Late-night hosts on Fox News: 'The closest we have to state TV'

Extract from The Guardian

Comics, including Samantha Bee and Seth Meyers, discuss Donald Trump’s close relationship with the network and his daughter Ivanka’s role in the White House

Seth Meyers on Bill O’Reilly: ‘Soon, the only advertisers on his show are going to be Ivanka Trump’s clothing line and Steve Bannon’s skin worsener.’ Photograph: YouTube

Guardian staff

Friday 7 April 2017 01.58 AEST 

Late-night hosts took aim at Trump’s close relationship with Bill O’Reilly and discussed his daughter Ivanka’s role in the White House.

On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert talked about how the president had “stuck his finger into O’Reilly’s sticky situation”, referring to the Fox News pundit’s sexual harassment suits that the network settled to the tune of $13m.

When asked about O’Reilly, Trump claimed he wasn’t guilty. Colbert joked: “What happened to innocent until proven to have $13m?”
He continued: “The $13m might be the tip of the iceberg, although the tip is the most sensitive part of the iceberg.”
He went on to address Trump: “You just declared April ‘Sexual Assault Awareness Month’, and there are two accusations of sexual assault that I’m aware of: Bill O’Reilly’s and yours.”

Colbert also found time to discuss Ivanka Trump’s recent interview in which she addressed her influence on her father’s policies, stating that she hadn’t been elected by the American people. “To be fair, your father wasn’t elected by the American people either, just the electoral college,” he said.
On Full Frontal, Samantha Bee also took on Ivanka’s role in the White House, with some claiming she will act as her father’s eyes and ears. “If Ivanka’s supposed to be her daddy’s eyes, then she’ll be spending a lot of time staring at her own boobies.”

She spoke about Ivanka’s alleged interest in environmental issues, linked to her meeting with Leonardo DiCaprio. “Meeting with Leo is not a sign that you care about climate change, it’s a sign that you’re a teenager in the 90s,” she said.
Bee said many perceived her as a magical “Lady Galadriel” figure who would save the country but urged people to stop assuming she cares. “Stop it, Democrats, she’s not a Wailing Wall for you to desperately stuff your prayer notes into,” she said.
Bee continued: “Ivanka’s new job is the same as her old job: pushing her dad’s dodgy agenda with a smile, which she was doing back when Kellyanne was still dreamily pretending to lie to Jake Tapper in her bedroom mirror.”
On Late Night with Seth Meyers, the host targeted Fox News, calling it “basically the closest thing we have to state TV” before referencing the many times that Trump has used it as his main source of information.

Meyers discussed the controversy surrounding Bill O’Reilly and how after the news of his sexual harassment suits emerged, a long list of companies decided to pull their ads from his show. “Soon, the only advertisers on his show are going to be Ivanka Trump’s clothing line and Steve Bannon’s skin worsener,” he joked.
Roger Ailes, former chairman of Fox News, has also been the subject of sexual harassment claims and Meyers talked about his reported history of believing the Clintons had tried to assassinate him. Ailes also reportedly claimed he had been trained by the CIA. Meyers asked: “The Culinary Institute of America?”
“Dude, you don’t exactly look like Jason Bourne,” he said. “You look like Jabba the Hutt ate Jason Bourne.”