Day That Ends in 'Y': MSNBC Compares Trump to ‘Soviet Crackdown’ On Free Speech

On Thursday, MSNBC’s The Beat with Ari Melber compared President Trump’s lawsuits about the media's false narratives to a “Soviet crackdown.”  

Melber began with a false example:  

They are also, unfortunately, working on some of the most powerful companies in the country. This is the connective tissue from some of the other stories we discussed tonight. Paramount and Skydance have now closed their multibillion dollar merger after paying out Trump and having a controversial Colbert cancellation, which they said was financial anyway, but adds to the entire view that Trump is able to get his way with these corporations.  

First off, Paramount and Skydance paid Trump because CBS’s 60 Minutes had a major edit error from the interview with Kamala Harris less than a month before the 2024 election. The edit purposefully conveyed to the public that Harris seemed more “intelligent” with her one answer regarding Israel’s involvement with the Biden Administration, when in reality, she fumbled through the answer with her typical word-salad style. That edit had election interference to sway the public’s votes when the answer was not correct.   

Second, CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was canceled for financial reasons-not because the Trump administration felt like it was time to end Colbert’s night show run after losing roughly $40 million a year.