CBS forced The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to cancel an appearance by a Democrat up for election later this year, according to the host. The decision stems from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s repeated threats to punish network television stations that he believes are airing unbalanced political content.
“Texas State Rep. James Talarico, 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,” host Stephen Colbert said on air on Monday night. “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 doesn’t want us to talk about this, let’s talk about this.”
The reason stems from a long-time Federal Communications Commission rule called the “Equal Time Rule,” which states that all candidates in an election should be offered equal airtime for their messaging on radio and broadcast channels.
Talarico is running against fellow Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett in the Texas Democratic primary slated for March 3. Both primary candidates are rising stars in the Democratic Party, and whoever wins will be in the race to flip the state’s reliably Republican Senate seat currently held by Sen. John Cornyn.
The “Equal Time Rule” does not apply to streaming, nor does it apply to news interviews or talk show interviews with politicians.
Last month, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr signaled his intention to drop the exception for daytime and late-night TV talk shows, claiming that the programs are “motivated by partisan purposes.” In response to the news, Democratic FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez told Politico that “the FCC is now a political arm of this administration.”
Colbert said that Carr’s letter was announcing the intention to drop the exception, but it wasn’t a real policy change yet.
“He hasn’t done away with it yet, but my network is unilaterally enforcing it as if he had,” Colbert said. “But I want to assure you, ladies and gentlemen, please, I want to assure you, this decision is for purely financial reasons.”
As a result of the network’s pressure, Colbert has instead posted his interview with Tallarico on the Late Show’s YouTube channel, though CBS even barred him from giving out a URL or a QR code for it on air.
Colbert also pointed out that this isn’t the FCC’s first attack on talk shows or Rep. Tallarico. Earlier this month, the FCC reportedly opened an investigation into ABC’s “The View” talk show, promptly following an interview with Rep. Tallarico.
Republicans might have some reason to be afraid of Tallarico’s chances to flip the Senate seat. Back in 2018, he flipped a reliably Republican seat in a county that was once referred to as a “conservative bastion.”
“I think that Donald Trump is worried that we’re about to flip Texas,” Tallarico said in the Colbert interview posted on YouTube. “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, and this is the most dangerous kind of cancel culture, the kind that comes from the top.”
