[Verse 1]
May twenty-first, twenty twenty-six, the curtain falls down
Ed Sullivan Theater, thirty-two years in this town
Colbert's final bow, eleven years behind that desk
Paul McCartney strums "Hello, Goodbye" - Beatles at their best
Fans with homemade signs gather on the sidewalk stone
CBS claims budget cuts, but the truth's not fully known
[Chorus]
Reading the room when the cameras stop rolling
Media merger madness, corporate controlling
Sixty-four of one-eighty, press freedom's decline
Connect the dots between the dollars and the timeline
Reading the room, reading the room
When power shifts, who seals whose doom?
[Verse 2]
July twenty twenty-five, the axe swings swift and clean
Just after Paramount paid sixteen million green
Settlement to Trump administration, sixty minutes interview edited tight
Colbert called it bribery on late night television light
Emmy nomination fresh, winning ratings every week
But Skydance merger gets approved - timing makes you think
[Chorus]
Reading the room when the cameras stop rolling
Media merger madness, corporate controlling
Sixty-four of one-eighty, press freedom's decline
Connect the dots between the dollars and the timeline
Reading the room, reading the room
When power shifts, who seals whose doom?
[Verse 3]
Jimmy Kimmel suspended by the FCC chair's command
ABC caves to pressure from the federal hand
Six days of outcry brings him back with contract extended
Public voice still matters when the people are offended
But consolidation creeps like fog across the land
Tegna-Nexstar merger puts eighty percent under one brand
[Verse 4]
Local newsrooms shuttered, journalists laid off in waves
Corporate synergy buries truth in shallow graves
Same scripts read in fifty cities coast to coast tonight
Sinclair's must-run segments blur the wrong from right
Independent voices silenced by the boardroom vote
Democracy's obituary written in a quarterly note
[Bridge]
Paramount chases Warner Brothers Discovery's gold
CNN and HBO, CBS stories to be told
Same corporate umbrella sheltering the news you see
RSF index dropping, sixty-fourth place ain't free
Seven spots down from the year before we knew
Democracy depends on multiple points of view
[Chorus]
Reading the room when the cameras stop rolling
Media merger madness, corporate controlling
Sixty-four of one-eighty, press freedom's decline
Connect the dots between the dollars and the timeline
Reading the room, reading the room
When power shifts, who seals whose doom?
[Outro]
Follow the money trail, watch the ownership game
When few control the message, democracy's not the same
Reading the room, reading the signs
Between the settlement and the bottom lines