Posted in: CBS, Opinion, TV, TV | Tagged: colbert, fcc, opinion

Colbert Calling Out FCC, Pulled Talarico Interview Scoring on YouTube

The interview with James Talarico that was pulled by CBS and Stephen Colbert's commentary against the FCC are scoring big on YouTube.

On Monday night, late-night host Stephen Colbert told his audience that his interview with Texas State Representative James Talarico would not air due to network concerns about retaliation from FCC chair Brendan Carr. The network's concern was that Carr would penalize CBS under the "equal time" rule, even though that doesn't apply to talk shows, and a formal change has yet to be made by Carr. What made Colbert's on-air admission even hotter is that the late-night host claims CBS's lawyers didn't want him discussing it on the show… which he clearly did, as you can see in the video above. While we await word on whether or not CBS or its parent company, David Ellison's Paramount Skydance, will respond to Colbert's actions, we can safely say that both Colbert's commentary on the network pulling the interview and the interview itself are blowing up on YouTube. "Why CBS Didn't Broadcast Stephen Colbert's Interview With James Talarico" has already hit 1.85 million views in 14 hours, with "Rep. James Talarico On Confronting Christian Nationalism, And Strange Days In The Texas Legislature" breaking the 1.9 million views mark at the time of this writing.

Colbert Defies CBS, Reveals Network Pulled Interview Over FCC Fears

"You know you know who is not one of my guests tonight? That's Texas State Representative 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. 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," Colbert shared during his Monday night show.

The late-night host continued, calling out Carr's previous threats to re-evaluate daytime and late-night shows regarding the "equal time" rule. "So, you've you might have heard of this thing called the equal time rule. It's an old FCC rule that applies only to radio and broadcast television, not cable or streaming, that says if a show has a candidate on during an election, they have to have all that candidates' opponents on as well. It's the FCC's most time-honored rule, right after no nipples at the Super Bowl," he added, noting that there has "long been an exception for this rule" when it came to politicians appearing on talk shows.

"But 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, FCCU, because I think you are motivated by partisan purposes yourself, sir. Hey, you smelt it cuz you dealt it." Colbert continued, making the case that the White House "wants to silence anyone who says anything bad about Trump on TV because all Trump does is watch TV. 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."

Before bringing his update on the show to a close, Colbert put the word out that the video would be available on the show's YouTube channel (which we have waiting for you below). From there, Colbert noted that Carr's concern about "equal time" and partisanship doesn't seem to apply to conservative broadcasters. "Carr here claims he's just getting partisanship off the airwaves, but the FCC, as I said, is also in charge of regulating radio broadcasts. And what would you know? Brendan Carr says right-wing talk radio isn't a target of the FCC's equal time notice." Colbert then showed an excerpt from a report noting that Carr wasn't looking into applying the "equal time" rule to right-wing radio stations. After a wave of boos from the audience, the late-night host added, "No, no, I get this part. It makes sense. You can't get rid of talk radio. What else would your angriest uncle do in traffic? Talk to your saddest aunt?" In addition, Colbert called out his bosses for pulling the interview, even though Carr hasn't made an official decision on the exemption from talk shows.

Here's a look at Colbert's interview with Talarico, originally planned for Monday night's show. In the video below, the two discuss a number of issues raised during Talarico's campaign for the Democratic nomination for Senate – including the separation of church and state, fighting back against  Christian Nationalism, the dangers of consolidated corporate-owned media, and the "trumped up" culture wars being pushed by Republicans in states like Talarico's:

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