Stephen Colbert slams CBS for statement on James Talarico interview
During Monday night’s broadcast of “The Late Show,” Stephen Colbert blasted his home network, CBS, for releasing a statement denying that his interview with Rep. James Talarico was pulled from Sunday night’s broadcast, a move he said was made without his knowledge.
“Without ever speaking to me, the company issued this press release,” Colbert said, presenting the statement to the audience on a piece of paper. “This statement is a surprisingly small piece of paper when you consider how many butts it is trying to cover.”
Colbert then read the statement, which was released by CBS on Tuesday, in full: “CBS was not prohibited from airing the interview with Rep. James Talarico for ‘The Late Show.’ The show was given legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the FCC’s equal time rule for two other candidates, including Rep. Jasmine Crockett, and presented options for how to fulfill equal time for other candidates. ‘The Late Show’ decided to present the interview via its YouTube channel with on-air promotion during the broadcast instead of possible equal time options.”
He went on to say that the statement read as if it was “written by and, I suspect, for lawyers.” Colbert joked that since CBS’ legal team seems “intended” to tell him how to do his job, he would return the favor.
“Guys, I know very well that we can book other guests,” Colbert said. “I didn’t have to be given that option. I’ve had Jasmine Crockett on my show twice. I could prove that to you, but the network won’t let me show you her photo without including her opponents. So I guess I’ll just have to show you this photo of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein instead.”
Colbert explained that “every word” of Sunday night’s script was approved by CBS lawyers before the interview with Rep. Talarico was abruptly halted. Colbert also claimed that he received even more notes from the legal team during the commercial break about how he could and could not talk about the retracted interview, something that “has never happened before” in the 11 seasons of “The Late Show.”
“So I don’t know what this is about. To be clear, I’m not even angry. I really don’t want an adversarial relationship with the network,” Colbert concluded. “As I said in my interview with James Talarico last night — look, it’s on YouTube, it’s pretty good — I told him I’m grateful to have spent the last eleven years at CBS and worked with George and David and Amy and everyone at the network, the sheldons of every age, the matlocks of every gender. I’m just so surprised that this giant global company couldn’t stand up to these bullies.”
Colbert revealed Monday night that CBS attorneys called “The Late Show” staff and told them “in no uncertain terms” that the interview with Rep. Talarico should not be aired in accordance with the FCC’s “equal time” rule. The “equal time” rule states that broadcast networks must provide equal airtime to politicians from both sides of the aisle during election season. However, according to Colbert, “there has long been an exception to this rule” for talk shows like “The Late Show.”
Although FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has yet to eliminate the exception, Colbert pointed out that CBS is “unilaterally enforcing it as if it had done so.” Joking about why the network canceled “The Late Show,” Colbert said the decision to cut the interview with Rep. Talarico was “for purely financial reasons.”
Colbert continued with his own interpretation of what happened: “Let’s just call this what it is. Donald Trump’s administration wants to silence anyone who says anything bad about Trump on TV because all Trump does is watch TV. He’s like a toddler with too much screen time. He gets cranky and then drops a load in his diapers. So it’s no surprise that me and my friend Jimmy Kimmel are two of the people most affected by this threat.”
