Link: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/feb/18/fcc-brendan-carr-stephen-colbert

Carr says the Federal Communications Commission has also opened an enforcement action into ABC’s the View

The chair of the US’s top media regulator claimed on Wednesday that journalists had been tricked into covering claims by the late-night host Stephen Colbert that he had been blocked by his network from interviewing a Texas Senate candidate.

Brendan Carr, the avowedly pro-Trump chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), made his comments after Colbert accused the Trump administration and CBS of censorship.

CBS has countered Colbert’s claims in a statement, saying it had not blocked him from interviewing James Talarico, a Texas Democrat, but had merely provided legal guidance that such an interview might trigger equal time regulations that would require him to also platform Talarico’s campaign rivals.

Colbert will call this bluff. Host a bunch of progressives in the next week.

The liar... hold on to your britches... is... Brendan Carr.

As if anyone in the Trump admin has any credibility. You fucks burned through that during Trump's first term. Very few people believe a word out of your demon mouths.

Good one Carr! He can get Sinclair to claim they were tricked into covering the story, and then? Something something, cancel the show early, pay a personal indemnity to the president for a personal lawsuit cbs will be compelled to accept, and they will appoint a censor to the network from the administration.

I'm joking obviously, they will try to get him fired earlier, but they have nothing here, not that that stops them necessarily. If the rot wasn't so deep people would be osttracized from polite society for dishonoring their positions in government like Carr is, but as a tribe of nihlistic self serving oligarchs and their lawyers anything goes.

Didn't you hear?

Late night variety/talk shows: journalism, they must abide by FCC 'equal time' rules

Fox News: purely entertainment, no FCC rules apply.

Bari Weiss is the appointed censor at the network.

It's just that Colbert has an iron clad contract, so they have to let him ride it out. That doesn't mean that they won't fuck with him.

By you? You know damn well the "equal time" rule does not apply, and has never applied to talk shows like The Late Show. Physically musing that you might try to remove their exemptions is your fascist group trying to intimidate or restrict free speech. It worked this time, but it won't always work...

I too like sass. But genocide support is non negotiable to me. That makes her unqualified.

I hope she changes her views on that. Maybe in the future she can run again but she's gotta make some firm statements and stop being associated with Israel in any way.

She's obviously highly intelligent and educated. It's a shame she's in support of Israel.

As a kid I learned an important way to tell if the government is lying to you. Just ask "are they producing words?" If the answer is yes, then they're fucking lying to you.

So nooowwww they want the fairness doctrine...

The big irony of the whole situation to me is that getting colbert cancelled and trying to silence him and other talk show hosts is starting to backfire spectacularly.
You have given colberts show a death sentence and then tried to back him into a corner and he has decided that theres nothing left to lose, he doesnt give a shit about being level headed, reasonable and keeping the peace (unlike conservative media) or tip-toeing around the fascists, he is unleashed and is going to tell these fuckwits what he really thinks and throwing out some wicked barbs.

By trying to control the people they dont like they have gone full streisand affect and launched Talarico into the zeitgeist, politicians only dream of this kind of viral marketing for their campaign and the tide is going to turn, once the american people realise they actually have some NotShit™ options out there they might elect more and more people who are actually going to represent them and not the values/pockets of the elite.

Good, go after all the left comedians and media personalities, get them pissed off, lets see what they do when they are off the leash and start giving you back some of the vehemence the conservative media has been spewing all this time.