In a move that surprises absolutely no one who has ever tried to get a straight answer out of a corporate lawyer, CBS decided to yank Texas State Representative James Talarico’s interview from The Late Show this Monday. Host Stephen Colbert revealed that the network’s legal team basically gave him the “vow of silence” treatment, telling him he couldn’t air the segment or even mention that he wasn’t airing it. Because, as we know, the best way to keep a secret in the 21st century is to tell a man with a microphone and a nightly national audience.
The panic stems from the FCC’s new “equal time” guidance, where Chairman Brendan Carr—a man apparently dedicated to making sure late-night comedy is as balanced and thrilling as a C-SPAN subcommittee hearing—suggested talk shows should lose their “bona fide news” hall pass. Fearing they might actually have to give a Republican five minutes of airtime for every joke Colbert tells, CBS preemptively surrendered. Colbert, being a noted fan of staying employed until his show gets axed in May anyway, posted the whole thing on YouTube instead.
The interview itself touched on Talarico’s quest to flip Texas, his Christian faith, and that time he allegedly called his primary opponent, Jasmine Crockett, “mediocre.” Talarico claims he was talking about her campaigning, not her soul, which is a classic political “it’s not you, it’s your data” breakup line. Meanwhile, the FCC is already investigating The View for having the audacity to let Talarico speak earlier this month. Apparently, in the new media landscape, a polite Democrat from Austin is a regulatory biohazard.
Look, we get it. Between the FCC playing hall monitor and CBS trying to protect its Skydance merger like a nervous squirrel with a single nut, the First Amendment is having a rough week. Talarico called it the “most dangerous kind of cancel culture.” Maybe he should just be grateful—getting “banned” by a major network is the best PR a Texas Democrat has had since Beto stood on a countertop.
It’s almost touching how the Trump administration and CBS are working so hard to protect us from the “danger” of a former middle school teacher talking about insulin prices and the Bible. Heaven forbid a Texan appears on national television and doesn’t mention high school football or why our power grid is held together by duct tape and prayers.
If CBS is this scared of a State Rep from Austin, does this mean we can finally get a federal injunction to stop them from airing those Big Bang Theory reruns?