Late-Night Hosts Refuse To Hit Harvey Weinstein After Allegations Of ‘Sexual Harassment’

On Friday, Marlow Stern of The Daily Beast penned an article in which he lambasted late-night hosts for their seeming refusal to hit mega-producer Harvey Weinstein after a New York Times expose regarding his alleged “decades of sexual harassment” dropped.

Stern notes that while the NYT expose was published at approximately 2:00 p.m. Thursday, “giving late-night hosts only a few hours to prepare material on the story (late-night shows typically tape between 4:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. ET)…those same shows have regularly provided same-day jokes on Trump news that’s broken well after 2 p.m.”

The Daily Beast writer comes to the conclusion that “if late-night comedians are to continue to assume the role of moral arbiter, then they should be open to criticizing creeps on both sides of the political divide—including those in their industry.”

While there is, of course, the chance that a barrage of jokes will come Friday evening, it seems unlikely.

These late-night hosts know their audience, and they know their tribe. To aggressively go after someone within the industry, someone who is as ardently anti-Trump as they are, would be a betrayal of their order. Moreover, it wouldn’t help them advance their ratings or agendas. Considering these things, why would they go after Harvey?

The Friday evening shows will reveal whether these comedians are equal-opportunity players, or if attacks on the president and Fox News hosts are all they’re interested in.