There has been a lot of talk about the Monday night (February 16) episode of The Late Show after Stephen Colbert‘s claims about his Rep. James Talarico interview, saying, “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.”
This apparently related to the FCC equal time provision: “if a broadcast station permits any legally qualified candidate for public office to use its facilities, it shall provide an equal opportunity to all other legally qualified candidates for that office.”
Stephen also claimed: “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, and because my network clearly doesn’t want us to talk about this, let’s talk about this.”
CBS is now responding in a statement provided to Just Jared.
Keep reading to find out more…
They told Just Jared: “THE LATE SHOW was not prohibited by CBS from broadcasting the interview with Rep. James Talarico. 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. THE LATE SHOW decided to present the interview through its YouTube channel with on-air promotion on the broadcast rather than potentially providing the equal-time options.”
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