Mark T. Tomczak on Nostr: Hearing people noting that Stephen Colbert getting the axe for criticizing the ...

Hearing people noting that Stephen Colbert getting the axe for criticizing the current administration echoes the Smothers Brothers, and I think that's true, but I think it's true in some very interesting ways.

Among the things the Brothers put on the show in the end (so sayeth Wikipedia) was Joan Baez paying tribute to her (then) husband David Harris who was going to jail for refusing military service. It is, and I believe was at the time, a crime to counsel people to refuse the draft. So CBS putting that piece on the air could have been interpreted as such an act, which the whole network would be liable for.

... and history remembers that instead they chose to can one of the most successful variety shows of all time. I'm not sure quite what the lesson is here (other than the obvious "this is what it looks like to be on the wrong side of history" one). Probably a lot of lessons crammed into a little space.