[fdschoeneman]

Yes but you're not a mind reader and you don't know how much of his firing was due to government pressure vs a decision he was alienating half the country irreparably - and I'm curious to know why you didn't mention his ratings had been slipping. Surely that has some place in the discussion?

[acdha]

That’s probably why they didn’t put up a fight but it doesn’t cancel out the illegality of the threat. If the local mob boss shows up and says “nice business, it’d be a shame if something happened to it” that’s still extortion even if you decide it was losing money and walk away.

[Bratmon]

No. "If he were more profitable, his company would have spent money on a legal defense instead" is not a valid counterargument to "It is bad that the government threatened a company into cancelling a show because they criticized a friend of the regime."

[lovich]

> Yes but you're not a mind reader…

Is your position that no one can ever infer the intent behind someone’s actions unless you can read their mind?

[collingreen]

Seems that way. Hopefully they hold that consistently and not only to excuse terrible behavior by folks they identify with.

[wqaatwt]

Ratings didn’t help Colbert, though..