The Late Show host Stephen Colbert says CBS blocked him from broadcasting an interview with James Talarico, a Democratic representative from Texas. During his opening monologue on Monday night, Colbert says the network’s lawyers told him in “no uncertain terms” that he couldn’t have Talarico on the show, forcing him to post the interview on YouTube instead, hours after news broke that Anderson Cooper is leaving his position at the network as a 60 Minutes correspondent.
“He [Talarico] was supposed to be here, but 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 says. “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.”
CBS spokesperson Phil Gonzales provided The Verge with the same statement claiming Colbert was not blocked from broadcasting the interview that was given to Variety and other outlets, but refused to attribute it by name per The Verge’s background policy. Asked for a name, Gonzales wrote, “Respectfully, you don’t need to use the statement. We will keep that in mind next time verge as us to reply [sic].”
As noted by Deadline, news interviews have long been exempt from this rule, with talk shows seemingly included under this umbrella. But in January, FCC Chair Brendan Carr issued new guidance suggesting late-night and daytime talk shows should comply with the rule as well. “If you’re fake news, you’re not going to qualify for the bona fide news exemption,” Carr said at the time.
Colbert says Carr “hasn’t done away” with the exemption yet, but CBS “is unilaterally enforcing it as if he had.” Last year, Paramount appointed The Free Press founder Bari Weiss as the editor-in-chief of CBS News. “Let’s just call this what it is. Donald Trump’s administration wants to silence anyone who says anything bad about Trump on TV.”
Update, February 17th: Added details regarding the statement from CBS.
