” said Bill Carter, a former TV columnist and reporter for The New York Times who currently writes for the website, LateNighter. “It extends into more than just a political fight, but it’s actually a free speech issue.”

Late-night hosts have always mocked the current president. Johnny Carson cracked jokes about Richard Nixon’s administration during the Watergate scandal and mocked Ronald Reagan’s memory. Jay Leno and David Letterman relentlessly ripped Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal and extended their jabs at his successor, George W. Bush. Even Conan O’Brien, not seen as an overly political comedian at all, took his shots at those in power during his nightly monologues.

Colbert and Kimmel have followed a similar format. The difference now is Trump’s willingness to use the levers of power to silence his critics and those reporting news the administration finds unfavorable in ways previous presidents, outside of Nixon, never attempted.

Last month, FCC chairman Brendan Carr threatened to revoke the broadcast licenses of TV networks engaging in “fake news” and baselessly accused broadcasters of “running hoaxes and news distortions.” Carr’s FCC also threatened to investigate ABC’s “The View” and began inquiries into PBS, NPR and NBC parent company Comcast. The agency also announced an investigation of San Francisco radio station KCBS-AM, owned by Audacy, over its coverage of a 2025 federal immigration raid.

“Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not,” Carr wrote.

In reality, Carr and the FCC don’t really have much power to ban shows from the airwaves. For starters, TV licenses don’t come up for renewal until late 2028, during Trump’s final days as president. And the broadcast licenses aren’t owned by ABC, NBC or any other broadcast network — they’re owned by the local stations themselves, which are owned by various companies across the country.

“Carr’s threats are hollow,” Public Interest Lawyer Andrew Jay Schwartzman told CNN’s Brian Stelter. “He poses no genuine danger to any broadcasters’ licenses based on his unhappiness with their content.”

But that doesn’t mean they don’t have power. Carr’s threats alone can force large companies with business before the administration to bend, out of fear of incurring Trump’s wrath.

When Kimmel was taken off the air in September, it was because Sinclair and Nexstar — which collectively own ABC-affiliated stations in about 60 TV markets — announced they would preempt his show over comments he made about slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The move came after Carr issued a thinly-veiled threat on a conservative podcast, saying, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”

Did Nexstar move to make Carr happy because the company needs FCC approval for its $6.2 billion merger with another local TV owner, TEGNA? It’s hard to say for certain, though, a few months after Nexstar temporarily forced Kimmel off the air, Trump changed his position and backed the company’s proposed acquisition.

Then there’s Colbert, who has been an outspoken critic of Trump. Late last year, CBS announced it was canceling Colbert’s show and getting out of the late-night business altogether after more than 30 years, a tenure that began with David Letterman’s jump from NBC in 1993.

CBS claimed it was “purely a financial decision,” but it’s hard to square that with news reports of Skydance CEO David Ellison cozying up to Trump as the pending purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery moves through regulatory hurdles, a deal that would also include CNN.

Ellison also needed the Trump administration to approve its purchase of CBS-parent company Paramount, which he secured after CBS settled a $16 million lawsuit brought by Trump over the editing of his “60 Minutes” interview, a case most legal experts thought the network would easily win.

The threat alone from Carr was enough to get CBS lawyers to force Colbert to shelve a February interview with Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico out of fear it could trigger the FCC’s equal-time rule, which requires broadcast stations to provide comparable airtime to political opponents during an election.

Late-night shows airing on broadcast TV have long been exempt from the rule, but that’s changing under Carr. In January, the FCC issued a notice to broadcasters that late-night and daytime TV talk shows may lose their exempt status, claiming some were “motivated by partisan purposes.”

CBS could have chosen to stand up for Colbert and allow the interview to air. Instead, lawyers essentially forced Colbert to post it on YouTube, a move he criticized on air.

“At this point, [Carr has] just released a letter that says he’s thinking about doing away with the exemption for broadcast for late-night. He hasn’t done away with it yet,” Colbert said. “But my network is unilaterally enforcing it as if he had.”

“What this comes down to, in a metaphorical way, is giving in to blackmail,” Carter said. “They have a situation where they don’t want to upset this guy who will violate what should be a fair application of the regulations. … What they’re interested in is making Trump happy.”

It’s also worth pointing out what Carr isn’t doing. The same broadcast rules apply to radio stations that broadcast on public airwaves, but Carr has said he doesn’t plan to enforce them, likely because right-wing talk radio dominates the format.

“They’re enormous in number. Every market has them, and they have candidates on,” Carter said. “To me, that’s an invitation for a lawsuit.”

It would be, only networks and their corporate owners don’t seem to have the appetite. ABC News. which is owned by Disney, agreed to pay $15 million to settle a lawsuit that centered on “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos saying Trump had been found liable for rape. Strictly speaking, a jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse, but most legal experts expected ABC to easily win the case thanks to robust laws defending the press and freedom of speech.

As long as companies continue to cave, it’s up to the comedians to keep the fight going.

“Fundamental American values are at stake, and people in late-night are pushing him,” Carter said.

In October, Colbert welcomed Kimmel on his show, where the two unlikely free speech warriors discussed the chilling effects the “emotional rollercoaster” has had on their staffs and the need for all late-night hosts to stick together amid the administration’s crackdown.

“I never imagined that we’d ever have a president like this,” Kimmel said. “And I hope we don’t ever have another president like this again.”

Rob Tornoe is a cartoonist and columnist for Editor and Publisher, where he writes about trends in digital media. He is also a digital editor and writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer. You can reach him at robtornoe@gmail.com.