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Stephen Colbert savaged his own network on Monday night as he revealed CBS lawyers barred him from interviewing a sitting Texas lawmaker, citing legal fears tied to new federal guidance on political airtime issued by “smug bowling pin” and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Brendan Carr.
Opening The Late Show, Colbert introduced his band and guest Jennifer Garner before asking the audience: “You know who is not one of my guests tonight? That’s Texas state representative James Talarico.”
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“He was supposed to be here, but we were told in no uncertain terms by our network’s lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast,” the host continued, adding: “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. And because my network clearly does not want us to talk about this… Let’s talk about this.”
Colbert linked the decision to new guidance from Carr on the “equal time” rule, which requires broadcasters to offer comparable airtime to rival candidates if a qualified political contender appears. Historically, news programming and in practice many late-night shows have been treated as exempt under the “bonafide news” exception.
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Carr signalled in a letter that exemption may not automatically apply to entertainment talk shows, saying determinations could hinge on whether there was a “partisan motivation” in booking a candidate.
“Well, sir, you’re chairman of the FCC. So, FCC you, because I think you are motivated by partisan purposes yourself,” he said to cheers and applause from the studio audience.
Colbert continued: “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. Okay? He’s like a toddler with too much screen time. He gets cranky and then drops a load in his diapers. So, it’s no surprise that two of the people most affected by this threat are me and my friend Jimmy Kimmel. When this letter dropped, we both talked about the letter on air and then later Carr defended it like this.”
Colbert then rolled back a clip of Carr in an interview warning him and ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel that if they “don’t want to have to comply” then they should “go to a cable channel or a podcast or a streaming service and that’s fine.”
“Great idea, a man whose job is to regulate broadcast TV suggest everyone just leave broadcast TV,” Colbert jabbed.
The host told viewers that the interview with Talarico would be available on the show’s YouTube channel, but, to more jeering, he further revealed that “the network says I can’t give you URL or a QR code, but I promise you if you go to our YouTube page, you’ll find it.”
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At this stage Colbert rounded on CBS, with a caustic jibe at the network’s publicly stated rationale for cancelling his show – which is set to conclude in May.
“Now, as I said, at this point, [Carr’s] just released a letter that says he’s thinking about doing away with the exception for late night. He hasn’t done away with it yet, but my network is unilaterally enforcing it as if he had, but I want to assure you, ladies and gentlemen, please, I want to assure you, this decision is for ‘purely financial reasons’,” he said.
He then revealed that the rule even forbade “any candidate appearance including by voice or picture.”
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“That’s right. I am absolutely not allowed to show a photo of Texas State Representative James Talarico,” Colbert said, again showing an image captioned “James Talarico” beside him as he’d been doing throughout. “That’s not him. That’s a stock photo we found when we Googled ‘not James Talarico.’”
He concluded: “I can’t show any pictures of James Talarico. I’m not even sure I can say the words James Talarico. But what I can show you is what we always show when we have to pull material at the last minute. This tasteful nude of Brendan Carr.”
The audience cheered again as an AI-generated image of Carr flashed on-screen.
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Watch above via CBS.
The post ‘FCC You!’ Stephen Colbert Flays CBS in Defiant Opener for Nixing His Interview with Democratic Lawmaker first appeared on Mediaite.
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