New York, New York – Comedian and late-night host Stephen Colbert recently criticized CBS for pulling his recent interview with Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, seemingly at the demand of President Donald Trump.
On Monday night’s episode of The Late Show, Colbert opened the show explaining that he was called directly by CBS’ lawyers.
According to Colbert, they told him “in no uncertain terms” that he could not have Talarico on as a guest and that he was forbidden from discussing their demands on the show.
“Because my network clearly doesn’t want us to talk about this, let’s talk about this,” Colbert joked.
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The comedian went on to argue that the attorney demands came after Brendan Carr, the head of Trump’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) threatened to enforce guidance calling for equal airtime on talk shows for all candidates in any political race.
As Carr has only been targeting left-leaning shows and networks with his threats, Colbert further argued that the Trump administration seeks to “silence anyone who says anything bad about Trump.”
Colbert proceeded with his interview with Talarico, a Texas state representative who is battling Jasmine Crocket in the Democratic primary for Senate, but it was cut from the live broadcast and instead only shared on YouTube.
Talarico also blamed Trump directly for the interview being pulled, as he believes the president is “worried that we’re about to flip Texas.”
Last year, after Trump’s FCC approved a massive merger for CBS’ parent network, Paramount, CBS went through major leadership shakeups and eventually announced that Colbert’s show would be canceled after one more season, despite it being the highest-rated late-night talk show on US television since it began in 2015.
Carr has since ramped up Trump’s efforts to silence other critics. During his appointment hearing, Carr memorably turned heads when he told Congress that “the FCC is not formally an independent agency,” implying that his actions could justifiably be aligned with the political priorities of the White House.
Many critics have accused Trump of trying to control the media landscape ahead of the midterm elections this year, as Republicans are struggling to hold on to their thin majority in the House and Senate.
