Late-night host Stephen Colbert said CBS blocked an interview with James Talarico, who is running for the U.S. Senate in Texas, preemptively caving to pressure from the FCC.
Speaking Monday night, Colbert criticized the network’s lawyers, who he said told the show’s staff “in no uncertain terms” that the interview could not air. He was also told not to discuss the matter on The Late Show.
“Then I was told in some uncertain terms that not only could I not have him on,” Colbert told the audience, “I could not mention me not having him on, and because my network clearly doesn’t want us to talk about this, let’s talk about this.”
Colbert went on to explain the FCC’s equal time guidance change, which requires broadcast networks provide opposing political candidates equivalent airtime. News interviews and talk shows were long considered exempt, he said, joking “how else were voters supposed to know back in ’92 that Bill Clinton sucked at saxophone?”
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In January, FCC chairman Brendan Carr threatened to drop the exemption because some are “motivated by purely partisan political purposes.”
“Let’s just call this what it is: Donald Trump’s administration wants to silence anyone who says anything bad about Trump on TV, because all Trump does is watch TV, OK,” Colbert said. “He’s like a toddler with too much screen time. He gets cranky and then drops a load in his diaper.”
CBS said in a statement that it did not prohibit the show from broadcasting the interview, but that the decision followed “legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the FCC equal-time rule” for two other candidates. A spokesperson for the FCC did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Colbert instead posted an interview with Talarico on YouTube, where the two discussed faith, the separation of church and state and the dangers of consolidated corporate-owned media.
Talarico, who is running against U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett in the March 3 Democratic primary, posted a clip of the interview early Tuesday on X.
“I think Donald Trump is worried we’re about to flip Texas,“ Talarico said to applause. ”This is the party that ran against cancel culture, and now they’re trying to control what we watch, what we say, what we read.”
Daniel Suhr, president of the Center for American Rights, a Chicago-based conservative legal organization, said the law in this case would have required CBS give equal time to Crockett, not Republicans. The rule protects all candidates from all parties, he added.
“The airwaves belong to the American people,” Suhr said. “They are not platforms for the private political agendas of Hollywood hosts.”
CBS announced last year that it was canceling The Late Show, which will have its final episode in May. The network cited financial reasons and a changing late-night advertising landscape. Days before the cancelation, Colbert criticized a $16 million settlement between Trump and CBS’ parent company Paramount Global over a 60 Minutes story.
Paramount Global was seeking to finalize its $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media, which required approval from the federal government.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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