On Colbert and Information Control
The pressure on CBS is just one more data point in Trump's aim to control the information space
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ALEX’S WEEKLY RANT!
In the early 2000s, a Russian television satire show called “Kukly” was forced off the air. The show, whose title means “Puppets,” was styled after the French satirical show Les Guignols d’Info, which created puppets of politicians and celebrities and mercilessly satirized them.
Kukly had done the unforgivable: it had made fun of the new Russian President Vladimir Putin. Reportedly, one of the more ruthless jokes made fun of Putin’s height—or lack thereof. NTV, the channel that aired Kukly, had also given a platform to opponents of Putin’s political party, critics of the Second Chechen War, and residents of Moscow’s Ryazan apartments, which had been bombed in 1999; later evidence pointed to the deed being carried out by Putin’s security services. Soon enough, NTV managers felt the pressure of the Kremlin bearing down on them. By 2001, state-owned Gazprom had taken over the channel. Others stations folded over the next few years.
This week, CBS announced the end of the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The move comes only days after Colbert criticized CBS’s settling with Trump over a revenge-driven lawsuit involving the show “60 Minutes.” CBS’s parent company, Paramount, agreed to pay $16 million dollars to Trump to settle the suit and help smooth the way for a multibillion-dollar merger between Paramount and Skydance. Colbert called the move “a big fat bribe.”
But it is not that singular comment that led to the show’s cancellation. Colbert and his longtime friend and former boss Jon Stewart—host of the Daily Show on Comedy Central, which is also owned by Paramount—have long been cultural touchstones highlighting the hypocrisies and absurdities of those in power. Both have been consistent critics and targets of Trump. Media reporter Oliver Darcy reported, before the cancellation was announced, that Larry Ellison and his son, David, who will own CBS and Comedy Central after the merger, might be receptive to getting rid of the two comedians to curry favor with Trump.
Laughing can be dangerous
For years now, we have been in an information war. I have written about it extensively, mostly vis à vis Russia and its influence operations. But, of course, Trump and his minions have learned from those operations and apply them here at home against Americans. From early on, Trump has made clear his intention to control the information space. (See here, here, and here for just a few examples.)
In a war where words are weapons, satire can be a precision-guided missile that takes out authority. Authoritarians need to control the information space and the narrative and therefore must stop any counter narrative, particularly any that are entertaining and make people laugh. Not only does the authoritarian become the butt of a joke, but people feel good taking him down. This creates cohesion among the masses and runs contrary to a movement that relies on fear and intimidation. This is why Putin insisted on taking out Kukly and why shows like Colbert’s and Stewart’s, or Les Guignols in France, are so loved: satire allows power to remain with the people. Laughing at power is power.
The wider information space
The Colbert cancellation news comes in the same week that Congress advanced a bill to gut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, threatening shows like Sesame Street (which I wrote about here) and public radio stations across the country. The people who will suffer most from this are those living in rural areas, where private donations to public radio do not compare to those in big cities. The likely consequence will be less good information going to those rural areas, as privately-funded religious and conservative stations move in. Of course, that might be the point.
At the same time, oligarchs are taking over so many of our media outlets and newspapers. Jeff Bezos has made a mockery of the Washington Post’s “Democracy dies in darkness” motto. He is considering buying Condé Nast, which owns the New Yorker and Vanity Fair among other media assets, as a wedding gift for his new wife. Patrick Soon-Shiong is dismantling the Los Angeles Times. The Skydance merger puts numerous media assets in the hands of the Ellisons. ABC and now CBS have folded to White House pressure, as have law firms that might protect critics of the regime. All of these moves are, as civil rights attorney Alejandra Caraballo recently put it, “interconnected fronts in a single, undeclared war on the very concept of an informed public.” As she writes,
The oligarchs' private capture of the media is but one arm of a pincer movement. The other is a direct, state led assault by the Trump administration and its allies on any remaining sources of independent information. This demonstrates a core tenet of modern authoritarianism: there is no distinction between the state and the party. All levers of government, from regulatory agencies to the justice system and the federal budget are seen not as instruments of public service, but rather as legitimate weapons to be used to reward allies and punish enemies. From this perspective, these actions are not an abuse of the system; they are the system's intended purpose.
Satire and creativity are so important in a moment like this. Indeed, there are reasons authoritarians go after artists who dare people to dream and to laugh. As Colbert himself said after the 2016 election, “You cannot laugh and be afraid at the same time, and the devil cannot stand mockery.”
THE WEEK’S LINKS
A roundup of things you should be reading
RUSSIA IS AN EXISTENTIAL THREAT TO EUROPE
France’s Foreign Intelligence Chief says Russia poses an existential threat to Europe (La Chaîne Info)
EXCELLENT RESOURCES!
Just Security has launched WHAT JUST HAPPENED? as well as a litigation tracker to help readers keep up with the chaos
Alex Finley is a former officer of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, where she served in West Africa and Europe. She writes and teaches about terrorism, disinformation / covert influence, and oligarch yachts. Her writing has appeared in Slate, Reductress, Funny or Die, POLITICO, The Center for Public Integrity, and other publications. She has spoken to the BBC, MSNBC, CNN, C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, France24, and numerous other media outlets. She was also invited once to speak at Harvard, which she now tells everyone within the first ten seconds of meeting them. She is the author of the Victor Caro series, satirical novels about the CIA. Before joining the CIA, Alex was a journalist, covering Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, and the Department of Energy. She reported on issues related to national security, intelligence, and homeland security. Did she mention she was invited to speak at Harvard?
But Trump, his entourage of testicle ‘garglers’ and MAGA members in general are such a target rich environment for comedians. If they want comedians to stop making fun of them and their actions, then they must stop being so utterly stupid and asinine. It is an uphill battle for Trump because it is a genetic defect.