FCC chairman Brendan Carr is weighing in on Stephen Colbert‘s latest late-night drama with CBS.
Earlier this week, Colbert claimed that the network prohibited The Late Show from airing an interview with Texas Democratic state representative James Talarico. “Then, I 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 stated on the show’s Monday, February 16, episode. “And because my network clearly does not want us to talk about this…let’s talk about this.”
According to Colbert, the interview was pulled due to the FCC’s new Equal Time Rule, which requires TV programs to provide equal airtime to all political candidates running for a particular office.
“Let’s 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,” Colbert claimed before joking, “He’s like a toddler with too much screen time.” The interview was instead uploaded to the show’s YouTube page, where it currently has over 6 million views.
CBS, for its part, denied Colbert’s claims. “The show was provided legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the FCC equal-time rule for two other candidates, including Rep. Jasmine Crockett, and presented options for how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled,” the network said in a Tuesday, February 17, statement, per Deadline. “The Late Show decided to present the interview through its YouTube channel with on-air promotion on the broadcast rather than potentially providing the equal-time options,” the company noted in a statement.
Carr stated that he was “highly entertained” by the drama during a Wednesday, February 18, press conference. “Anybody that’s not suffering from a terminal case of Trump Derangement Syndrome could see right away yesterday the exact story arc and how it was going to play out,” he stated. “You had a Democrat candidate who understood the way that the news media works, and he took advantage of all of [the news media’s] prior conceptions to run a hoax, apparently for the purpose of raising money and getting clicks. And the news media played right into it.”
Carr continued, “I think yesterday was a perfect encapsulation of why the American people have more trust in gas station sushi than they do in the national news media. This was very plainly an effort ginned up to get clicks and to raise money, and you guys [in the media] ate it up like slop.”
Carr said that the goal of the Equal Time Rule is to empower “individual people to vote and decide for themselves who they want to represent them,” adding, “The whole idea here is more speech, not less. You can have more candidates on. There is zero censorship with the Equal Time provision.”
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Carr went on to note that neither The Late Show nor ABC’s The View — which recently had on Talarico as a guest — have “come forward with a filing seeking or showing and demonstrating that they qualify for the ‘bona fide news’ exception, and they’re welcome to do that.”
Colbert fired back at CBS’ denial Tuesday night on The Late Show, stating, “I really don’t want an adversarial relationship with the network. I’ve never had one. As I said in my interview with James Talarico, I’m grateful to have worked for CBS for the last 11 years, and to have worked with George [Cheeks] and David [Stapf] and Amy [Reisenbach] and everyone at the network.”
He added, “I’m just so surprised that this giant global corporation would not stand up to these bullies, come on, you’re Paramount! No, you’re more than that… you’re Paramount Plus!”
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Weeknights, 11:35/10:35c, CBS
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