Colbert: ‘Fox has to have liability insurance – to ensure their ability to lie’

Stephen Colbert

On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert spoke about the $787.5m settlement between Fox News to Dominion in the much-publicised defamation lawsuit. “Fox got taken to the cleaners,” he said. It’s “a huge hit to Fox’s bottom line”.

It’s unsure where the money will come from, because the company does have liability insurance. “Of course Fox has to have liability insurance: to ensure their ability to lie,” he quipped.

On Wednesday it was the “number one story on every single cable news network, except one” – with Fox refusing to cover it.

Dominion also has lawsuits pending against the far-right news companies OANN and Newsmax, as well as Trump allies Sidney Powell and the MyPillow chief executive, Mike Lindell, each for over $1bn.

“I don’t think Lindell has that kind of cash on hand,” Colbert said. He’d have to “change his name and flee to Mexico to start MiPillow”.

Fox is also being sued for $2.7bn by another election machine company, Smartmatic. The on-air pundit Lou Dobbs has been named as a defendant. Fox Business has already cancelled his show, which is “a huge blow to his audience – a cage full of parakeets in the day room”.

This week has also seen Trump announce more of his NFTs, “a scam we all stopped falling for six months ago”. Each was selling for $99 and they have allegedly already sold out.

“I’m happy for all of those Maga seniors who were able to purchase these things after getting their grandkids on the phone to help them do a computer,” he said.

He also spoke about the difficulty encountered by organisers in the UK trying to get acts to perform for King Charles’s coronation: high-profile stars such as Adele and Ed Sheeran have said no.

Instead, Katy Perry and Lionel Richie have been announced. “Ah yes, those famous icons of British music. You know their songs Ello and I Snogged a Lass and It Was Alright, Innit.”

Jimmy Kimmel

On Jimmy Kimmel Live, the host also spoke about the lack of Fox News coverage of the Dominion settlement. “What an oversight that is,” he said.

He moved on to Lindell, wondering what might happen. “He definitely doesn’t have” the $1.3bn he is being sued for, Kimmel said. On his rambling Lindell TV, the MyPillow chief said he wouldn’t be backing down. Kimmel joked that he’s “much too delusional for that”.

Kimmel moved on to “Florida, which is kind of the Fox News of states” and Ron DeSantis’s proposed extension of his “don’t say gay” bill to include high-school students. “The good news is there are apparently schools in Florida.”

Kimmel also said DeSantis was busy trying “to prove he’s more ridiculous than Donald Trump”.

This week also saw news that Kim Jong-un is ready to launch North Korea’s first spy satellite. “Aren’t you supposed to not tell people?” Kimmel wondered.

Joe Biden also released his tax returns, leading Kimmel to say it “still seems weird to me that he would release these without being sued”.

The White House bragged that Biden has released the most tax returns of any president while in office, which Kimmel said was the “Trumpiest possible way to take swipes against Donald Trump”.