Equal Time

NICE WORK CBS! Banning the Steven Colbert Interview with James Talarico, Got Them Way More Views

Posted by on February 17, 2026 at 1:09 pm. 0 Comments :

He’s at it again! Wannabe dictator Donald Trump has dictated to his Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to further erode the protections of the Constitution’s First Amendment for freedom of the press. It is just his latest attempt to shape the media into the propaganda arm of his Reich House operation.

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Stephen Colbert & Trump Baby

Three weeks ago Trump’s crony FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, announced that he was considering a plan to alter the long-standing rules regarding “Equal Time” on television. It was a blatant attempt to put an end to criticism of Trump from TV talk show hosts and their guests. Since the Equal Time rules were implemented there have been exceptions for newsworthy interviews on both news and entertainment programs. But Trump’s childish and emotional insecurity has resulted in his seeking to stifle his critics by any means necessary.

SEE THIS: Trump’s FCC Threatens to Change ‘Equal Time’ Rules to Suppress the Free Speech of Trump Critics

On Monday night’s episode of “Late Night with Stephen Colbert,” Colbert revealed that the executives at CBS had prohibited him from airing an interview with James Talarico, a Democratic Senate candidate from Texas. However, Colbert, whose number one show has already been canceled and will end it’s ten year long run in May, was not taking this censorship quietly. He delivered a smackdown of CBS and the FCC that was both troubling and hilarious. What follows are some choice excerpts followed by the video…

“You know who is not one of my guests tonight? That’s Texas State Representative James Talarico. He 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. 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 does not want us to talk about this, let’s talk about this. […]

“Carr said he was thinking about dropping the exception for talk shows because he said some of them were motivated by partisan purposes. Well, sir, you’re chairman of the FCC. So, FCC YOU! Because I think you are motivated by partisan purposes yourself.” […]

“[Trump] 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 two of the people most affected by this threat are me and my friend Jimmy Kimmel.”

After Colbert’s righteous rant, he told the audience that, while the network would not allow him to broadcast the Talarico interview, there was nothing stopping him from posting it on his YouTube page. And therefore…

There is, however, a surprisingly happy ending to this story. The goal of CBS and their masters in the Trump regime was to stifle any and all voices who were less than worshipful of Dear Leader Trump. But the result of their censorship was to drive more people to this interview than would otherwise have even heard that it existed. Note the numbers…

For Colbert’s FCC rant…

  • YouTube: 2.3 Million views (Update: 3.3 million)
  • Facebook: 2.8 million views (Update: 3.8 million)

For Colbert’s James Talarico interview…

  • YouTube: 2.6 Million views (Update: 5.6 million)
  • Facebook: 1.8 million views. (Update: 3.0 million)

Millions more views were racked up on other social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. In total, it was far more than the average audience for Colbert’s show, which in early February of 2026 was about 2.3 million viewers nightly.

So CBS, at the urging of the Trump regime, has succeeded in helping Colbert and Talarico to draw a much bigger audience than they would have if there were no improper government interference. So thanks for that.

Although, it is still outrageously unacceptable for the government to interfere at all. And particularly in such a partisan manner wherein they deliberately put pressure on late night talk shows that have been critical of Trump, while openly admitting that conservative talk radio would not be subject to similar muzzling.

The American people are not going to stand for this sort of censorship and tyranny. And the more that Trump and his comrades try to force it down our throats, the more they will lose and bury their own electoral prospects in the upcoming midterms and beyond.

UPDATE: CBS issued a memo disputing Stephen Colbert’s account of how the FCC pressured the network to spike the James Talarico interview. But they only made matters worse.

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Donald Trump Wants ‘Equal Time’ on TV – And the Unintended Reason That’s a Fantastic Idea

Posted by on October 7, 2017 at 2:23 pm. 3 Comments :

It wouldn’t be Saturday morning without Donald Trump posting a flurry of frantic Tweets. True to form, his latest Twitter tantrum unleashed a stream of nonsense with more tedious swipes at the media. As usual he’s upset that there are reports that he considers negative. He’s right. But it isn’t the fault of the media that he screws up so much.

Donald Trump

This week the news about Trump included his troubles with White House staff, and particularly Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. NBC had multiple inside sources that heard Tillerson call Trump a “moron.” Trump further embarrassed himself by insulting victims of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. And he recklessly implied hostile intentions to both North Korea and Iran. If there was positive news about him last week it would have been reported. Followed by inane suggestions that he was finally pivoting to become presidential. So absent any of the good news Trump craves, he tweeted this:

Poor Donald. He simply cannot abide the sort of mockery that every president has endured since the founding of the nation. While he virulently insults his foes as “crooked, crazy, sick,” etc., he whines about being the butt of jokes.

As for the substance of his tweets, is Trump asking for an equal amount of “unfunny and repetitive” material? Because that can certainly be arranged by his comedy surrogates, if not by himself. Secondly, are there really “more and more people” who want to see more of Trump on TV? And are they currently under a doctor’s supervision? Finally, did he end his second tweet with a question mark because even he isn’t sure WTF he means?

More to the point, it’s his remedy for this perceived offense that is most worrisome. He actually believes that the media give him less time than his liberal and Democratic opponents. Hence his proposal to invoke the Equal Time rules to restore balance. However, the evidence shows that Trump has received far more airtime than any other public figure. This was true during the election when he received nearly three times the coverage of any of his opponents. After his inauguration he continued to dominate the press, as reported in a study by the Shorenstein Center of Harvard University:

“President Trump dominated media coverage in the outlets and programs analyzed, with Trump being the topic of 41 percent of all news stories—three times the amount of coverage received by previous presidents. He was also the featured speaker in nearly two-thirds of his coverage.”

The real world data clearly contradicts Trump’s self-serving bitchfest. But it’s also notable that he is, once again, demonstrating that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. The Equal Time Rule was intended prevent television stations from influencing the outcome of elections by favoring one candidate over another. It has nothing to do with airtime distribution when an election is not in progress. He may be thinking of the Fairness Doctrine, but the sainted Republican Ronald Reagan did away with that thirty years ago.

As is often the case, the motivation for these tweets by Trump was likely a segment on Fox News shortly before he tweeted. And speaking of Fox News, they would have an interesting dilemma if Trump got his way with regard to Equal Time. Fox News has distinguished itself as the PR division of the Trump administration. They are the closest thing to state-run television that America has ever known. If they were required to provide Equal Time to Democrats it would mean that half of their schedule would be taken over by the party they are devoted to destroying.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

So let’s let Trump have his way. Let’s actually have an accounting of the network airtime distribution and require networks to balance their coverage. In all likelihood, that would result in Democrats getting significantly more coverage on Fox News, and even some marginally more coverage on every other network. It would be a welcome change in the broadcast environment that either favors Trump or the ratings-friendly melodrama he generates. So bring it on, Donnie.