Awkward! CBS News Covers CBS’s Stephen Colbert Bashing CBS News Over Talarico Interview Fracas

Wednesday morning, CBS News covered a CBS late night host bashing CBS News over a statement issued by CBS News attorneys.

The ouroboric report was delivered by Nate Burleson on CBS Mornings, covering The Late Show’s Stephen Colbert bashing the network over the conflicting claims being made about his interview with Texas State Rep. James Talarico (D).

Talarico is running in the Democratic primary for Senate in Texas against Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX). On the GOP side, incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) is facing challenges from Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) and Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX). Early voting for all the primaries started on Tuesday and runs through Feb. 27, with Election Day on March 3. If any race has no candidate with a majority of votes, the runoff elections will be on May 26.

The Late Show had scheduled Talarico for a chat with Colbert Tuesday evening, but CBS lawyers barred the show from airing it, pointing to concerns about the new federal guidance from the FCC and Chairman Brendan Carr about the “equal time” rule regarding political candidates, Colbert said.

Colbert lambasted the FCC, “smug bowling pin” Carr, and his own network brass for going along with what he described as an effort by the Trump administration to “silence anyone who says anything bad about [President Donald] Trump on TV because all Trump does is watch TV,” comparing the president to “a toddler with too much screen time.”

The interview with Talarico was posted instead on YouTube, which is not subject to FCC regulation, and has since gone viral, racking up millions of views there and on other social media platforms.

CBS issued a statement Tuesday that claimed The Late Show “was not prohibited” from airing the Talarico interview, but merely “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,” adding that the 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.”

Then, on Tuesday evening’s episode of The Late Show, Colbert fired back, scorching CBS News and dismissing their statement as “crap.” According to Colbert, “every word” of his Monday script was “approved by CBS’s lawyers who for the record approve every script that goes on the air.”

“In fact, between the monologue I did last night and before I did the second act talking about this issue, I had to go backstage. I got called backstage to get more notes from these lawyers – something that had never ever happened before – and they told us the language they wanted me to use to describe that equal time exception,” he continued. “And I used that language. So, I don’t know what this is about.”

Burleson covered the controversy Wednesday morning, introducing the topic by noting that Colbert “sometimes criticizes President Trump or members of the administration and now he’s criticizing this network.”

“Colbert claimed again last night that CBS told him to drop an interview with a Democratic U.S. Senate candidate from Texas,” Burleson continued. “CBS claims that is not the case. The interview has been posted online. Elaine Quijiano has more on this argument and what is behind it.”

Interspersed with clips from Colbert’s Tuesday evening monologue, Quijiano reported on the latest developments.

“For a second night in a row, late night host Stephen Colbert criticized CBS after he said the network made him pull his interview with Democratic Texas State Representative James Talarico on Monday in fear that it would violate the Federal Communications Commission’s equal time rule,” she said, explaining that the rule “requires broadcast stations to give equal air time to candidates running for the same political office,” but “late night and daytime talk shows have been traditionally exempt.”

However, Quijiano continued, “in January, the FCC said it is revisiting that rule, writing in a memo, quote, ‘A program that is motivated by partisan purposes, for example, would not be entitled to an exemption under long-standing FCC precedent.'”

Quijiano read from the conflicting claims from Colbert and the network, then commented, “Monday was the first known time a late-night talk show changed its programming since the FCC issued its new guidance.”

“Ana Gomez, the only Democratic-appointed FCC commissioner, worries that decision could enable censorship,” Quijiano continued, and warned that she thought we “are in a very precarious moment for our First Amendment, and the FCC needs to stay out of content regulation because our First Amendment prohibits it.”

Carr, in contrast, “has stood by the new guidance,” said Quijiano, quoting him as saying that “Congress was clear that the FCC has a role with respect to bona fide news because they were worried that TV programmers would broadly take advantage of trying to claim they were bona fide news when they weren’t.”

The YouTube clip of Colbert’s interview with Talarico has “more than five million views” so far, Burleson reported, adding that Crockett has been on The Late Show several times and “said last night that she has no issue with Colbert’s interview with Talarico.”

Burleson concluded by saying that CBS Mornings had “reached out to CBS and the White House for comment, but have not received a response.”

Watch the video above via CBS News.

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