NOTE: This is a departure from our usual coverage. It’s a personal essay about media and politics and why I think the end of the Late Show matters beyond entertainment.
I hope you'll read and enjoy it.
I was one of nearly seven million people who tuned in for Stephen Colbert’s final night as the Late Show host on May 21st.
We broke records that night, but it was a one-off. For my part, I had not watched for three years, and returning for the finale I found myself thinking both fondly and regretfully, not just about Colbert’s television trajectory over the past twenty years, but about something more uncomfortable: whether the thing that made him great had also been one of the things that made us all worse.
For a long time, up until 2023 or thereabouts, I was one of those who could only take my news on the rocks, with the dilution provided by late night comedians. I say “they” but for me there was really only Jon Stewart and Step…
