9443 stories
·
97 followers

CBS is canceling Colbert's Late Show next year, calling it "purely a financial decision"

1 Share

CBS announced today that The Late Show With Stephen Colbert will be ending when its current season wraps in 2026, calling the choice to cancel the top-rated late-night show “purely a financial decision.” Stephen Colbert broke the news to his audience at the start of tonight’s taping of the CBS series. The network has made it clear that it won’t seek to replace Colbert in the spot, and instead will put the Late Show brand to rest.

CBS issued an early “in memoriam” for the show pretty much the minute the news broke, with various network higher-ups releasing the following statement, pretty clearly trying to get out in front of accusations that the network was retaliating against Colbert for criticizing parent company Paramount earlier this week.

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert will end its historic run in May 2026 at the end of the broadcast season.  We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire The Late Show franchise at that time.  We are proud that Stephen called CBS home. He and the broadcast will be remembered in the pantheon of greats that graced late night television. This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.  It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.

So, yeah: Definitely a cancellation, and not something more mutual. The question now, obviously, is motive. (To be fair, the network has been making moves suggesting it’s ready to abdicate the costs and somewhat questionable rewards of dominating in modern late-night, having just kind of shrugged and ended things after Taylor Tomlinson announced that she was stepping away from After Midnight.) Even so, it’s wild to see Colbert—who is consistently at the top of this particular game, sometimes coming close to doubling the ratings of his various Jimmy-named competitors—be the one to get the axe, and hard not to view in light of his willingness to speak truth to Paramount about the company’s willingness to settle its lawsuit with Donald Trump in the service of getting its ongoing merger with Skydance approved.

Colbert—who took over the job from David Letterman back in 2015, after cutting his satirical teeth on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report—was reportedly informed of the decision on Wednesday night.

[via Variety]



Read the whole story
InShaneee
8 hours ago
reply
Chicago, IL
Share this story
Delete

Senate holds late-night vote to cut funding to NPR and PBS

1 Share

After days of debate, parliamentarian maneuvers, and more opportunities than we would frankly like for J.D. Vance to be at least nominally important to the national decision-making process, the United States Senate passed a bill in the early hours of Thursday morning that would defund the Corporation Of Public Broadcasting—the independent agency through which the government funds both PBS and NPR—to the tune of more than a billion dollars. The rescissions package—which also includes another $8 billion in cuts to favorite DOGE kicking target/foreign aid organization USAID—passed with a 51-48 margin, with Republican senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski breaking ranks with their party to vote against the bill. (Democratic Senator Tina Smith of Minnesota was hospitalized due to illness earlier on Wednesday, and missed the vote)

Per CNN, the bill will now be sent back to the House Of Representatives, which previously passed a slightly modified version, and which now has until Friday to pass the Senate’s amended take. (Otherwise it’ll become susceptible to Democratic filibuster; always nice to be reminded how much of our lived reality is dictated by these fiddly little rules.) If it passes, Donald Trump will have finally achieved his dream—dating back to his first term as President—of gutting NPR and PBS’s budgets in retaliation for saying mean things about him perceived bias. As many commentators have noted, the funding cuts will, somewhat ironically, probably be at least short-term weatherable for stations in big cities, where fundraising from private citizens is a workable model; it’ll be rural communities, where NPR and PBS represent small but vital services, including news, weather reporting, and emergency broadcasts, that’ll get hit the hardest. (Murkowski has stumped hard on this point over the past week, noting that, literally hours before the bill went up for a vote, Alaska’s public radio infrastructure had broadcast emergency warnings to residents about an earthquake in her home state.)

On the other hand, Trump has been mercilessly using this issue as his latest purity test to smack his wayward acolytes with, threatening to withhold support and funding from any Republican who doesn’t get in line on the bill. It appears to have worked—he might not be able to stop the base from screaming the word “Epstein!” every six minutes, but killing public TV and radio was apparently an easier ask.



Read the whole story
InShaneee
1 day ago
reply
Chicago, IL
Share this story
Delete

The best games of 2025 so far, picked by NPR's staff

1 Share
undefined

From indies like Blue Prince to big console exclusives like Donkey Kong Bananza, NPR staff and contributors round up their favorite games of the year so far.

