Trump FCC Chair Says Colbert Scandal Stems From Wanting to Give ‘More Airtime For More Democrats’

Fox News host Laura Ingraham spoke to Trump FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on Wednesday night amid the ongoing spat between Stephen Colbert and CBS over the yanking of an interview to satisfy FCC “equal time” requirements for broadcasters.

Ingraham introduced her guest, “Brendan Carr, the man of the moment, Mr. Chairman, set the record straight. What happened? You’re censoring people over there now? You’re on the verge of going after CBS?”

“Well, President Trump has been so far ahead of the curve on so many issues, as you noted, on the economy, on border security, and perhaps nowhere else when he called out the legacy media for being fake news,” replied Carr, adding:

And yesterday, the American people got to see that on full display. And it’s why people have more trust and faith in gas station sushi today than they do in the legacy news media. This was Democrat-on-Democrat violence. CBS was very clear that Colbert could run the interview that he wanted with that political candidate. They just said, you may have to comply with equal time, which would have meant potentially giving equal time to Jasmine Crockett and another candidate.

But instead of doing that, they claimed that they were victims. This was all about a political candidate trying to get attention and clicks, and news media ran with it like lemmings. They just ate it up.

Carr was referring to Colbert announcing on his show on Monday night that CBS’s lawyers had warned him that running an interview with U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico could violate the FCC’s Equal Time Rule, which had recently been extended to daytime and late-night talk shows. Talarico is running against Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) in the Democratic primary.

Ingraham followed up, “Would you have gone after them for violating the equal time rule, as Colbert said?”

Carr replied, “What we’ve said, and we’ve been very clear, is that broadcasters have a unique right and privilege — a license — and one thing they have to do is comply with the equal time rules. But complying with equal time would have meant more—”

Ingraham jumped in, “When has that been enforced? When’s the last time that’s been enforced? I used to work for CBS many, many years ago.”

“It’s been a while, but complying would mean more airtime for more Democrats to say whatever it is that they want,” Carr replied, adding:

And the Equal Time Rule, at its core, is about stopping legacy media from picking winners and losers in elections. It’s so that the American people can decide. And perhaps Colbert and other establishment Democrats want to put the thumb on the scale in this Democrat primary for one candidate over the other. I don’t know, you’ll have to ask them. But we’re gonna enforce the law and hold broadcasters accountable.

Carr also explained later in the interview why he is investigating ABC’s The View. “Disney has a program called The View. And they’ve been asserting the position that The View is what is known as “bona fide news” in the statute. If you are bona fide news, you don’t have to give candidates equal air time,” Carr explained, adding:

But, Disney and The View have not established that that program is, in fact, bona fide news. We’ve started enforcement proceedings, taking a look at that. And, again, we’re going to hold broadcasters accountable.

The days that these legacy media broadcasters get to decide what we can say, what we can think, who we can vote for are over. I think President Trump played a key role in just smashing the facade that they still get to decide the narrative here.

Watch the clip above via Fox News.

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