Tag: Stephen Colbert

Trump Weirdly Tweets ‘Revealing’ ‘Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ Clip

Big alert from the president: SICKO HOLLYWOOD LIBS have BANNED his Stephen Colbert interview because of something something something!!!

On Monday, Donald Trump’s account quote tweeted a video from an account using the display name “Blacks for Trump” (@BlacksForTrump5) alleging that CBS had taken down a Sept. 22, 2015 episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert featuring the president. The video is bizarrely edited and only barely comprehensible, but claims, “You are not supposed to see this video” and that “CBS DELETED this entire episode from their official website. You will not find these segments on YouTube either.”

While Colbert could be reasonably accused of lobbing softballs during the interview, the video also selectively edits the episode in question to cut off jokes and make it appear as though the host is a Trump supporter. (He is not, though it’s unclear whether the editing was intended as some kind of snark or was made in wild-eyed earnestness.)

Gizmodo has reached out to CBS for comment, and we’ll update this post if we hear back. But the CBS All Access website did not show any episodes of The Late Show prior to the month of October 2018. Clips of the Sept. 22, 2015 episode of the show in question, however, were available via that site, and more than one was on The Late Show’s official YouTube. It is hardly unusual for networks to pull older episodes of shows from streaming services due to licensing restrictions, something that the Verge noted was a particular problem with CBS All Access in a 2018 review.

In other words, it’s super-obvious this is yet more vapid bullshit the president and/or the various underlings that tweet from his account—it’s not always clear which—either lack the capacity to think critically about or are just throwing out as some kind of distraction.

Trump has previously spread outright lies alleging blacklisting on Google, discrimination against conservatives by social media companies, and that the media deliberately cooks up “Fake News” about his presidency. Even by those low, low standards, this is a particularly lazy hit job, less an Orwellian missive from the Ministry of Truth than a cringeworthy FWD: FWD: from a confused relative who just figured out how to use email.

This video has apparently been circulating among the most credulous #MAGA types on Twitter and Facebook since at least April 2018, after which point the trail dithers off into an underbelly of social media spam. It appears to be the first tweet on the @BlacksForTrump5 account, which is not widely followed, raising the question of how the president or his staff even found it. Its only newsworthiness is that Trump retweeted it, which would be profoundly embarrassing were Trump not well past the point of feeling shame about anything and everyone else well aware the emperor has a distinct shortage of things other than clothes.

Beyond that, it’s just another middle finger to anyone who actually cares about the consequences of his presidency—as well as a reminder that even after the horrific events of the past few weeks, which have included a mail bomb campaign and a mass murder at a synagogue, Trump is not slowing down with the conspiracy stuff.

Update: 10/30/2018, 11:20 a.m. ET: In response to a request for comment, CBS directed us to this tweet from Colbert:

[Gizmodo]

Trump Bashes ‘Lowlife’ Colbert, ‘Lost Soul’ Fallon, and ‘No Talent’ Kimmel in Surreal Rally Speech

During his rally in South Carolina, Donald Trump went on a surreal tangent in which he hit the late night comedians from each of the big three networks.

For the last few days, Trump has been complaining about Fallon with regard to the infamous 2016 interview in which the NBC funnyman ruffled the then-candidate’s hair. Fallon has expressed regret for how he humanized Trump amid his various political controversies, and Trump responded by complaining about his hair being messed up.

When Trump brought this up on Monday night, he sarcastically remarked that Fallon is “going to lose all of us” for being sorry about the interview. He went on to trash Stephen Colbert as a “lowlife,” and said Jimmy Kimmel is “terrible” has “no talent.”

“Honestly, are these people funny?” Trump asked. “I can laugh at myself. Frankly, if I couldn’t, I’d be in big trouble. But they’re no talent. They’re not talented people.”

