CBS’s refusal to air comedian Stephen Colbert’s interview with Rep. James Talarico (D-Texas) backfired with more than 5 million viewers on the late show’s YouTube page, dwarfing the network’s usual audience on the public airwaves.
Trump’s Federal Communications Commission attack dog Brendan Carr claims there’s no censorship, just the application of the so-called equal time rule, which hasn’t been applied to late night television in two decades.
In a Substack Live interview, political scientist Norman Ornstein explained that Colbert already gave airtime to Talarico’s rival, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas).
Ornstein also called out Carr’s double standards for Colbert and “hugely popular” talk radio shows like Sean Hannity’s on the public airwaves.
“He’s had on candidates and never been told by Brendan Carr and the FCC, ‘You need to apply equal time,’” Ornstein noted. “And Carr has basically said, ‘This is not for radio. It’s only for television.’”
“Why? Because the television talk shows — Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, ‘The View’ — all have liberal audiences and viewpoints, and talk radio is dominated by the right wing,” he added.
In January, Carr’s FCC announced plans to reverse the exemptions that late-night shows had from the equal time rule over the last two decades, but Ornstein noted that networks have failed to call Carr’s bluff amid enforcement action threats.
“I don’t think [Carr] could succeed doing that under these circumstances, and the courts would likely block him from doing that as well,” Ornstein said. “It would have been costly, but a network with any integrity would have done just that. And the fact is, CBS long ago lost its integrity and has now become, as I said before, a capitulation network.”
Watch the full interview at the top of this newsletter.
