Fox News Anchor Flat-Out Asks FCC Chair If Trump Was Involved in Colbert Cancellation
Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer opened his Thursday interview with FCC Chair Brendan Carr by flat-out asking him whether President Donald Trump was involved in the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s Late Show.
Carr joined America’s Newsroom on Thursday where he talked up the president’s war on “legacy” media outlets. Hemmer pressed Carr on whether Trump had “anything” to do with the recent cancellation of Colbert’s Late Show. Colbert is a vocal critic of the president and fans have tied his cancellation to a pending merger between Paramount and Skydance and a settlement Paramount recently reached with the president over a lawsuit against CBS.
“Let’s just go ahead and get it out of the way. Did President Trump have anything to do with the cancelation of Stephen Colbert’s show?” Hemmer asked Carr.
Carr celebrated Trump’s contentious relationship with the media, arguing he’s taking down their “gatekeeper” status.
He said:
What’s important to keep in mind is a broader dynamic. When President Trump ran for election, he ran right at these legacy broadcast media outfits and the New York and Hollywood elites that are behind it, and he smashed the facade that these are gatekeepers that can control what Americans think and what Americans can say. And once you do that, you’ve exposed the business model of a lot of these outfits as being nothing more than a partisan circus. And so I think there’s a lot of consequences that are flowing from President Trump deciding, I’m not gonna play by the rules of politicians in the past and let these legacy outfits dictate the narratives in the terms of the debate, and he’s succeeding. Just look at what’s happening. NPR has been defunded, PBS has been defunded, Colbert is getting canceled. You’ve got anchors in news media personalities losing their jobs. Again, all of this is downstream of President Trump’s decision to stand up. And he stood up for the American people because the American people do not trust these legacy gatekeepers anymore. And all of these, I think, is consequences of that broader dynamic.
Hemmer noted Carr did not directly answer the question.
“Okay, I asked you a very direct question. I did not hear a yes or a no in your answer. I heard a maybe,” he said.
“Ultimately, these are business decisions for CBS to make and for these outfits to make,” Carr said. “And I’m shocked that the type of stuff that you just played, they don’t find to be in their profitable business interests.”
Hemmer also asked Carr during their interview about the White House lashing out at View co-host Joy Behar, calling her an “irrelevant loser,” and her insults against the president. Hemmer asked whether The View is in the “crosshairs” of Trump.
“Look, it’s entirely possible that there’s issues over there,” Carr said. “I mean, again, stepping back, this broader dynamic, once President Trump has exposed these media gatekeepers and smashed this facade, there’s a lot of consequences. I think the consequences of that aren’t quite finished.”
Watch above via Fox News.
