Building an empire takes decades. Destroying it can only take a few years, and sometimes the vandals are in the palace, not outside the gates.
For much of the 20th century, American broadcast television revolved around three networks: NBC, ABC, and CBS. William S. Paley, CBS’s longtime CEO, made sure that his company—the Columbia Broadcasting Service—was a leader among them. The network was home to Edward R. Murrow, who brought World War II in Europe home to Americans on CBS Radio; after the war, Murrow’s reporting played a pivotal role in bringing down Senator Joseph McCarthy. Walter Cronkite dominated American evenings from his perch at the Evening News. And from the days of Mike Wallace to the more recent era of Lesley Stahl and Scott Pelley, 60 Minutes set the standard for longform television reporting.
Yet CBS’s current ownership seems determined to demolish this legacy. This evening, the network announced plans to end The Late Show With Stephen Colbert when the host’s contract ends next May. Late-night personalities come and go, but usually that happens when their ratings sag. Colbert, however, has consistently led competitors in his timeslot. CBS said this was “purely a financial decision,” made as traditional linear television fades.
Perhaps this is true, but the network that once made Cronkite the most trusted man in America no longer gets the benefit of the doubt. CBS’s owners have made a series of decisions capitulating to President Donald Trump, and the surprise choice to allow Colbert—a consistent, prominent Trump critic—to walk seems like part of that pattern.
One reasonable starting date for the trouble would be 2016. That was both the year that Trump was first elected president and the year that Sumner Redstone, the cussed but aging owner of CBS’s parent company Paramount, surrendered control to his daughter, Shari Redstone. In 2023, Shari Redstone began seeking a buyer for the company, eventually striking a deal, in 2024, with Skydance. The merger requires federal approval.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, 60 Minutes interviewed Kamala Harris, Trump’s Democratic opponent. Trump sued CBS, alleging that the network improperly edited her interview. As supposed evidence, he cited different excerpts of the interview that had aired on different CBS shows. (If CBS was seeking to hide anything, then airing the clips on their network wasn’t a very effective way to do it.) He demanded $20 billion, a sum that was preposterous especially because—as most First Amendment lawyers agreed—the suit had no merit.
But Trump had major leverage: He won the November presidential election, giving him a role in approving the proposed Skydance-Paramount merger. During his first term, he’d already demonstrated his willingness to use his approval power to punish political opponents in the media, unsuccessfully seeking to block the merger of AT&T and Time Warner.
Since the election, CBS has seemed eager to please Trump however it can, though the company continues to insist the merger has no bearing on its decisions. The network handed over transcripts of the 60 Minutes interview to Brendan Carr, the close Trump ally appointed to lead the Federal Communications Commission. In April, 60 Minutes chief Bill Owens, a widely respected journalist, stepped down. “It’s clear the company is done with me,” he told staff during a meeting. In a memo, he elaborated: “Over the past months, it has become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it, to make independent decisions based on what was right for ‘60 Minutes,’ right for the audience.” Some of the shows’ reporters, who are not prone to histrionic statements or partisanship, raised alarms in interviews and speeches.
Earlier this month, CBS agreed to a $16 million settlement to end Trump’s lawsuit. The agreement doesn’t pay Trump directly, but the network agreed to pay legal fees for him and a co-plaintiff, and to contribute to Trump’s future presidential library. Trump has stated that the deal also includes unspecified “advertising,” reportedly for public-service announcements that boost Trump-approved causes. Paramount denies this. Now comes Colbert’s departure. If the reasons are truly financial, one wonders how his salary compares to the money spent to settle a dubious lawsuit.
The president now seems favorably disposed toward the merger. Last month, he spoke highly of Skydance head David Ellison, who is the son of Oracle founder and Trump pal Larry Ellison. Still, the deal has not yet been approved by the FCC.
Paramount and Skydance’s executives have demonstrated that they aren’t interested in defending CBS’s journalism or its editorial independence, to the detriment not only of the network’s historical reputation but also the many excellent journalists still working there. Journalism, along with Colbert’s program, make up only a small portion of Paramount’s portfolio, and so business executives might view sacrificing them to preserve a deal as a prudent, if cold-blooded, maneuver.
But the recent experience of another Columbia—Columbia University—offers a warning. When assailed by the Trump administration, the university’s administration struck a conciliatory stance, trying to make a deal with the president. The capitulation only encouraged Trump, who then sought a judicial decree for oversight of the school. (The two parties are still in talks.) What happened at Columbia is the same thing Trump has done to many other adversaries: If you give him an inch, he’ll take a yard, and immediately scheme to grab a mile, too. Institutions that are willing to sacrifice their values for the government’s favor are likely to end up with neither.
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