FCC chair Brendan Carr sets the record straight on Stephen Colbert censorship claims

FCC chair Brendan Carr hits back at Stephen Colbert's censorship claims surrounding an interview with a Texas U.S. Senate candidate not airing due to equal-time rule concerns.

FCC Chair Pushes Back On Allegations Of Censorship Over Stephen Colbert Interview

FCC Chair Pushes Back On Allegations Of Censorship Over Stephen Colbert Interview Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times, The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Wednesday pushed back against allegations of censorship from CBS late-night host Stephen Colbert and a Democratic Texas Senate candidate. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said Colbert could have aired his interview with Texas state Rep. James Talarico, a Democrat running for the U.S. Senate, if the late-night TV show he hosts complied with federal equal time rules by airing interviews with other Democrats vying for the seat. “There was no censorship here at all,” Carr told reporters. “Every single broadcaster in this country has an obligation to be responsible for the programming that they choose to air, and they’re responsible whether it complies with FCC rules or not, and it doesn’t, and those individual broadcasters are also going to have a potential liability.” Talarico has alleged in posts on his X account that the FCC and the Trump administration had tried to censor the interview and barred him from appearing on Colbert’s program, although the interview was published online. “The reason the Trump administration and their billionaire friends are trying to silence me and this movement is because they’re worried that we are going to flip Texas in November,” he said in a video, which was posted on X. Aside from Talarico’s allegations of censorship, Colbert, who is set to leave “The Late Show” in May, also criticized CBS and the Trump administration during his program. “Then I was told, in some uncertain terms, that not only could I not have him on, I could not mention me not having him on,” the “The Late Show” host said on Tuesday, adding that “because my network clearly doesn’t want us to talk about this, let’s talk about this.” The interview with Talarico was uploaded to Colbert’s YouTube channel on Tuesday evening. In statements to media outlets in response to Colbert’s claims, CBS denied that “The Late Show” was barred by the network from airing the Talarico interview and instead said that its lawyers advised the company that the broadcast could trigger the equal time rule. “The show was provided legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the FCC equal time rule for two other candidates, including Rep. Jasmine Crockett, and presented options for how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled,” CBS said in the statement. It noted that the interview was published on the show’s YouTube channel instead. The issue came just hours before early voting opened Tuesday in Texas’s primary elections, which feature hotly contested Senate nomination races in both parties. Talarico’s main opponent in the primary is Crockett (D-Texas) and both have built national profiles through viral social media clips. On the Republican side, four-term incumbent Sen. John Cornyn is facing the political fight of his career against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas). In a notice last month, the FCC said that it is changing the rules exempting certain late-night and daytime talk shows from being mandated to provide equal airtime to opposing candidates. “Importantly, the FCC has not been presented with any evidence that the interview portion of any late night or daytime television talk show program on air presently would qualify for the bona fide news exemption,” the FCC said on Jan. 21. “Moreover, a program that is motivated by partisan purposes, for example, would not be entitled to an exemption under longstanding FCC precedent.” The Epoch Times contacted the FCC for comment Wednesday. Tyler Durden Wed, 02/18/2026 - 21:45

By Tyler Durden

Brendan Carr Says FCC Has Initiated “Enforcement Proceedings” Over ‘The View’ Equal Time Rules

"We're going to hold broadcasters accountable," the chairman said on Wednesday.

By McKinley Franklin

Brendan Carr Confirms FCC Has Begun ‘Enforcement Proceedings’ Against ABC’s ‘The View’ Over Equal Time Issues

FCC chairman Brendan Carr confirmed Wednesday that the commission has started enforcement proceedings of what he asserted were violations of the equal time rule involving political candidates by ABC’s daytime mainstay “The View.” Carr appeared on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle,” where he also slammed Stephen Colbert and CBS’ “The Late Show” over the flap […]

By Cynthia Littleton

FCC Chair Brendan Carr calls Stephen Colbert's censorship concerns 'fake news'

FCC Chair Brendan Carr appeared on Laura Ingraham's Fox News show on Wednesday. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Stephen Colbert said CBS pulled a Democratic lawmaker's interview over federal regulatory concerns. FCC Chair Brendan Carr told Laura Ingraham on Wednesday that Colbert's complaint is "fake news." The FCC is pursuing "enforcement actions" against "The View" over its interview with the same candidate. Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr said it's "fake news" to suggest that the government pressured CBS to pull a Democratic lawmaker's interview from Stephen Colbert's "The Late Show" earlier this week. Carr addressed the latest flash point moment between broadcasters and the FCC in his Wednesday remarks during the commission's February open meeting, saying there was "no censorship by the government here." Speaking to Fox News' Laura Ingraham on Wednesday evening, Carr doubled down, describing the incident as "Democrat on Democrat violence," rather than evidence that the commission had pressured CBS not to air the interview. Instead, Carr said, CBS's advice to "The Late Show" not to air an interview with James Talarico, a Democratic Texas state representative running for a hotly contested US Senate seat, was an appropriate response to prevent the commission from enforcing its equal time rule. The equal time rule requires TV and radio broadcast stations to provide equivalent airtime opportunities to legally qualified political candidates, or risk fines or, potentially, the revocation of their broadcast license. The rule does not apply to bona fide newscasts, interviews, or on-the-spot news. The rule has rarely been applied in recent decades. Broadcasters had generally understood a 2006 FCC ruling to mean that interviews on daytime and late-night talk shows were exempt from the rule. However, the FCC said in revised guidance sent to stations last month that "This is not the case." "Perhaps Colbert and other establishment Democrats want to put the thumb on the scale in this Democrat primary for one candidate over the other," Carr told Ingraham. "I don't know, you'll have to ask them, but we're going to enforce the law and hold broadcasters accountable." Carr told reporters during the FCC's open meeting that the commission was pursuing "enforcement actions" against the talk show "The View" over its broadcast of an interview with Talarico. "What we're doing now is simply applying the law on the books in an even-handed manner, and for people that benefited from a two-tier system of justice during the Biden years, they may feel like that's weaponization, but that doesn't make it so," Carr told Ingraham. Representatives for Fox News, CBS, The Late Show, and the campaigns of Talarico and primary opponent Jasmine Crockett did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider. The FCC pointed to Carr's remarks during the open meeting when reached for comment. CBS previously said in a statement that it did not specifically prohibit "The Late Show" from broadcasting the interview, but that it did provide the show with legal guidance. Colbert, who has hosted "The Late Show" since 2015, told his viewers on Monday that CBS lawyers said "in no uncertain terms" that his late-night talk show could not air the interview with Talarico. He also said he was told not to acknowledge the decision on air, which prompted his decision to post the interview on YouTube. By the time of Carr's appearance on The Ingraham Angle, Colbert's interview with Talarico had received more than 3.8 million views — significantly more than other recent interviews, which average between about 75,000 and 510,000 views. Rep. Crockett, a Democrat running against Talarico, said during a Tuesday appearance on "The Briefing with Jen Psaki" likely gave her primary rival a "boost." In a Wednesday social media post, Talarico's campaign confirmed that the fervor around the incident had a positive effect, saying it had raised $2.5 million in 24 hours after the Colbert interview was scrapped. Read the original article on Business Insider