The Eric Metaxas Show - #124 - David Bozell

Episode Date: May 22, 2026

Today On The Eric Metaxas Show, Eric talks with Media Research Center President David Bozell about left wing media bias, the collapse of late night comedy, Saturday Night Live’s anti Trump obsession, Colbert’s failed political lecture format, Jimmy Kimmel’s Charlie Kirk controversy, and why so much of elite media seems completely out of touch with the country it claims to represent. Subscribe for clips from The Eric Metaxas Show to hear politics and culture from a Christian perspective.⭐ PRE-ORDER TODAY:Revolution: The Birth of the Greatest Nation in the History of the World📕: https://a.co/d/0ir3NlapTODAY'S SPONSORS:⭐ FREE SLAVES with CSI: https://csi-usa.org/metaxas/☀️ Honest, fast, and free Medicare plan guidance: https://askchapter.com/metaxas/

You're no longer young people. You're just people. And people are either productive or dead weight. It's my first day of work and I need to make a big impression. Were you just checking me out? No. It's too bad. I see at least 15 ladies I need to talk to before my beta block works off.

My coworkers don't take me seriously. It's not a human. It's just a piece of meat. Someone bring a gurney. Hey there, folks. Welcome to the program. If you're like me, you're a consumer of media.

For example, right now, watching this podcast. Technically, you're consuming media right now, not literally, but figuratively consuming media. And you may have noticed, if you've been alive, while you've been consuming the media, that it typically has a left-wing bias, you know, unless, of course, you're watching this show. But I want to talk about that

with somebody who's an expert on the subject. David Bozell is my guest. He's president of the Media Research Center, a conservative think tank founded in 1987 by his father, Brent Bozell, to counter left-wing bias in national news. David Bozell, welcome. Thank you, Eric. Appreciate the opportunity.

Well, it's going to talk to somebody who understands this stuff. I've been thinking about this. I've stayed at a holiday in last night. I'll just pretend. I got to tell you, I've been thinking about this issue, you know, for almost four decades now. It's at the heart of my life because as political as I am,

as theological as I am, I'm principally cultural. I care about the culture. And there is no doubt that the culture, the mainstream culture, in particular, this has changed a little bit because of the rise of some conservative media in the last couple of decades.

But mainstream culture can't help itself. It's a bubble, whether it's Manhattan or Hollywood, that I always think of a famous quote, not many people will remember, but Pauline Kale, who was the film critic for the New Yorker forever, in 1972, she infamously said, she didn't know anyone who hadn't voted for McGovern.

And I think that sums it up. That's kind of like the oort text in what we're talking about here, that there are people in that world, and I've met many of them. They never talked to anyone who think differently and they assume that all of the intelligent, educated people have to think along secular or leftist lines. They kind of can't help it and they tend to produce that kind of stuff

and they're very, very out of touch with what I like to call the American population. So this is something you've been studying and I guess recently there was a report about Saturday Night Live Jokes. Do you want to talk about that? Yeah, look, To your point earlier, though, for real, let's touch on that for one second. It does feel like we're watching two different movies at the same time as a country. And the numbers sort of bifurcate themselves both on age lines. There was this poll that just came out just the other day. I think it was 74% of the country who are over 65 get their news from television.

If you're pre-65, that number, like, it just sinks like a stone, right? So there's the device in which you're consuming information, the types of shows that people are watching. And in this modern era, this Trump era, we seem to be watching two different movies. And I think if you're like me, Eric, you probably had relationships that have sort of fallen apart, whether it's friends or family. I think we've all experienced this in this era where because people just can't agree at all on what's important news of the day. Let alone the facts. we'll put the facts aside, just what the news, what the important news story of the day is. We can't even agree on what that is.

Right. I mean, look at the negativity against the president. 95% negative against the president after the assassination attempts. I mean, the guy, people were trying to kill the guy and they can't find a positive thing to say about him or the administration. So that kind of sets the table. On the Saturday Night Live study that we did. Look, I don't want to say. like, you know, old man yelling at the sun here.

It's a comedy show, design for comedy. I grew up with it. I love Saturday Live. Every Sunday morning now, I'm older. My first thing I do is go look for the clips from Saturday Life because I want to laugh just like everybody else. But this season in particular has been egregiously negative against the president, egregiously negative against conservatives.

Just in the weekend update tallies. 91% of their jokes were anti-Trump and anti-conservative. And it's just the same tired stuff, right? I'm shocked it's not 100%. I mean, I'm shocked that there are 9% of their jokes that are somehow conservative. I mean, I find that hard to believe. Yeah, it's, I mean, like, the guy who does the Trump impersonation, like, I'm not going to judge comedy because that's not my, that's not my bailiwick. But, like, Daryl Hammond is a gold standard for if you want to do a Trump impression.

