Legendary comedian and talk show host David Letterman spoke with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg on Thursday, sharing his thoughts on the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel and the broader attack on late-night talk shows critical of President Donald Trump and his administration.
“Well, this is misery,” Letterman said. “They took care of [Stephen] Colbert. That was rude. That was inexcusable. The man deserves a great deal of credit.”
The late-night legend criticized the Ellison family and their company Skydance over speculation that its merger with Paramount was the leverage the Trump administration used to force subsidiary CBS into canceling Colbert’s top-rated talk show.
As for Kimmel, Letterman said, “I feel bad about this because—we all see where this is going, correct? It’s managed media, and it’s no good. It’s silly. It’s ridiculous.” He warned, “You can’t go around firing somebody because you’re fearful or trying to suck up to an authoritarian, a criminal administration in the Oval Office. That’s just not how this works.”
The Trump administration teamed up with a weaponized Federal Communications Commission to successfully silence two of its sharpest and most well-known critics in the past two months, with promises of even more censorship to come.
Related | Federal government forces Jimmy Kimmel off the air. RIP First Amendment.
