July 22, 2025

The writer and podcast host Molly Jong-Fast grew up knowing that her grandfather Howard Fast, known for writing the novel the movie “Spartacus” was based on, was also famous for being blacklisted in Hollywood for refusing to give information to the House Un-American Activities Committee.

In a guest essay for Times Opinion, she writes that she was reminded of what her grandfather went through after CBS’s decision last week to cancel Stephen Colbert’s late-night show. Colbert had been graciously derisive of President Trump for years. The cancellation looks to Jong-Fast like a “dark moment for an American media company seemingly bowing and scraping” to the president, “obeying in advance, hoping to make a deal,” since Paramount, CBS’s parent company, is in the midst of closing a merger with Skydance that requires approval from his administration.

For its part, CBS released a statement saying that the cancellation was “purely a financial decision,” and it’s true that “The Late Show,” like most everything else on TV, isn’t the moneymaker it once was (although it is still the top-rated late-night show on air). But it’s also true that Paramount’s chairwoman, Shari Redstone, has a family fortune tied up in getting the Skydance deal done.

What does this mean for free speech?

It’s pretty clear now that nobody is safe from an administration determined to bring anyone or anything it sees as standing in its way, no matter how august — Harvard University, high-powered law firms, and TV networks — to heel. And, as Colbert might have just shown, “We’ll never be able to mock Mr. Trump into submission.”

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