Read the whole story
InShaneee
2 days ago
reply
Chicago, IL
Share this story
Delete

Microsoft Uses Chinese Engineers To Maintain Defense Department Systems Under Minimal US Oversight

1 Share
Microsoft employs engineers in China to help maintain Defense Department computer systems, with U.S. citizens serving as "digital escorts" to oversee the foreign workers, according to a ProPublica investigation. The escorts often lack advanced technical expertise to police engineers with far more sophisticated skills, and some are former military personnel paid barely above minimum wage. "We're trusting that what they're doing isn't malicious, but we really can't tell," one current escort told the publication. The arrangement, critical to Microsoft winning federal cloud computing contracts a decade ago, handles sensitive but unclassified government data including materials that directly support military operations. Former CIA and NSA executive Harry Coker called the system a natural opportunity for spies, saying "If I were an operative, I would look at that as an avenue for extremely valuable access."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Read the whole story
InShaneee
3 days ago
reply
Chicago, IL
Share this story
Delete

"Purge Palantir": Day of Action Protests Firm's Role in Gov't Surveillance, ICE & Genocide in Gaza

1 Share
Seg3 palantir4

Protesters across the United States targeted Palantir Monday in a day of action focused on the technology company’s work with ICE, facilitating President Trump’s expanding immigration crackdown, and work with the Israeli military. New York police arrested at least four people Monday after demonstrators blocked the entrance to the company’s Manhattan offices. Democracy Now! spoke to protesters, including some who work in the technology sector, about the “Purge Palantir” campaign and how Palantir’s data mining, surveillance and automation tools are being weaponized against vulnerable communities. We speak with Wired senior writer Makena Kelly, who has been covering Palantir and says many Silicon Valley firms are “trying to find opportunity in this chaos” as the Trump administration slashes government services and pursues mass deportations.

Read the whole story
InShaneee
3 days ago
reply
Chicago, IL
Share this story
Delete

Google Nerfs Second Pixel Phone Battery This Year

1 Share
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: For the second time in a year, Google has announced that it will render some of its past phones almost unusable with a software update, and users don't have any choice in the matter. After nerfing the Pixel 4a's battery capacity earlier this year, Google has now confirmed a similar update is rolling out to the Pixel 6a. The new July Android update adds "battery management features" that will make the phone unusable. Given the risks involved, Google had no choice but to act, but it could choose to take better care of its customers and use better components in the first place. Unfortunately, a lot more phones are about to end up in the trash. [...] Pixel 4a units contained one of two different batteries, and only the one manufactured by a company called Lishen was downgraded. For the Pixel 6a, Google has decreed that the battery limits will be imposed when the cells hit 400 charge cycles. Beyond that, the risk of fire becomes too great -- there have been reports of Pixel 6a phones bursting into flames. Clearly, Google had to do something, but the remedies it settled on feel unnecessarily hostile to customers. It had a chance to do better the second time, but the solution for the Pixel 6a is more of the same. [...] When Google killed the Pixel 4a's battery life, it offered a few options. You could have the battery replaced for free, get $50 cash, or accept a $100 credit in the Google Store. However, claiming the money or free battery was a frustrating experience that was rife with fees and caveats. The store credit is also only good on phones and can't be used with other promotions or discounts. And the battery swap? You'd better hope there's nothing else wrong with the device. If it has any damage, like cracked glass, it may not qualify for a free battery replacement. Now we have the Pixel 6a Battery Performance Program with all the same problems. Pixel 6a owners can get $100 in cash or $150 in store credit. Alternatively, Google offers a free battery replacement with the same limits on phone condition. This is all particularly galling because the Pixel 6a is still an officially supported phone, with its final guaranteed update coming in 2027. Google also pulled previous software packages for this phone to prevent rollbacks. [...] If you have a Pixel 6a, the battery-killing update is rolling out now. You'll have no choice but to install it if you want to remain on the official software. Google has a support site where you can try to get a free battery swap or some cash.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Read the whole story
InShaneee
6 days ago
reply
Chicago, IL
Share this story
Delete
Next Page of Stories