CNN
By Brian Stelter, CNN
(CNN) — Stephen Colbert taped a “Late Show” interview with James Talarico, a candidate in the Democratic Senate primary in Texas. But he says CBS lawyers intervened before the interview could air on TV.
“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,” Colbert told his viewers Monday night.
CBS told a different story in a statement Tuesday afternoon: The network said “The Late Show” was given “legal guidance” but was not “prohibited” from broadcasting the interview.
The controversy stems from the Trump administration’s intensifying pressure against broadcast TV networks.
CBS has been uniquely vulnerable to the pressure due to the corporate ambitions of its parent company Paramount, which is currently trying to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, including CNN.
The Federal Communications Commission, which regulates local stations owned by broadcasters like CBS, recently issued new guidance about an old regulation known as the “equal time” rule.
The rules do not apply to cable or streaming — which is why Colbert’s show posted the Talarico interview on YouTube as an “online-only exclusive” — but do apply to local TV and radio stations.
The rule require stations to give equal airtime to all legally qualified candidates for public office — if one is featured, his or her rivals have to be given time, too.
There are big exemptions for news coverage, and for the past two decades that exemption has also been thought to apply to late night and daytime talk shows.
But FCC chair Brendan Carr is rejecting that thinking. Last month, he said stations should no longer assume that shows like Colbert’s are exempted from the rule.
“If you’re fake news, you’re not going to qualify for the bona fide news exemption,” Carr said at a press conference.
The FCC threats against talk shows
As Carr’s use of the phrase “fake news” indicates, he is a staunch ally of President Trump. He has been harshly critical of liberal-leaning talk shows like ABC’s “The View” and has been open about reducing the power of national networks.
But the FCC’s enforcement powers are limited. The lone Democratic commissioner at the FCC, Anna Gomez, said last month that Carr’s claims were misleading: “The FCC has not adopted any new regulation, interpretation, or Commission-level policy altering the long-standing news exemption or equal time framework.”
A source at the FCC reiterated that point, saying, “Once again here, the threat is the point.”
“The point is to force shows and networks to second-guess their decisions in light of this ‘new’ guidance,” the source told CNN on condition of anonymity.
However, CBS indicated in a Tuesday statement that it is taking the new guidance seriously.
It said that Colbert’s