Latest / The Daily Article / Stephen Colbert responds to cancellation of The Late Show

Transcript

Stephen Colbert responds to cancellation of The Late Show · The Daily Article

• 0:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Good day and welcome to Denison Forum's Daily Article Podcast.
• 0:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: We're glad you've joined us.
• 0:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm Chris Elkins, narrator, voicing today's Daily Article, written by our co-founder, Dr. Jim Denison.
• 0:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Last night, Stephen Cober responded to CBS's shocking announcement that the late show will in next May.
• 0:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: In his monologue, he cursed President Trump called himself a martyr and asked rhetorically how could it be purely a financial decision
• 0:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: if the late show is number one in its ratings.
• 0:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Many are asking the same thing.
• 0:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: CBS stated that it was retiring the late show franchise for financial reasons, quote, not related in any way to the show's performance content or other matters happening at Paramount, the network's parent company.
• 0:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Advertising revenue for the show has dropped forty percent since two thousand eighteen.
• 0:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: Fifteen years ago, a popular late-night show could earn one hundred million dollars a year, but the late show has been losing forty million dollars a year.
• 1:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, the decision came just days after co-bear accused the network owner of bribing President Trump to approve a merger.
• 1:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Since Kobair has been such an outspoken critic of the president, the announcement sparked speculation that the network might have pulled the plug for political reasons.
• 1:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders responded, Stephen Kobair, an extraordinary talent and the most popular late-night show host slams the deal.
• 1:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Days later, he's fired.
• 1:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: Do I think this is a coincidence?
• 1:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: No.
• 1:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Actress Jamie Lee Curtis said, they're trying to silence people, but that won't work.
• 1:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: It won't work.
• 1:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: We'll just get louder.
• 1:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Vox theorized that Cobar's political slant had become too dangerous for late night.
• 1:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: For his part, President Trump responded on truth social, I absolutely love that Cobar got fired.
• 1:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: His talent was even less than his ratings.
• 2:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: In quote,
• 2:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, ESPN and MSNBC veteran Keith Obermann, himself a vociferous Trump critic noted that if the network was pulling Cober's show for political reasons, they would not be keeping him on air until May.
• 2:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Another theory is that the cancellation is just one symptom of a broader decline in late night TV.
• 2:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Several shows like Cober's have been paired down or canceled in recent years.
• 2:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, Fox News has got filled, averages three million viewers,
• 2:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: fifty percent more than co-bears at one point nine million total viewers.
• 2:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: While other late-night talk shows are struggling, Godfell's audience grew thirty-two percent in the last year.
• 2:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: I would think that many evangelicals, especially those who are strong supporters of President Trump, have read to this point with a visceral sense of satisfaction.
• 2:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: quote-unquote liberals are losing cultural influence and platforms while quote-unquote conservatives are gaining both, or it would seem so.
• 3:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not so sure.
• 3:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Studies show that younger viewers are turning to streaming, video, and social media while older viewers are staying with broadcast television.
• 3:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Younger viewers lane left while older viewers, which is Fox News's largest audience,
• 3:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: clean right.
• 3:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: So the story could be more about demographics than cultural transformation.
• 3:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Therein lies the larger point I want us to consider today.
• 3:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: In his nineteen eighty five book, I'm using ourselves to death public discourse in the age of show business author and educator Neil Postman warned that the television age has turned us from active citizens engaging complex social issues into passive consumers of entertaining soundbites.
• 3:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: Digital technology exacerbates this trajectory even more today, since we can watch whatever we want to, for however long we want to watch it.
• 3:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Since there is far too much content available for anyone to consume, we filter it by our preconceived biases.
• 4:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: If we align ourselves with the right, and here that our audience is growing, we must be winning.
• 4:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: And in a zero-some partisan conflict, if we're winning, the other side is losing.
• 4:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Why is this a problem?
• 4:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: The media business is a business.
• 4:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Wherever those who make a living in this business come down on the political spectrum, they exist to sell advertising or otherwise make a profit.
• 4:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: The more effectively they identify the audience, they seek to reach and then appeal to that audience, the more profitable they become.
• 4:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: A platform or personality may align with our values, which is always encouraging, but we need to be aware that they are selling even so.
• 4:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: They are entertaining and or informing us as a means to the end of increasing their audience and revenues.
• 4:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's nothing inherently wrong with this, of course.
• 4:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: In our day, media is a product like any other intended for its audience's consumption and its producer's profit.
• 5:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: This scenario becomes problematic, however, when Christians confuse winning the culture wars with winning souls.
• 5:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: There was a day when media, including late night television, was politically neutral.
• 5:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: I watched Johnny Carson interview political figures for decades with no real idea whether he was liberal or conservative in his political politics.
• 5:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: But today, when our partisan views are gaining in media advocates and audience, Christians can feel that the quote-unquote Christian side is winning.
• 5:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: I believe this to be a deception of the enemy.
• 5:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: He cannot have our souls, so he seeks to steal our witness.
• 5:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: The last thing he wants is for us to share the gospel persuasively and passionately with our friends, neighbors, and colleagues.
• 5:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: So he encourages us to substitute culture wars for the hard but joyful work of personal evangelism.
• 6:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Our calling from Jude three is to continue for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.
• 6:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: This faith alone, not any political party or partisan position, leads to salvation in Christ.
• 6:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: For followers of Jesus, nothing should be more urgent than helping others know our Lord.
• 6:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, we have not a moment to lose.
• 6:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: We learned yesterday that Malcolm Jamal Warner best known for playing a Theo on the Cosby Show, drowned while swimming on a family vacation in Costa Rica at the age of fifty-four.
• 6:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: A military jet crashed into a college in Bangladesh yesterday as well.
• 6:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: At least nineteen people reportedly killed and over a hundred others were injured.
• 6:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Every soul on our planet is one day closer to eternity than ever before, including every person you will meet today.
• 6:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: To this end, I need to ask you a personal question.
• 6:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: When last, did you pray for the salvation of a lost person that you know?
• 7:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: When last, did you share the gospel with them?
• 7:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: Why not today?