Democratic Texas state Rep. James Talarico, now running for the U.S. Senate, took to X on Tuesday to accuse the FCC of censoring his pre-taped interview with Stephen Colbert. There was just one problem: it wasn't true.
Talarico posted:
This is the interview Donald Trump didn't want you to see. His FCC refused to air my interview with Stephen Colbert. Trump is worried we're about to flip Texas.
Bold claim. The network's own statement tells a different story entirely.
CBS News provided a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation that directly contradicts Talarico's version of events. The network made clear that the show was never prohibited from airing the interview. Instead, CBS lawyers flagged that broadcasting the segment could trigger the FCC's equal time rule, which requires stations that give airtime to one political candidate to offer comparable time to their opponents. Two other candidates, including Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett, would have been entitled to equivalent airtime.
CBS said the show was "provided legal guidance" and "presented options for how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled." Faced with those options, the show chose to post the interview on YouTube instead, with on-air promotion during the broadcast.
That's not censorship. That's a production team making a scheduling decision after a compliance review.
Colbert himself, on his Monday show, explained the situation before Talarico ever posted:
[Talarico] was supposed to be here. But we were told by no uncertain terms by our network's lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast.
Note the source of the directive: the network's lawyers. Not the FCC. Not the Trump administration. CBS legal counsel.
The equal time rule has governed broadcast for decades. It exists to prevent networks from handing one candidate a promotional platform while shutting out their opponents. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr released a letter on January 21 indicating he was considering eliminating the longstanding talk show and news exception to the rule, citing concerns that some programs were "motivated by partisan purposes."
That letter spooked networks into doing what they probably should have been doing all along: thinking twice before turning campaign rallies into late-night comedy segments. CBS ran the compliance math and decided the logistics weren't worth it. The interview still went up on YouTube. Nobody silenced anyone.
Meanwhile, the FCC opened an investigation on February 7 into ABC's "The View" over a potential equal time violation stemming from a Talarico appearance on that program. Disney, ABC's parent company, reportedly did not file the required equal time paperwork with the FCC after his appearance. So the agency isn't suppressing Talarico's media tour. If anything, it's asking why networks gave him airtime without following the rules that protect his opponents.
Talarico's post reads less like a genuine grievance and more like a campaign mailer. "Trump is worried we're about to flip Texas" is not analysis. It's a donation pitch.
The formula is familiar by now:
It works because most people will never read the CBS statement. They'll see the clip, share the post, and move on convinced that the government censored a brave Democrat speaking truth to power. The actual facts, that CBS voluntarily redirected the segment to YouTube after its own lawyers flagged a compliance issue, don't generate the same dopamine hit.
His office, notably, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Easier to let the narrative run than to defend its specifics.
The left has spent years demanding that broadcast regulators crack down on "misinformation" and hold media companies accountable for what airs on their platforms. The equal time rule is one of the oldest tools in that toolkit: a fairness doctrine designed to ensure political balance on the public airwaves.
Now, the moment that same framework inconveniences a Democratic candidate, it becomes evidence of authoritarian censorship. The rule didn't change. The enforcement posture barely shifted. A network's lawyers did their jobs, and a politician who didn't get his preferred outcome called it tyranny.
Colbert, for his part, took the opportunity to insult the FCC chairman on air, calling Carr a "smug bowling pin" and closing with a profane dismissal. That's the caliber of discourse from the show Talarico claims was silenced. The segment still reached millions through YouTube and through Colbert's own broadcast promotion of it. Some censorship.
If Talarico wants to flip Texas, he might start by telling Texas voters the truth about something as simple as why his TV appearance moved to a different screen.
