Erik Bottcher Joins Protests Outside Stephen Colbert’s Late Show

City Council Member Erik Bottcher leads protest to call on CBS to reverse the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s Late Show

By Arthur Schwartz

Village / Chelsea / Hell’s Kitchen City Council Member Erik Bottcher joined protests outside Stephen Colbert’s Late Show on July 23 after CBS announced the program will be canceled next year.

The network said in a statement that the cancellation was “purely a financial decision” and was not related to the show’s performance, content, “or other matters happening at Paramount.”

But protesters took to the streets outside the Manhattan studio, hosting a SAVE COLBERT! solidarity rally to call on CBS and Paramount to reverse the cancellation of the popular show. The rally started with a march from historic Ed Sullivan Theater and headed towards the Paramount headquarters in Times Square. Demonstrators delivered 10 boxes filled with “Save Colbert” petitions to the company. More than 250,000 people had signed the petitions prior to the rally.

The petition campaign was led by led by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which condemned Paramount’s decision as “blatantly political,” adding, “America needs Stephen Colbert’s voice now more than ever. Save the Late Show.”

The next Thursday federal regulators approved entertainment conglomerate Paramount’s $8 billion merger with Skydance, which will bring Paramount’s principal owner, Sumner Redstone, a $2.4 billion payday. (Paramount owns CBS.) That same week, Congress passed a law stripping hundreds of millions in funding for NPR and PBS. Even Sesame Street was not spared.

The CBS-Paramount FCC approval was a sad day, In a pair of letters filed with the FCC, Skydance committed to a post-merger “comprehensive review of CBS,” including a promise to install an ombudsman to evaluate complaints of “bias or other concerns” at the news network and report their findings to the new Paramount’s president.

Skydance also committed to eliminating Paramount’s diversity, equity and inclusion practices once it takes over. The letters touted that Skydance does not and will not have any DEI programs in place.

In six months major media has tripped over itself to figure out how to kiss Trump’s Royal Ass. This includes settlements of baseless defamation suits, firings of columnists and a pledge to stop talking about civil rights.

What’s more, just before the Colbert cancellation Paramount agreed to pay $16 million to Trump because of how it edited an interview with Kamala Harris in the Fall of 2024. Senator Bernie Sanders described the settlement this way: “It is a dark day for freedom of the press. Paramount’s decision to settle with Trump will only embolden him to continue his attack on the media. Trump is undermining our democracy and moving us towards authoritarianism, and the billionaires are helping him do it.”

There is nothing more damaging to the First Amendment and a free press than rewarding a lawsuit which attacks the way a media outlet edits a news report. And now they are “editing” their comedy presentations.

Thank goodness we have local media like Village View.