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

FCC Chairman Carr "Highly Entertained" by Colbert/CBS Controversy

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr says he's "highly entertained" by the controversy going on between Stephen Colbert and CBS that he helped create.

If you've been following the headlines over the past 72 hours, then you know that late-night host Stephen Colbert revealed to his audience on Monday night that his interview with Texas State Representative James Talarico would not air as planned due to network concerns about retaliation from FCC chair Brendan Carr. The 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 to the policy has yet to be made by Carr. In addition, the late-night host claimed that CBS's lawyers didn't want him discussing the matter on the show… which Colbert clearly did. CBS would go on to issue a statement refuting Colbert's claims, with Colbert calling out the statement during his show on Tuesday night (check out the timeline below). One person who's finding all of this funny is the person who ignited the controversy, with Carr telling the press on Wednesday that he is "highly entertained" by what's going down between Colbert and his network bosses.

"I think it was one of the most fun days I've had in the job watching sort of the hilarity of how this story played out," Carr shared. "Look, 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. You had a Democrat candidate who understood the way the news media works, and he took advantage of all of your sort of 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 was referencing Talarico, who saw a surge in fundraising and media exposure amid the self-inflicted controversy on Paramount Skydance-owned CBS's part.

And despite representing an administration not known for its trust or truth-telling, Carr also used the moment to bash the mainstream media (as opposed to the MAGA faithful who get to ask fanboy questions at the White House, saying it 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 plainly an effort ginned up to get clicks and raise money, and you guys ate it up."

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert/CBS /FCC Timeline

"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:

With "Why CBS Didn't Broadcast Stephen Colbert's Interview With James Talarico" and "Rep. James Talarico On Confronting Christian Nationalism, And Strange Days In The Texas Legislature" scoring well over 9 million combined views on YouTube alone, CBS released a statement on Tuesday saying that the late-night talk show "was not prohibited" from broadcasting the interview, but it did offer "legal guidance" in how the interview could "trigger the FCC's equal-time rule" and what that could mean.

"'The Late Show' was not prohibited by CBS from broadcasting the interview with Rep. James Talarico. 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 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."

After offering s brief recap of what went down over the past 24 hours, Colbert reminded everyone of Carr's comments from back in January during his response to CBS on Tuesday night, when Carr noted that he was "thinking" about pulling the equal-time exemption from talk shows (adding, as we mentioned earlier, that Carr never made the official decision). The late-night host then hit at the network, saying that CBS was already doing it for the FCC. Colbert then shared that his folks couldn't find a single time prior to this week when the FCC enforced the equal-time rule on a talk show. Again, Colbert drove home the point that CBS, not the FCC, was choosing to enforce an equal-time rule. Not agreeing that they should be held to the rule, Colbert opted to have the video posted on YouTube instead.

The biggest headlines coming out of Colbert's response included learning that he had no prior knowledge that CBS would release the statement, especially since he was still working with the network on what could be said between Monday night's monologue and follow-up segment. In addition, Colbert reminded viewers that he has had one of Talarico's opponents, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, on the late-night talk show twice – but Colbert couldn't show a picture of Crockett on the show out of fear of violating an equal-time rule that currently doesn't officially impact them.

"They know damn well that every word of my script last night was approved by CBS lawyers who, for the record, approve every script that goes on the air, whether it's about equal-time, or this image of frogs having sex," Colbert added, showing artwork of just that. "For the lawyers to release this without even talking to me is really surprising. I don't even know what to do with this crap." To drive home the point of how he felt about CBS's statement, Colbert treated the paper he was reading it off of like dog poop, wrapping it in a plastic bag, and throwing it away.

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