FRONTLINE VOICES with Rebecca Myles
Last night, CBS's Late Show with Stephen Colbert went dark and with it close to 200 good paying union jobs disappeared as did a vital platform for performing artists for whom even just one appearance on the show could be a career maker.
"There were dozens of writers who worked on that show--union stagehands--obviously the musicians and a whole host of other good union jobs--so it was sad to see the literal end of an era," said Dan Point, president of Local 802 American Federation of Musicians. "So it was sad to see the literal end of an era but we couldn't be more proud of everything their team accomplished together and the way they protected the workers while they did it."
But Point notes the performing arts ripple effects of the cancellation go well beyond the union members that lost their jobs but will be felt sector wide.
Back in July, CBS canceled Colbert's show after Paramount, its parent, signed off on a $16 million settlement to resolve what legal experts have said was a baseless lawsuit over editing on an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris.
The FCC went on to sign-off on Paramount's $8 billion merger with Skydance. Trump critics have linked Colbert's cancellation to Paramount's lobbying for their controversial merger. Paramount countered their programming move was driven by the Late Show's financial performance.
"For us the Late Show is the latest in a series of cancellations in the late night television genre," said Point. "Historically, these shows are a key source of exhibition and for national audiences watching a broadcast going back many decades and increasing in the streaming era. You have an international audience as well. So, they not only provided good paying jobs but a tremendous amount of exposure not just for the house band but also for all of the rotating musical guests that came through as well as dozens and dozens of new emerging artists."
The Late Show closing comes as President Trump's anti-immigrant mass deportation campaign, and the economic fallout from his war of choice with Iran, are undermining global tourism and sparking inflation domestically.
"The LIVE entertainment industry in New York City is massive. We have seen unfortunately-- due to changes in federal policy --a steep drop off in international tourism," Point said. In better times, Point observed, the city's hospitality and restaurant sector benefited greatly from the presence of union LIVE TV and Broadway productions.
In fact, Point added, it was the Late Show's commercial breaks that offered Broadway productions national and even international exposure.
As for the fate of the iconic 100 year-old Ed Sullivan Theater, aka Studio 50, will remain in CBS's possession and will continue to be a union venue, according to Point who adds no future production plans for the landmark theater have been announced.
Over ten years ago, New York State provided CBS $16 million in tax credits to CBS which included five million dollars to restore the theater originally opened in 1927 as the Hammerstein's Theater.
PLUS
We also heard from John Reuwer, with World Beyond War, about the brutal treatment by the Israeli military of over 400 flotilla peace activists who had attempted to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza, the scene of Israel's genocidal campaign that killed over 70,000 Palestinians.
We got an update from Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink, about the growing risk the Trump administration's will violently act out on Cuba in the aftermath of the US Department of Justice indictment of Cuba's former president Raul Castro, who is 94 years old, for the shooting down of two airplanes 30 years ago.
Benjamin describes the consequences of decades of the United State's economic sanctions on the island nation that have only intensified during Trump 2.0 with a fuel blockade.
The New York Times has reported the blockade is having deadly consequences.
"The U.S. oil blockade on Cuba is fast exhausting the country’s supply of fuel, causing daily blackouts, food shortages, canceled classes and black-market gas prices approaching $40 a gallon. It is also crippling Cuba’s universal health care system, a state institution once considered a triumph for a poor nation, but is now struggling to provide basic care.
In interviews, six Cuban doctors said that rapidly deteriorating conditions at hospitals and clinics across Cuba were causing deaths that would otherwise be preventable," the paper reported.
