Caffeinated Politics

There’s a particular quiet that settles over the country at the end of the day. The dinner dishes are done, the dog has finally stopped barking at the neighbor’s recycling bin, and the nation collectively exhales. The kids are hopefully asleep. The last household chore is completed, and the outside light has been turned off. That is when the nation turned to Steve Allen, Jack Paar, Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, and David Letterman. When Letteman departed his role as a tonic for the nation, Stephen Colbert stepped into the quiet of the night for millions of Americans.

For the past decade, there have been far too many days when the news felt akin to a slow-motion multiple-vehicle car crash. Colbert experienced the events as you and I did. He was shocked, mortified, and embarrassed. But then he sifted through the wreckage with wit and a raised eyebrow, asking the nation to find a reason to laugh at Trump, MAGA, the reckless voters, and their continuing absurd circus. In the bleakest moments, he reminded us that humor wasn’t an escape hatch — it was a lifeline.

And now, somehow, it’s over.

Tonight, James and I did what we have done for years. We watched the recorded episode (no commercials allowed in our home) of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The difference being this was the last program. What struck me midway through the interview with Paul McCartney was the feeling that a national emotional contract was being ripped in two. But if I am honest (I try to write that way in each column), CBS severely frayed that relationship many months ago.

Paramount’s corporate contortions, the obscene kneeling to the Trump Administration in ways both subtle and embarrassingly overt, and the slow hollowing‑out of the network’s backbone all led us to where we are tonight. CBS Radio News is gone today, its storied news service tossed aside after nearly 100 years of operation. Not with a bang, but with a disgusting boardroom shrug.

The high standard of journalism that was the foundation of CBS News has been torn asunder by Bari Weiss. I have argued that there needs to be a new slogan for whatever they are calling news under the Weiss‑ified version of it now. A division once known for its spine now feels like it’s been rolled like cheap orange dough.  Weiss is a pro-Trump stooge.

When she spiked the 60 Minutes segment on the Trump administration’s deportation of Venezuelan men to the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center prison in El Salvador, the reason smacked of pure partisan hackry. She said the piece did not have a response from the Trump Administration.

The fact that the White House refused to offer a response when allowed the opportunity by the news program was then THE RESPONSE. If every central player in a news story only needed to not respond to a reporter to abort coverage, wow, every criminal and tyrant would employ such a tactic. Weiss proved she would shamelessly carry water for the Trump Administration.

Since that weekend, this home has not watched a CBS news program. We have heard many friends and some family members say they have done the same. Reminds me of the national disconnection to the digital version of the Washington Post in 2024, another action this home took. (As of May 2026, CBS Evening News with discredited anchor Tony Dokoupil is averaging under 4 million nightly viewers, trailing significantly behind competitors NBC and ABC.)

Stephen Colbert was the only program we watched on CBS since last fall. So yes, Colbert’s departure lands differently at our home. It’s not just a host leaving. It is another sign as corporate pricks show what they are made of, while Trump proves he cannot take a joke. I loved that in our nation a monologue landed like a pebble in the presidential shoe, a tiny reminder that satire still had teeth, and that a late‑night host with a raised eyebrow could rattle a man-child who preferred being continuously fluffed to facing honesty.

I do not think it is a bold prediction to say that Jimmy Kimmel is the big winner. His show, already wildly successful, will grow. In my homey way, let me call him the latest national porch light. In a media landscape increasingly shaped by fear and embarrassing corporate timidity, Kimmel’s sharp tone and rebukes will be our late-night refuge.

I will truly miss Stephen Colbert. His sharpness, warmth, and moral clarity were all wrapped in a humorous monologue.

“This is not a goodbye, it’s a thank you.”