David Letterman calls CBS ‘Pure Cowardice’ after Colbert’s fallout

Late-night legend David Letterman slammed CBS and Skydance Media, Paramount’s soon-to-be new partners, on Friday, July 25, for cancelling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Letterman said the outlet had mistreated the 32-year-old show and its successor, Colbert.

The late-night host recently posted an interview on his YouTube channel where he mentioned that he is not convinced by the justification that Colbert’s cancellation is “a purely financial decision.”

“This is pure cowardice,” Letterman said. “They did not do the correct thing. They did not handle Stephen Colbert, the face of that network, in the way he deserves to have been handled.”

Letterman also highlighted Paramount’s $16 million settlement with President Trump’s lawsuit and said that the company had “decided they didn’t care about freedom of the press.”

The veteran TV host also taunted Skydance Media, referring to founder David Ellison as “the Oracle twins.”

“The Ellison twins, the Oracle boys, they don’t want any trouble along the lines of freedom of the press or free speech or freedom of expression,” Letterman said. “They don’t want to get their hands dirty. They don’t want the government going after them, because that concept of freedom of the press and freedom of speech, that’s so old-fashioned.”

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