Hacker News.

Late-night host Stephen Colbert accused his network, CBS, of refusing to broadcast his interview with Texas Rep. James Talarico, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, during Monday night’s airing of “The Late Show” for fear of running afoul of the Trump administration.

Colbert said CBS canceled Talarico’s appearance on air in light of guidance issued Jan. 21 by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr, which directed daytime and late-night TV talk show hosts to offer equal airtime to all political candidates running for a given office. Talk shows have long been exempted from these “equal time” rules when conducting “bona fide news interviews,” allowing them to book political candidates without bringing on their opponents.

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 said in a segment explaining the cancelation. “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.”

The interview was set to air on Monday night’s show the day before the start of early voting for Texas’ March 3 primaries. Talarico is vying for the Senate Democratic nomination against U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Dallas.

  • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    3 hours ago

    Imagine if this worthless lib exposed fascists on his show.

    That’s some equal airtime that I would support.

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    Talarico seems to have his shit together. That said, keep your religion the fuck outta government. It’s fine pointing out the religious hypocrisy and charlatans in politics, but opening the door to religion, even if the individual is agreeable, is a bad idea.

    • Notyou@sopuli.xyz
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      3 hours ago

      Did you listen to his interview?

      He states that his belief is that the separation of Church and State should 100% be protected. Not just to protect the government but to protect the religion, so it doesn’t get taken advantage of by political movement like Christian Nationalists.

      He mainly pushed love God and love your neighbor. If you loved your neighbor, then you wouldn’t push your religion or any other belief on them.

      I’m paraphrasing but that’s what I got out of it. I think he’s someone that could break through to some of the religious right.

      • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        I have listened to several of his interviews. That’s why I even bother to indicate I appreciate his take. Pardon me if I treat someone with skepticism riding heavily on a platform that is at minimum rehotorically religious stating they believe in separation of church and State.

    • JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      Are you suggesting only agnostics should govern?

      Talarico said in the interview he wants the separation of church and state to return as the current blend diminishes both.

      • TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        angry atheists think anyone who follows any religion at all is automatically idiot… meanwhile they usually are religious themselves about something else that is traditionally a religion. like the ‘new atheists’ crap.

        religious belief is a basic aspect of being a person, no matter how much people deny it.

  • prenatal_confusion@feddit.org
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    14 hours ago

    Yesterday the Interview wasn’t shown on the YouTube page. The search in the YouTube app Colbert talarico had zero aut suggestions and only showed the result after submitting. Oooof

  • chillpanzee@lemmy.ml
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    22 hours ago

    It’s subservience, not fear on CBS’s part.

    Good on Colbert for bringing a little Streisand effect to the party.

  • FreeLikeGNU@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    Talarico is vying for the Senate Democratic nomination against U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Dallas.

    Interesting. Crockett is one of the very few Dems willing if not just able to navigate through Republican tactics. What could Talarico offer?

    • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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      20 hours ago

      He’s a white minister. This is how they get rid of a pesky black woman, you gerrymander her out of office.

      Be careful what you wish for. She is highly respected nationally, and will have multiple offers from several news organizations very quickly, where she will have a national microphone to attack from. She no longer has to abide by MAGA rules.

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    Brilliant bit of marketing to blare “We’ve been censored by the FCC!” from the rooftops, on the day the Texas primary starts.

    • bagsy@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      It’s the Orson Wells playbook. “See the movie that the Hersts dont want you to see!!”

      Still brilliant either way.

  • frazw@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Banning something is a sure fire way to give it oxygen. Streisand effect

    The problem Trump has in doing this type of suppression is that it gains more attention and riles people up more than if he had let the interview air. Sure the interview might have said things he didn’t want to be said, but now he has made this a much bigger issue and he looks weak because he is scared at the mere prospect of some words being uttered.

    • BreadstickNinja@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Yep, and Colbert has no reason to pull any punches either. They already canceled his show to appease the administration. Why would Stephen hesitate to tell the world every time CBS bends the knee?

      Good on him for calling out every time they act as state propaganda and not a news network.

      • Darkcoffee@sh.itjust.works
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        24 hours ago

        If they cancel the show earlier they can’t pretend to be impartial, and Colbert gets paid the rest of his contract without having to do any work.

        Plus they’ll be in the real news for a week lol

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      Banning something is a sure fire way to give it oxygen.

      It’s a clever bit of marketing to queue this up and make a big stir and drum about being censored.

      The allegations feel… thin? This is a primary race in a state that’s been sandbagged for Republicans for decades. But as a piece of campaign material, it’s par excellance. More people are going to see the clip passed around online than ever would watching it broadcast on a Monday night.

      The problem Trump has in doing this type of suppression

      I doubt this was anyone’s serious intent. Republicans pull this gag all the time. They deliberately try and trick the alarm for censorship and then scream ten times as loud “LOOK AT ME! I’VE BEEN CENSORED! CHECK OUT THE VIDEO THEY DON’T WANT YOU TO SEE!”

      Liberals (or, at least, this one guy fighting for his life in a deep red state) finally seem to have caught up to the game.

      • FauxLiving@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Same

        And, in hindsight, I’m glad I did. That guy has the right idea.

        He said ‘It’s not left vs right, it’s top vs bottom’.

        Exactly what we need our politicians to be acknowledging

        • samus12345@sh.itjust.works
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          22 hours ago

          No wonder the Trump regime didn’t want it aired. Nothing is more dangerous to them than pointing out that the culture war is fabricated to distract from the class war so the poors don’t realize that the billionaires are their enemies, not immigrants and trans people.

          • FauxLiving@lemmy.world
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            21 hours ago

            Yeah, the guy seems like a Christian that follows the bible (I’ve since watched other Interviews) and wants to practice the ‘love thy neighbor’ part and not the ‘hate the gays and abortion’ part (which, as he points out, do not exist).

            That’s a good kind of person to run in Texas, Jesus was a socialist after all…