Bruce Springsteen Blames Trump for Colbert Firing: The President ‘Can’t Take a Joke’

Bruce Springsteen blamed President Trump for Stephen Colbert’s firing during the second-to-last episode of CBS’s “The Late Show” on Wednesday night. “I am here in support tonight for Stephen because you’re the first guy in America who lost his show because we’ve got a president who can’t take a joke,” Mr. Springsteen said. “And because Larry and David Ellison feel they need to kiss his ass to get what they want.”The musician was slated to perform his protest song “Streets of Minneapolis,” which was written in response to the shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.Before the performance, however, he slammed CBS’s decision to cancel “The Late Show,” saying: “Stephen, these are small-minded people who got no idea what the freedoms of this beautiful country are supposed to be about.”Last July, CBS announced it would cancel “The Late Show,” after a roughly 30-year run. The network said that it had “purely” financial motivations for ending the franchise, and Puck later reported that the program was losing up to $40 million a year. Mr. Trump celebrated the news in a post on Truth Social, writing, “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings.”However, Democrats and fans of Mr. Colbert have suggested that there were political motivations. When CBS made the cancellation announcement, the Federal Communications Commission was reviewing a merger between the network’s parent company, Paramount Global, and Skydance Media. The FCC approved the merger a week after CBS announced the cancellation. The CEO of Skydance, David Ellison, and his father, a Trump supporter and co-founder of Oracle, Larry Ellison, have been seen as aligned with the president. Under David Ellison’s management, executives at CBS News have tried to address longstanding complaints of a left-wing bias at the network. Mr. Colbert has publicly refused to speculate on CBS’s motivations for ending his show. In an interview with the New York Times, he said, “I do not dispute their rationale. I do make jokes about it. But I also completely understand why people would say (A) that doesn’t make sense to me and (B) that seems fishy to me, because the network did it to themselves by bending the knee to the Trump administration over a $20 billion, settled for $16 million, completely frivolous lawsuit.”“It behooves me not, it ain’t ‘behoovy’ for me, to spend a lot of time thinking about that. I have zero desire to have a contentious relationship with my network. I’ve really liked working with CBS,” he added. Mr. Trump has previously attacked Mr. Springsteen on Truth Social, calling him a “dried-up prune” and a “total loser.”

Bruce Springsteen Blames Trump for Colbert Firing: The President ‘Can’t Take a Joke’

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