"The Late Show" creator David Letterman slammed CBS' decision to cancel the long-running late-night show, now hosted by Stephen Colbert, as "pure cowardice" and asserted that the network mistreated his successor by canceling the show.Appearing on his former executive producers podcast, "The Barbara Gaines Show," on Friday, Letterman who created The Late Show 32 years ago said he didnt believe the networks claim that the show was canceled for financial reasons, and he sharply criticized both CBS and Paramount for their handling of the situation."This is pure cowardice," Letterman said. "They did not do the correct thing. They did not handle Stephen Colbert the face of that network in the way he deserves to have been handled."CBS HOST POURS COLD WATER ON LIBERAL OUTRAGE TO COLBERT CANCELLATION, SAYS LATE-NIGHT INDUSTRY IS 'BROKEN'The former "Late Show" host tore into Paramount's $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump over the editing of a "60 Minutes" interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris, stating that the company "decided they didnt care about freedom of the press."Letterman theorized that Skydance Media, the soon-to-be owners of Paramount, wanted to avoid trouble with Trump by getting rid of Colbert, an outspoken critic of the president, before officially acquiring the company. He referred to the founder of Skydance, David Ellison, as "the Oracle twins" during his blistering takedown of the company."The Ellison twins, the Oracle boys, they dont want any trouble along the lines of freedom of the press or free speech or freedom of expression," he claimed. "They dont want to get their hands dirty. They dont want the government going after them, because that concept of freedom of the press and freedom of speech thats so old-fashioned."CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTUREIn a hypothetical conversation between Skydance's owner and CBS executives, Letterman laid out how he thought the conversation about getting rid of Colbert may have gone."So they say to the CBS people, Geez, what about that kid, Stephen Colbert? Hes always shooting his mouth off about the administration. We dont want any trouble from that guy,'" he said. "So the CBS people say, Hey, boys, heres what Im going to do. Not only are we going to get rid of that guy, were going to get rid of the entire franchise so you dont have to worry about another guy. Its gone, buddy.'"Although "The Late Show" was reported to be losing approximately $40 million a year for the network, Letterman didn't seem to believe that was an appropriate excuse to cancel the show."Heres what I know. If they were losing this kind of money, youre telling me losing this kind of money happened yesterday?" he questioned. "Ill bet they were losing this kind of money a month ago. Ill bet they were losing this kind of money six weeks ago. Or they have never been losing money."