Is it any surprise his show is getting canceled?
Is it any surprise his show is getting canceled?
H aven’t you heard? The Trump administration is trying to censor late-night television again. Or so says Stephen Colbert, who during a recent booking hullabaloo has shown once again why his hyper-partisan program was never going to survive in the already-struggling comedy media lane.
The Late Show, which will formally end in May amid financial struggles, was slated to air an interview with Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico. But this week, it was scrapped, with Colbert insisting he was told he could not have Talarico on because of fear of the Federal Communications Commission.
Talarico pushed the theory further, tweeting alongside the unaired interview: “This is the interview Donald Trump didn’t want you to see. His FCC refused to air my interview with Stephen Colbert. Trump is worried we’re about to flip Texas.”
This framing of the circumstances behind the cancellation may be skewed. Per CNN media analyst Brian Stelter, CBS says that it did not prohibit the broadcast — and that the show was given “legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the FCC equal-time rule for two other candidates,” including Democratic primary opponent and progressive darling Jasmine Crockett, “and presented options for how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled.” CBS says The Late Show opted to promote the interview online “rather than potentially providing the equal-time options.”
It is entirely possible that the network’s legal counsel advised that having Talarico on could trigger the rule and require them to give Talarico’s opponents airtime so as not to advantage one with more media exposure. Perhaps they didn’t want to do that. Either way, Colbert appears to be exaggerating, and the dust-up only further vindicates CBS in its decision to nix The Late Show, which was so obsessed with progressive politics it risked alienating potential new audiences and especially conservatives.
Recall that one study by media watchdog NewsBusters found Colbert had hosted 176 left-leaning guests and only one Republican since 2022. While the Trump FCC has reinvigorated the seldom-enforced equal-time rule, specifically for talk shows, it’s a stretch to assume Trump desperately wanted to block an appearance by Talarico, just another Democrat on Colbert’s roster of guests talking about progressive things before a progressive audience. Especially when doing so would only raise his profile. For her part, Crockett, a prima donna and overall embarrassment to the Democratic Party, must be miffed. Talarico got to score points against the big bad Trump administration while Crockett looks like someone the network preferred to ignore. Colbert had Crockett on multiple times in the past, but that was before she ran for Senate. Indeed, she appears to be backing CBS’s account of what happened with the Talarico interview.
As for Colbert, either he is ignorant of the airtime rule for candidates or this was a ploy to make a hit against Trump, which as a result has amplified Talarico. To be sure, the FCC rule is antiquated, considering the explosion of wildly popular podcasts and alternative media with ten times Colbert’s audience that don’t face this kind of oversight. I would agree that the FCC should get out of the content-regulation business.
But that doesn’t change the fact that this public tantrum gave one Democrat the opportunity to rally the party around him under the pretense of fighting the Trump administration’s alleged suppression of speech. The episode amounts to another protest against Trump, proving once again Colbert is the furthest thing from a neutral comedian who just wants to make people laugh.