A year-old clip of David Letterman slamming network executives for cleaning late-night TV of Trump critics — and his take on what it signals — received fresh attention on Monday in the wake of the president’s White House press ban.
The late-night legend — in remarks at The Atlantic Festival 2025 — began by warning that under authoritarian governments and dictatorships, “sooner or later everyone is going to get touched.”
Letterman pointed to CBS’s decision to cancel his successor Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show,” blaming the move on Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison not wanting to “trouble” Trump.
He then turned to ABC suspending Jimmy Kimmel after Trump-friendly TV czar Brendan Carr threatened the network and its affiliates if they didn’t act on Kimmel’s Charlie Kirk assassination comments, the focus of right-wing criticism.
“We see where this is all going, correct? It’s managed media,” Letterman said.
“It’s no good, it’s silly, it’s ridiculous. And you can’t go around firing somebody because you’re fearful or trying to suck up to an authoritarian — a criminal — administration in the Oval Office. That’s just not how this works.”
The clip made the rounds again on social media following a post from former Labor Secretary Robert Reich.
“This warning from David Letterman to the media from just a year ago feels sadly too relevant today,” he wrote alongside the clip.
“He is right: You can’t appease a tyrant.”