After Trump told a really dismissive story about the time he went on Kimmel’s show, he called Fallon a “lost soul” and bragged about how he gave him a ratings boost by appearing on his program. He continued to say that Fallon “really hurt himself” by apologizing, and then he eventually worked in a complaint about how Arnold Schwarzenegger ruined The Apprentice.

[Mediaite]

Trump Takes a Jab at the Emmys After Threatening to ‘Destroy North Korea’ in First UN Speech

Two days after celebrities threw verbal jabs at President Donald Trump during the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards, Trump fired back at his critics with a tweet.

“I was saddened to see how bad the ratings were on the Emmys last night – the worst ever,” Trump tweeted on Tuesday evening.

“Smartest people of them all are the “DEPLORABLES,” Trump said, referencing a term Hillary Clinton used to describe some of Trump’s supporters during the contentious 2016 election.

Though the 2017 Emmys ratings were not “the worst ever” as Trump described, they averaged 11.4 million viewers, about 100,000 more than in 2016 – the show’s all-time low, according to Variety.

During the awards Sunday night, Trump bore the brunt of several jokes made by its host, comedian Stephen Colbert and several other celebrities who won awards that night.

“Unlike the presidency, Emmys go to the winner of the popular vote,” Colbert joked at one point, referring to the results of the US presidential election.

Trump’s comments about the Emmys came just hours after he delivered a fiery speech before the United Nations General Assembly in New York, in which he threatened the US could “totally destroy North Korea” if its nuclear aggressions continue.

[Business Insider]

Reality

Let’s also remember that Donald Trump once said during a debate the Emmys were “rigged” because he never won one for Celebrity Apprentice.

Also he tweeted that the Emmys were last night, but his tweet was on a Tuesday and the Emmys aired on Sunday.

President Trump Attacks ‘Lunatic,’ ‘No-Talent,’ ‘Dumbest Person’ in TV

President Donald Trump says he thinks CNN’s Chris Cuomo looks like a “chained lunatic” on television. CNN’s Don Lemon is “perhaps the dumbest person in broadcasting” and CBS Late Show host Stephen Colbert is a “no-talent guy” who talks “filthy.”

Those were just some of the comments Trump offered over dinner Monday night when asked about the media he consumes as President of the United States. But he did little to hide his frustration, explaining that he had been surprised that the journalistic criticism had gotten worse after the campaign. He also said he had been working on tuning out news that is critical of him.

“I’ve been able to do something that I never thought I had the ability to do. I’ve been able not to watch or read things that aren’t pleasant,” he said, maintaining that he no longer watches CNN or MSNBC. “And it keeps you young.”

There was little doubt, however, that he remained acutely aware of what reporters and correspondents were saying about him. He has large flat-screen televisions set up in the Treaty Room in the White House residence and in his private dining room in the West Wing. He continues to have stacks of newspapers and magazines delivered to his office suite in the West Wing.

“Washington Post, New York Times, they’re really, really dishonest,” he said, before directly addressing the TIME reporters he had invited for dinner. “You people are quite dishonest in all fairness.” He said he used to watch MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough but no longer does. He also claimed to have helped CNN president Jeff Zucker, an old friend and business colleague, get his job at the network.

The one network he praised was Fox News, saying he watches their shows and is responsible for its ratings bump.

Spokespeople for MSNBC and CBS said the networks had no comment on the president’s criticism. A CNN spokesperson said, “His comments are beneath the dignity of the office of the President.” Trump’s claims about CNN’s Zucker have been repeatedly refuted by the executives involved.

Here’s an extended excerpt of his conversation with TIME:

For instance I don’t watch CNN. I don’t watch MSNBC. Scarborough used to treat me great. But because I don’t do interviews and stuff and want to … He went the other way. Which is fine. He’s got some problems. But I don’t watch the show anymore. It drives him crazy. I don’t watch the show.

I do watch Fox in the morning, and their ratings have gone through the roof because everyone knows I’m watching Fox. But they’re pleasant. And if I do something wrong they report on it. I don’t mean they – if I do something wrong. But it’s really, honestly it’s the most accurate.

