Rush Limbaugh Rails Against Stephen Colbert ‘Late Show’ Hire

Conservative media giant Rush Limbaugh doesn’t like the idea of a onetime faux conservative pundit replacing David Letterman.

Shortly after CBS revealed that Comedy Central host Stephen Colbert had signed a five-year deal to replace Letterman when he retires in 2015, Rush Limbaugh assailed the selection on his nationally syndicated radio show.

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“CBS has just declared war on the heartland of America,” he said. “No longer is comedy going to be a covert assault on traditional American values, conservatives, now it’s just wide out in the open. What this hire means is a redefinition of what is funny and a redefinition of what is comedy.”

Limbaugh later opined: “The world is changing, people don’t want the kind of comedy that [Johnny] Carson gave us, or even Letterman.”

Letterman announced his retirement on April 3. “Simply being a guest on David Letterman’s show has been a highlight of my career,” Colbert explained in a statement revealing his hire. “I never dreamed that I would follow in his footsteps, though everyone in late night follows Dave’s lead.”

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Colbert, for his part, issued a statement to The Hollywood Reporter through his publicist explaining that his Colbert Report character won’t appear on the Late Show. “I won’t be doing the new show in character, so we’ll all get to find out how much of him was me,” the statement read.

Media Matters for America, the progressive nonprofit that monitors conservative media outlets, clipped the Limbaugh audio, which can be heard below.