Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr has rejected accusations of censorship following a controversy involving The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The dispute arose after the CBS program canceled a scheduled interview with James Talarico, a Democratic Texas state representative running for US Senate, citing the FCC “equal time” rule.
On his show, Colbert claimed CBS lawyers forced the cancellation because of recent guidance from the FCC suggesting that late-night talk shows might no longer automatically qualify for the “bona fide news interview” exemption. This exemption has traditionally allowed broadcasters to interview political candidates without being legally required to offer equal airtime to their opponents. Colbert argued that the network was preemptively capitulating to pressure from the agency.
Carr responded to the claims at a press conference, asserting that “there was no censorship here at all.” He stated that the network had a clear path to compliance by simply offering interviews to Talarico’s primary opponents. Carr criticized the media coverage of the incident, suggesting the public had been misled and that the agency was merely enforcing existing statutes.
The situation has drawn sharp criticism from within the commission itself. Commissioner Anna Gomez, the lone Democrat on the panel, described the network’s decision as “corporate capitulation” and expressed concern that the agency’s recent guidance is chilling free speech. The FCC had issued a public notice in January warning that programs motivated by “partisan purposes” might not qualify for the news exemption, a move legal experts say could force broadcasters to rethink how they book political guests during campaign seasons.