The guy who's doing it now is just super angry Trump all the time. much like the Alec Baldwin impression was a few years back. But the weekend update jokes are just nasty against Trump, and it's just the same tired tropes. You know, he started the Iran war to deflect against Epstein. It's just one that they repeated over. And all the late night guys repeated that bit as if they were in the same Slack channel to come up with that joke.

So it's just tired. It's leaving all sorts of good fodder, I think, on what I with the cutting room floor I mean I think AOC is is is is could be made fun of and Schumer can be made fun of and it's Bernie Sanders certainly there's a lot of fodder there so you know they just leave they just treat the left with kid gloves on S and out and I just

it's wall to wall fodder yeah I mean I can't believe I was on a train the other day coming from Philly to New York and uh I can't think of his name right now of course, now that I'm looking for it, but it's an older congressman. And I just looked at him and I thought, how are we not making fun of this? How are we? I mean, there are, there's a host of people in the Congress

that seem designed to be made fun of, but the left won't, they just don't. We'll touch it. I mean, Maxine Waters, anybody? Maxine Water, Nancy Pelosi, the girl with the purple hair, I mean, you can make a bit, a recurring bit with her every week. It's not a girl.

It's an elderly woman from Connecticut, Loro. Yeah, yeah. She's the purple hair girl. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. You know, she was embarrassed by Lee Zellar in a few weeks ago for asking stupidity during their hearings. But again, you know, look, I'm not trying to tell Estenal how to do their gig.

They're the professional comedians. And I actually think this cast in season 51 is actually pretty strong. It's a pretty strong cast, all things considered it. And they had some decent episodes. And Matt Damon one was pretty strong. And I love Matt Damon's impression of John Cavino. I think it's a great bit. So I want to be fair to these guys.

But if it's going to be 97, you know, 90 to 97% negative in totality against the president, it just gets boring and old and stale. And you think to them, the cast and the writers that they want to explore different terrain. But I don't think Manhattan in that bubble, that movie that they watch, watch and they're not consumed with. They just won't allow themselves to go outside of that bubble. So frustrating. Yeah.

I mean, look, I'm old enough to remember when Chevy Chase was making fun of Gerald Ford. I remember that Gerald Ford stumbled once or twice and they turned it into this is his whole thing, that this is constantly falling. Joe Biden could barely walk. They're very biased. I mean, we have to be clear. They're extremely biased. The only bright spot might be in the 90s

when they would make fun of Janet Reno. You know, Will Ferrell would play Janet Reno. That's the only thing I can remember where they made fun of somebody in the... I'll give you Phil Harbin's Bill Clinton impression. That was strong. Well, but it was not... It wasn't mean toward him.

They tend to be mean toward conservative figures. That was, you know, but anyway. I mean, everything's, again, like I said, is distraction from the Epstein files. I mean, this was a joke from Colin Jost, right? He says, according to a senior official, President Trump keeps a letter in the resolute desk addressed to Vice President J.D. Vance in the event that he dies or is assassinated. The letter reads simply, quote, I wish it had been you.

It's just, you know, like, that's not funny at all, right? And that was like right after, right after somebody tried to barnstorm the Hilton hotel. That's definitely not. That's pathetic. So. Well, I want to shift to Colbert. Yeah. He is, evidently, he's leaving.

And this makes hundreds of people sad who watch him every night. Right. And those hundreds of people, they're human beings, ladies and gentlemen. And you need to think about that. Where are they going to go? Whom are they going to watch? It is kind of strange to me that he has become so partisan. I shouldn't say it's strange,

but he really is and has been for a long time dramatically partisan. I mean, if I think about Letterman, Letterman was pretty partisan, but he was still funny. He was still Letterman. He was still doing jokes most of the time. Here, Colbert, he's really barely doing jokes. It's just kind of snarky commentary.

And I don't know why he thinks he needs to continue having a show. I don't understand. Or maybe he thinks he deserves it. I'm not clear on that. Well, I think he attempted to change the motto of late-night television and failed. And let me kind of explain what I mean there. When you're turning into late, we're turning into late night, you're looking for a reprieve from politics. You're looking for a reprieve from the news.

That's not to say that you can't talk about news or have newsworthy guests or newsmakers on. But usually those things are devoted to Hollywood celebrities hawking their latest movie. Okay. Colbert tried to sort of be in the news, make himself the news. And the monologues was always about, again, a negative presentation about the president. Excuse me, going to a break. We'll be right back, folks. This is important stuff talking to David Beaux-Dell. Don't go away. How much are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness worth to you? That is the question America's founders had to answer. You see, for more than 150 years, America's 13 colonies governed themselves until Britain declared that they had no right to self-rule. So ordinary people had to make extraordinary choices and risk their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. to fight for independence and against all odds they won.

