Federal Communications Chair Brendan Carr called the millions of dollars raised after Stephen Colbert’s interview with Democratic Texas House Rep. James Talarico the result of a “hoax.”
Carr was adamant that it was not the result of Donald Trump’s FCC crackdown backfiring, after the agency allegedly pressured CBS not to air the Late Show interview, turning a run-of-the-mill late show appearance into an irresistible YouTube watch that brought Talarico roughly $2.5 million in donations.
“I think it was one of the most fun days I’ve had in the job, watching sort of the hilarity of how this story played out,” Carr insisted to reporters after an open FCC meeting on Wednesday, saying he was “highly entertained” by the saga.
“Look, anybody that’s not suffering from a terminal case of Trump derangement syndrome could see right away yesterday the exact story arc and how it was going to play out,” Carr added. “You had a Democrat candidate who understood the way the news media works, and he took advantage of all of your sort of prior conceptions to run a hoax, apparently, for the purpose of raising money and getting clicks, and the news media played right into it.”
Colbert revealed on his show Monday that the FCC effectively blocked his interview with Talarico by threatening CBS with legal action.
“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,” the host explained. “Then I was told in some uncertain terms that not only could I not have him on, I could not mention not having him on.”
The Federal Communications Commission announced last month that it would begin applying the “equal time” rule to late-night TV, requiring “equal opportunities” for all candidates on every program.
The rarely enforced rule allegedly led CBS to tell Colbert to cancel the interview, which he conducted anyway before positing it on his YouTube page, where it has accumulated over 6 million views and counting—making it the show’s most-watched interview segment of the past several years.
CBS released a statement contradicting Colbert’s account on Tuesday: “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 statement continued, “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.”
Colbert called the statement “crap” on air, and said he was “so surprised that this giant global corporation would not stand up to these bullies.”
On Wednesday, Carr called the interview debacle a “perfect encapsulation of why the American people have more trust in gas station sushi than they do in the national news media. This was plainly an effort ginned up to get clicks and raise money, and you guys ate it up.”
He added that the agency is simply enforcing the law, and “There was no censorship here at all.”
Carr also confirmed the agency’s probe into The View for having Talarico on the show.
