Carr says the Federal Communications Commission has also opened an enforcement action into ABC’s the View

The chair of the US’s top media regulator claimed on Wednesday that journalists had been tricked into covering claims by the late-night host Stephen Colbert that he had been blocked by his network from interviewing a Texas Senate candidate.

Brendan Carr, the avowedly pro-Trump chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), made his comments after Colbert accused the Trump administration and CBS of censorship.

CBS has countered Colbert’s claims in a statement, saying it had not blocked him from interviewing James Talarico, a Texas Democrat, but had merely provided legal guidance that such an interview might trigger equal time regulations that would require him to also platform Talarico’s campaign rivals.

  • Janx@piefed.social
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    5 hours ago

    By you? You know damn well the “equal time” rule does not apply, and has never applied to talk shows like The Late Show. Physically musing that you might try to remove their exemptions is your fascist group trying to intimidate or restrict free speech. It worked this time, but it won’t always work…

  • ameancow@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    For the frothing Crockett stans rushing in to defend the candidate that the GOP and establishment Dems are obviously not scared of, Colbert has had Crockett on at least three times. You can watch the interviews on Youtube.

    From here you can contort and backflip if it “counts” but then you’re just going to bat for Trump’s cronies. This “rule” has never been enforced on or upheld by late-night talk shows who are not journalists and can do whatever they want.

    I have nothing against Crockett, but between her zionist tendencies and lack of much substance past being sassy, I believe Talarico can do the most harm to the Trump administration. We don’t win with sass, we win with convincing a lot of back-country hicks that they can have safe, comforting, Christian democratic leadership without fearing being placed in reeducation camps. Despite most of them needing reeducation camps.

    This is why everyone is scared of Talarico, he can do a lot to flip Texans and maybe the state broadly.

    • pulsewidth@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      Didn’t you hear?

      Late night variety/talk shows: journalism, they must abide by FCC ‘equal time’ rules

      Fox News: purely entertainment, no FCC rules apply.

  • hector@lemmy.today
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    6 hours ago

    Good one Carr! He can get Sinclair to claim they were tricked into covering the story, and then? Something something, cancel the show early, pay a personal indemnity to the president for a personal lawsuit cbs will be compelled to accept, and they will appoint a censor to the network from the administration.

    I’m joking obviously, they will try to get him fired earlier, but they have nothing here, not that that stops them necessarily. If the rot wasn’t so deep people would be osttracized from polite society for dishonoring their positions in government like Carr is, but as a tribe of nihlistic self serving oligarchs and their lawyers anything goes.

    • chaogomu@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      Bari Weiss is the appointed censor at the network.

      It’s just that Colbert has an iron clad contract, so they have to let him ride it out. That doesn’t mean that they won’t fuck with him.

  • Tempus Fugit@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    As if anyone in the Trump admin has any credibility. You fucks burned through that during Trump’s first term. Very few people believe a word out of your demon mouths.

  • snekerpimp@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    So, why doesn’t Fox News Entertainment or Newsmaxxx have to abide by this fucked up FCC regulation? Why are they not compelled to platform “both sides equally”?

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    10 hours ago

    But Carr told reporters that the FCC was simply enforcing the rules on the books. “If you have a legally qualified candidate on, you have to give comparable air time to all other legally qualified candidates, and we’re going to apply that law,” he said.

    This is interesting - the rules are for “equal time” but not “Equal time to answer the same interview questions”, which would be fun although we’ve seen how some folk can’t answer questions (cough Pam Bondi cough).

    I wonder if the same rules should apply for advertising, since those are going out over networks? If a Grand Old Pedophile gets a 1-minute ad, should the network give a 1-minute space to an opponent?

    Edit: Yeah, the rule says they gotta offer time “at the same rate”. That seems fair, I guess.

    • Blade9732@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      This whole thing is a mis statement of the rule. The only violation Colbert would face, is if the other candidates request the air time, and they denied them. This whole thing is completely blown out of proportion, due to the fact that the election in question, is the democratic primary, not a general election. The two other candidates are Democrats also. I also believe that the FCC couldn’t actually enforce the rule on a primary election anyway, as it is not covered by normal election rules. A party is under no obligation to even hold a primary election, they can nominate any candidate with any rules they see fit.

  • Lodespawn@aussie.zone
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    10 hours ago

    Meh, do it, lets see how these ghouls stand up to a grilling from Colbert. I’m sure they will be fine with risking that kind of negative press.

    • ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip
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      9 hours ago

      Part of the issue is that there’s like 8 people running for that one position at this point, before the primaries.

      • Lodespawn@aussie.zone
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        8 hours ago

        What was the interview, like 10/20 minutes? Doesn’t seem like a big drama, particularly when half the candidates will likely not want to risk the potential for hard questioning and looking like a moron.

        • ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip
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          7 hours ago

          And you think it’s reasonable to devote 40-80 minutes of show time of a national comedy show to interviewing every candidate for a single state race?