Legacy Media Journos Enter Final Stage of Colbert Grief

That was fast.

The Legacy Media circled the wagons to tell us “The Late Show’s” cancellation was, in no particular order:

• The end of DemocracyTM
• The end of Free Speech
• The end of Speaking Truth to Power
• Proof of President Trump’s authoritarian impulses

Never mind that outlets kept talking to folks behind the scenes at CBS and couldn’t find a single fact to back the latter up.

Now? The same platforms are sharing stories that help explain why Late-Night TV is on its last legs.

Consider Jay Leno.

Jay Leno absolutely nails it

In a recent interview with Fox News, the late night legend called out CBS for axing The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and more importantly, he took aim at what comedy has now become.

“I don’t understand why you would alienate one particular… pic.twitter.com/SPRn4DtWwN

— Philip Couper (@P_Couper) July 28, 2025

The late-night champion retired in 2014 after more than two decades atop the ratings charts. Leno leans to the Left off-screen, but he never let that bleed into his monologues.

He hit both sides in the grand Johnny Carson tradition. 

Leno recently criticized the current late-night landscape for being relentlessly one-sided. (“Gutfeld!” remains the top-rated exception)

“…I like to think that people come to a comedy show to kind of get away from the things, you know, the pressures of life, whatever it might be … And I love political humor, don’t get me wrong, but it’s just what happens when people wind up cozying too much to one side or the other.

“I don’t think anybody wants to hear a lecture.”

He stated the obvious, the ultimate Dog Bites Man retort. Yet the comments quickly went viral in Legacy Media outlets.

Entertainment Weekly. Variety. The Hollywood Reporter. Deadline. The Daily Beast. CNN. USA Today. The Hill. Rolling Stone. The Wrap.

These sites routinely ignore stories that don’t align with their progressive worldview.

All. The. Time.

So why give wall-to-wall coverage of Leno stating the obvious?

Next up? Piers Morgan. The British pundit is hard to pin down, ideologically speaking. He still mocked Colbert and the late-night lineup in toto, for being aggressively one-sided.

“Most of America’s biggest late-night hosts have become nothing more than hyper-partisan activist hacks for the Democrats — a party that’s rarely been more unpopular. No wonder Colbert got canned. More will follow.”

Sound familiar?

Yet, again, some Legacy Media outlets lined up to share Morgan’s thoughts. Deadline. Variety. The Independent. Yahoo.

Meanwhile, “CBS News Sunday Morning” just aired a loving tribute to Carson. The vignette highlighted the late-night legend’s ability to make us laugh without turning viewers against each other.

That’s the Colbert model. Carson did it differently, drawing millions of viewers each night.

“That was part of the magic of Carson: community,” said Carson biographer Mike Thomas.

Why the pivot? Blame the five stages of grief: Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and, now, acceptance. Plus, legacy media outlets know the average consumer knows Colbert and co. are deeply divisive, angry and one-sided.

(Even if they rarely label Colbert as “progressive” or “liberal”)

They’ve tried to hide those facts in the days following “The Late Show’s” cancellation. It failed, thanks in part to new media platforms sharing the actual truth.

That embarrassing Colbert protest may have shown reporters we’ve already moved on from the cancellation, even if they haven’t.

NYC’s ‘We’re With Colbert’ rally for late-night host is a bust with just 20 protesters https://t.co/FyYrTL3Nb8 pic.twitter.com/5QMI8GvhTd

— New York Post (@nypost) July 27, 2025

Now, they’re allowing the truth to leak out. Better late than never.