CNN in the morning, Chris Cuomo, he’s sitting there like a chained lunatic. He’s like a boiler ready to explode, the level of hatred. And the entire, you know the entire CNN platform is that way. This Don Lemon who’s perhaps the dumbest person in broadcasting, Don Lemon at night it’s like – sometimes they’ll have a guest who by mistake will say something good. And they’ll start screaming, we’re going to commercial. They cut him off. Remember?

I’ve seen things where by mistake somebody they bring in a guest and it turns out to be a positive. And they go, I mean they get just killed. The level of hatred. And poor Jeffrey Lord. I love Jeffrey Lord. But sometimes he’s sitting there with eight unknown killers that nobody ever heard of. And CNN actually is not doing nearly as well as others. They’re all doing well because of me. But it’s not doing as well as others that are doing better actually. But Fox treats me very fairly. MSNBC is ridiculous. It’s just bad.

It’s an ability I never thought I’d have. I never thought I’d have the ability to say, they’re doing a big story on me on CNN and I won’t watch it. And it’s amazing, it doesn’t matter. But it really, the equilibrium is much better. As far as newspapers and things, I glance at them. They’re really dishonest. I mean they’re really dishonest.

Trump also brought up The Late Show host Stephen Colbert’s blistering and crude May 1 monologue, in which the comedian delivered an oral-sex joke about the president and Russian President Vladimir Putin:

You see a no-talent guy like Colbert. There’s nothing funny about what he says. And what he says is filthy. And you have kids watching. And it only builds up my base. It only helps me, people like him. The guy was dying. By the way they were going to take him off television, then he started attacking me and he started doing better. But his show was dying. I’ve done his show. … But when I did his show, which by the way was very highly rated. It was high—highest rating. The highest rating he’s ever had.

(h/t Time)

FCC to Investigate, ‘Take Appropriate Action’ on Colbert’s Trump Rant

Late night talk show host Stephen Colbert’s controversial joke about President Trump drew the attention of the Federal Communications Commission. The agency received “a number” of complaints about Colbert’s commentary earlier in the week, according to the FCC’s chief.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai promised to “take the appropriate action” following a comprehensive investigation of Colbert’s remarks.

The FCC’s response will depend on whether Colbert’s remarks are considered “obscene.”

“We are going to take the facts that we find and we are going to apply the law as it’s been set out by the Supreme Court and other courts and we’ll take the appropriate action,” he told Talk Radio 1210 WPHT Thursday.

“Traditionally, the agency has to decide, if it does find a violation, what the appropriate remedy should be,” he said. “A fine, of some sort, is typically what we do.”

Broadcast television is governed by different rules depending on the time of day, Pai said Wednesday, prior to viewing Colbert’s comments.

The FCC flags speech it considers “indecent” before 10 p.m., he told Fox Business Network, and looks for “obscene” content after that point. Colbert’s “The Late Show” airs at 11:35 p.m. ET on CBS.

The agency’s website states that content must meet a three-tier Supreme Court test to be labeled “obscene.”

“It must appeal to an average person’s prurient interest; depict or describe sexual conduct in a ‘patently offensive’ way; and, taken as a whole, lack serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value,” it reads.

Colbert on Monday unleashed a flood of insults at Trump, satirizing an interview with CBS news the president cut short the day before.

“The only thing your mouth is good at is being [Russian President] Vladimir Putin’s c—k holster,” he said of Trump.

Colbert on Wednesday defended his joke amid fierce backlash online.

“I don’t regret that,” he said. “[Trump], I believe, can take care of himself. I have jokes; he has the launch codes. So, it’s a fair fight.”

Reality

Last week all Republican media, like Fox News, could stop talking about how the First Amendment is under attack because Ann Coulter wasn’t able to bring her racist hate speech to Berkley, CA. This week they want Stephen Colbert fired over jokes they didn’t like.