Stephen Colbert claims his planned interview with Texas state representative and Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico on Monday night’s Late Show was canceled by CBS network lawyers, who raised concerns that it could violate the FCC’s equal time rule.
The Late Show host said he was “told, in some uncertain terms, that not only could I not have him on, I could not mention me not having him on.” He nonetheless proceeded to address the situation in an extended segment that ran nearly eight minutes and included repeated jabs at FCC Chair Brendan Carr. The interview with Talarico itself was made available to view as a web-exclusive on Colbert’s YouTube channel.
“On January 21st of this year, a letter was released by FCC chairman and smug bowling pin, Brendan Carr. In this letter, Carr said he was thinking about dropping the exception for talk shows, because he said some of them were ‘motivated by partisan purposes.’ Well, sir, you’re chairman of the FCC, so FCC you. Because I think you are motivated by partisan purposes yourself. Sir, ya smelt it ’cause ya dealt it. You are Dutch-ovening America’s airwaves,” Colbert remarked.
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“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? He’s like a toddler with too much screen time. He gets cranky and then drops a load in his diaper,” he continued.
Colbert also noted the irony in recent remarks from Carr saying that right-wing talk radio is not a target of FCC’s equal time rule. “I get this part, what else would your angriest uncle do in traffic?” the comedian quipped.
In January, Carr announced new guidance for how the FCC would interpret its equal time rules, in a move apparently aimed at pressuring shows such as Late Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Daily Show, and others into broadcasting more conservative viewpoints and featuring more conservative guests. Prior to this, late-night talk shows had generally been exempt from equal time rules under the bona fide news exemption, a precedent largely established by a 2006 FCC ruling regarding The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
