Since Stephen Colbert took the reins from David Letterman at The Late Show on CBS, he’s been proving to be serving comedy and commentary for the blue half of America. Kyle Smith of the New York Post penned a piece titled “Colbert’s Late Show has become propaganda for Democrats.”
The large amount of advertising spent on the buildup to Colbert taking over Letterman’s coveted spot brought a decent jolt in ratings at the beginning of the show, but have since plummeted, mainly because Colbert has turned off a significant portion of that audience – the conservative audience.
Colbert’s audience primarily consists of 47 percent who identify as Democrats, while 17 percent identify as Republicans. That’s a huge gap compared to his competition, considering 33 percent of Democrats and 32 percent of Republicans watch Jimmy Kimmel on ABC, and 36 percent of Democrats and 31 percent of self-identified Republicans watch Jimmy Fallon on NBC. [Photo illustration by the Post]
Colbert Nation is filled with wealthy, socially liberal men who overwhelmingly support legalizing marijuana and want Bernie Sanders to be president,” pollster Jon Penn explained to The Hollywood Reporter. Some 30 percent of Colbert viewers report that they are atheists, which is the No. 1 “religion category” choice for “Late Show” viewers.
As opposed to the other late-night shows, Colbert’s show caters to a certain demographic versus a broad one, and for this reason alone, makes Colbert different from his competition.
Why? Smith blamed the host for his interviews: “The pattern is familiar: When a Democrat is the guest, Colbert is Barbara Walters. When a Republican is on, he turns into Tim Russert.” Smith cited The Atlantic:
Even by Colbert’s standards, his interview with [Ted] Cruz featured much tougher treatment than any of his other political interviews to date . . . Colbert steered almost completely clear of politics in his moving interview with [Joe] Biden. And when Bernie Sanders appeared on the show last week, Colbert gave him space to deliver his campaign talking points with little interruption.
Just as Brent Baker at NewsBusters recounted, The Atlantic noted "The tension in the Cruz interview came during the second segment, when Colbert laid a bit of a trap for him by asking how the modern Republican Party could hold Reagan in such high esteem given that he raised taxes and signed legislation granting amnesty to undocumented immigrants. 'Neither of those things would allow Ronald Reagan to be nominated today,' Colbert said. 'So how can you truly emulate Ronald Reagan?'”
With Cruz, it was “Almost as if he was trying out a third personality — a parody of a know-nothing liberal pundit” as he made a complete ass of himself by saying Cruz essentially likened his opponents with Satan. “You’re a religious man, right, you’re a religious man? . . . What about your opponents politically, are they diabolical?”
It was nothing like Colbert's treatment of ultraliberal Sen. Elizabeth Warren. He compared her to Batman.
Smith, who trashed the selection of Colbert to replace Letterman in 2014, concluded: "Colbert is so unremittingly hostile to Republicans that he will shortly find conservative invitees declining to appear. (Except Ted Cruz, who would argue with a tree stump.) That means the Colbert show risks turning into an echo chamber in which viewers doze off as Colbert and his liberal guests beam lovingly at each other like a mother and child."