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Did I mention I'm in this film? It's a great film. One more time, that's Hillsdale.edu slash revolution. Welcome back, folks. Do not forget we're doing a campaign with CSI. Very important that everybody participate. You don't get a trophy, but we would give you a participation trophy. all you have to do is go to ericmettaxas.com.

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You'll see the banner. All the details are there. Talking to David Beauxell, president of the Media Research Center, and we're talking about late night comedy, such as it is. It's something, David, again, I've been thinking about this for a long time. I mean, I was a big fan of Letterman really before he soured and went hard left. It was a pity to me to watch him lose what he, there was a joy to him, an irreverent joy to him.

And then in latter years, he kind of soured and went left. Leno, Jay Leno managed to be, you know, like Johnny Carson, you know, just there to entertain. But of course, in latter years Colbert, Kimmel, and to some extent Fallon, I don't know what that show is anymore. It's so far from what Carson was that it kind of breaks my heart. But they no longer seem to have the ability to entertain the whole country. It's like they're looking for a niche of people who already. despised Donald Trump and the people who love him? Well, I mean, which is odd because they used to love Donald Trump.

I mean, he used to be the Donald to them, to all of them. Before he became politician, I mean, he was a must book for all those guys. Yeah, whether he was The Apprentice or a book of his own or, you know, he was appointment television because he would always have something outlandish to say. And people, I think, wanted to tune in to success. and those types of things. And he got along great with the host themselves. I mean, he had no issue with them.

It turns out, as New York and New York Media and Madison Avenue turned against the president, they had to just sort of play along with their masters, which essentially were their advertisers. And so they just decided that they're going to be anti-Trump all the time. And Colbert is interesting because you used to have a bit on Calvin Essential. where he was the conservative, right? And so a lot of the conservative ecosystem kind of fell in love with Colbert

when he had that bid on Comedy Central. It was kind of a tongue-in-cheek thing against conservatives being the outlandish conservative of that show. But it was great. I mean, it was fun. And he could have kept with that bit and had a really great career.

And I'm sure he's very, you know, beyond fabulously, wealthy. But nevertheless, he's getting let go because the ratings could not justify a $40 million annual investment by C-V. And that is a great understatement. I mean, if it was $20 million, if it was $10 million, the ratings are terrible. And that has to do with what you brought up earlier.

Younger people have migrated away from, you know, TV, whatever that is anymore. Yeah. And so that's changed. But also, the landscape, the media landscape has changed so dramatically. and he's still acting as though, you know, we can afford to do a big show at the Ed Sullivan Theater. And I think if you're going to hate Trump all day long and that's who you are,

more than half the country is not interested. And so you're in trouble. When you're tuning in for looking for a reprieve of politics. And, I mean, I'll give you a few gems, okay? This is Colbert. This is just the last couple of months. Donald Trump is a fascist. And when it comes to democracy versus fascism,

I'm sorry there are not fine people on both sides. Okay, so he fell for the fine people on both sides hoax. That's problem one. Problem two, again, you're turning into a reprieve from Charlotte, or Charlottesville, not to just sort of get a lecture from Stephen Colbert. Another Colbert, he talking about Jesus Christ. He was worse than a socialist. He was a Christian.

Okay? That's, you know, clever. Talking about Nazis. This is but comparing ICE to Nazis. Now, again, let's go back to January. Okay? The news of the day is ICE in Minnesota, as these illegals are slip-slapping across the ice trying to get away from ICE, and ICE is trying to execute its deportation mandate and its deportation

directive from the President of the United States. You've got a bunch of nationals slip-slop through the ice in Minneapolis. Every liberal operation in the country is taking pictures and video of this. and you're turning into late-night TV to get a reprieve from the combativeness that is coming out of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and here's what you hear from Stephen Colbert. Yes, do not compare ICE

to the Nazis. That's unfair. The Nazis were willing to show their faces. So, I mean... All right. Where's the funny in that? We're going to have to go to a break, folks. We will continue this conversation when we come back.

Some of you know that we are right now doing a campaign to free slaves literally. This is a big deal. I see it as a great opportunity for people who believe in truth and justice to be able to act on those values. And Todd, we're just always grateful when you can come on and give us a little more explanation of what it is we're talking about. These women, they've been enslaved in Sudan since the 1990s. And CSI, in partnership with Eric Metaxus, thanks to your generosity, has been able to free literally tens of thousands of those individuals and bring them back into a new life of freedom. So we're so excited to be here and invite you to help us free even more slaves this month. I guess the way I see it, Todd, is this is faith in action.

