By Even the liberal audience of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert believes CNN is a joke. During an interview with CNN host Kaitlan Collins, Colbert and his guest were caught flatfooted when the audience laughed at the late-night comic’s assertion that CNN News is “objective.”
The Wrap discussed the embarrassing scene for Collins, who had just finished giving what was tantamount to a Kamala Harris talking point and seemed genuinely shocked at the idea that no one thinks she’s fair.
Collins and Colbert were happily chatting along – “I feel like I know you because I watch you most nights,” the host said – about what it’s like to cover Donald Trump when the rollicking reckoning came. Collins was letting fly with a bit of gossip from “inside Trump World,” where she said the ebullient Republican mood coming out of the RNC has changed since the nomination of Kamala Harris.
“Trump has been thrown on his heels, and he’s not really sure how to go after Vice President Harris,” Collins said. “He knew his attack lines on President Biden. He really has struggled with how to go after someone who’s 20 years younger than him, a different gender, different race. It’s kind of been this moment where he has not been able to coalesce around a single attack line.”
That’s where Colbert said, without irony, “I know you guys are objective over there, that you just report the news as it is.”
Cue sustained live-audience laughter.
Collins looked genuinely flabbergasted.“Is that supposed to be a laugh line?” she said.
“It wasn’t supposed to be,” Colbert continued, “but I guess it is.”
Not even NYC lefties buy CNN as objective. @colbertlateshow audience laughed when Stephen #Colbert asserted: “I know you guys are objective over there, that you just report the news as it is” @KaitlanCollins: “That supposed to be a laugh line?” Colbert: “It wasn’t supposed to be” pic.twitter.com/IfqNEDPrfa
— Brent Baker 🇺🇦 🇮🇱 (@BrentHBaker) August 13, 2024
Collins first came to prominence after CNN star Don Lemon allegedly attacked her off-camera for allegedly interrupting him, leaving her in tears.
During Donald Trump’s presidency, CNN became widely perceived as a partisan news organization, particularly due to the consistently anti-Trump tone of its primetime programming. Jim Acosta, the network’s White House reporter at the time, frequently engaged in combative exchanges with members of the Trump administration, which further fueled tensions between the network and the White House. As a result, Trump often referred to CNN as “fake news,” a label that stuck with the network throughout his term. This period marked a significant shift in CNN’s public image, aligning it more closely with liberal viewpoints and causing significant rifts with conservative audiences.
In 2022, Chris Licht, a television producer best known for his work with Stephen Colbert, took the helm at CNN with a clear mission to dial back the left-leaning opinion programming that had taken hold under his predecessor, Jeff Zucker. Licht made efforts to mend relationships with Republicans who had been alienated by the network’s previous coverage and initiated the firing of several prominent liberal anchors and reporters. However, many Zucker-era staffers remained at CNN, creating an environment of internal resistance. Licht’s tenure was short-lived, ending in 2023 after he reportedly lost the confidence of the network’s liberal employees.
Over the past few years, “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” has been derided as “late night therapy for liberals” due to its strong appeal to liberal audiences, particularly during Donald Trump’s presidency. Colbert, known for his sharp political satire and criticism of Trump and conservative policies, often used his monologue to go on leftwing rants.
Late night group therapy for libs actually becomes group therapy for libs. https://t.co/SnX86kmEZw
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) August 29, 2023
The show became a refuge for many liberals who were frustrated or anxious about the political climate, but he seemed to go off the rails during the COVID-19 pandemic.
CNN recently tried to regain some of its ratings share by hiring Charles Barkley and Gayle King as hosts, but the show flopped.
[Read More: Kamala Mocked For Copying Trump’s Popular Policy]