Again, the easy way to do it is go to Ericmetaxis.com. The banner comes up. All the details are there. I beg you, folks, please participate and thank you. Welcome back. I am talking to David Bozell, claims to be the son of Brent Bozell. I've seen no documentation. I'm going to take your word for it because you're a nice guy. But you were talking about the bias in among the late night shows. And you know, you're quoting some of the Colbert humor. It really is interesting because there was a time. You know, you could say that Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor ruined comedy on some level because he's, it has become all commentary. And so we always liked some of that. Yeah.

But it really does seem like, you know, who's the Red Skelton of today? Or who's the Danny Kay of today or the Bob Hope or the on and on and on? You could go on and on it. It's become very pointed. They seem to have lost the joy and the fun of it. Or at least there seemed to be very little evidence of that kind of comedy anymore. Yeah. I remember watching an interview with Norma.

Donald. And he made that same point, Eric, about Alec Baldwin's impersonation of Donald Trump. And he said, look, comedically, it just didn't work because you could tell Alec Baldwin hated Donald Trump. Yeah. And it came through in the performance. It was just completely over the top. And I would encourage your audience. Go on you, you too. Go find the Daryl Hammond clips of his impersonation with Donald Trump. I mean, it's just infinitely better. You can just see the talent come through in the script, you know, come, you know, jump off the page. Because there's just, wasn't this vitriol that the cast had for their subject matter. People talk about Greg Gutfeld.

Now, I think Greg Gutfeld is a brilliant talent, brilliantly funny. But that show is really not like the other late night shows. In other words, it's a different kind of show. He doesn't interview guests. He kind of goes around the horn. He has guests who typically are not so impressive. Greg is himself very impressive, but it is, it is very political. And I think that I don't have a problem with that.

I mean, I think that people can do what they want as a free country and people think, okay, I don't want to watch, you know, Jimmy Kimmel, I don't want to watch Colbert. I'll watch Greg Godfelt, but it's not, it's not that kind of a show. He doesn't have people on to talk about their books or their movies. It's really like a Fox show. you know, it's just a different kind of Fox show. Yeah, Greg's trying to simulate, you know, a panel discussion. I'm going to have four Fox viewers on my couch, and this is how, essentially a green room is

probably, it's kind of what it is. Yes. Yeah. A Fox Green Room on camera. So, no, I get it. I mean, but the audience has responded, right, Eric? I mean, it's the number one late night show in its time slot. I mean, it's...

I know, but again, it's like, this is not trying to nitpick because I really like Greg Gutfeld, but it's a different kind of thing. Sure. It's not like the Tonight Show or Letterman or we haven't mentioned Conan. Conan was really pretty good, I have to say. I mean, I would guess that he leans left, but he didn't do it in a way that bothered me. I could watch his show and actually enjoy the comedy, as I felt that way with Letterman for years. But of course, he's gone.

I'll give you Kimmel, okay? You have to have kind of some dark tar in your heart here. If the day after Charlie Kirk's assassination, you go on your show. And now, mind you, this was not just sort of a flippant thing. This was a joke that was written approved by his wife, who's the executive producer of Kimmel's show. He gets on there and it's taped. Was it Live? Despite the name, you know, Jimmy Kimmel Live, taped just like all these shows are.

And he goes on there to suggest to suggest that. that MAGA had spent the entire weekend trying to do everything possible to distance itself from the fact that they were responsible for Charlie's assassination. I mean, to sit there and write that out, okay, approve that script.

I mean, did they think that was funny or did they just get it wrong? I never was really clear. It seemed bizarre to me on any level, you know, and I'm happy to forgive people if they made a mistake. It's really not clear what was going on there. Yeah, I just,

I think he just lied through his teeth, and he knew it. He knew it. He just, they needed a cover for the fact that some nutcase that were represented them had gone to Utah and taken the shot at Charlie. And so this sort of, this joke kind of manifests itself. But the fact that that cleared legal, that cleared all the riders, that he goes out on tape, you could see why the affiliates are saying, now, wait a minute, right?

In this world, the affiliates hold all the cards. And the affiliates don't just represent Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, right? Right. They represent Austin. They represent Atlanta. They represent Charleston, Jacksonville. Everywhere else in the country, you know, flyover country. They represent them all.

So this is what Jay Leno was best at, right? He was, but he represented all sides to all those affiliates. And that's why he was attracted to them. I'm afraid we're out of time. Just enjoy talking to you. David Bozell, president of the Media Research Center. Thank you so much. Thanks, Eric.

Anytime, buddy.