On February 16, Stephen Colbert appears to have to have been untruthful to viewers, saying that Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico could not appear on the broadcast because of an intervention tied to the FCC. He framed the situation as political suppression, saying network lawyers told him the interview could not air and implying federal pressure was behind the decision.
The problem is that the underlying facts do not match the rhetoric.
The FCC does not “refuse to air” interviews. It does not control a network’s programming schedule. The agency enforces statutory rules, including the equal-time provision, which can require broadcasters to offer comparable airtime to legally qualified opponents during an election. That is regulatory compliance, not censorship.
CBS said so directly. In a public statement, the network declared: “The Late Show was not prohibited by CBS from broadcasting the interview with Rep. James Talarico.” The statement explained that legal guidance warned airing the segment could trigger equal-time obligations for two other Democratic candidates, including Rep. Jasmine Crockett, and that the show was presented with options for satisfying those requirements. The program chose instead to release the interview on YouTube and promote it on air.
That is not a ban. It is a decision.
Talarico escalated the claim further. On social media, he wrote that “His FCC refused to air my interview with Stephen Colbert.” That assertion is plainly misleading. The FCC does not air programs. It did not issue a prohibition. There is no public order blocking the segment. The interview was published in full online and heavily promoted.
The political context makes the exaggeration significant. Talarico is locked in a competitive March 3 Democratic primary against Jasmine Crockett. A January University of Houston poll showed Crockett leading 47 percent to 39 percent. Early voting had already begun. In a tight race, national attention is valuable.
By presenting routine legal caution as federal retaliation, Colbert and Talarico transformed a compliance question into a censorship narrative, trying to drive the vote for Talarico by claiming Trump is afraid of him. The candidate portrayed as silenced received a nationally amplified platform and a grievance storyline at the height of primary season.
Crockett herself explained that either Colbert or CBS was lying:
Representative Jasmine Crockett confirms that Stephen Colbert was lying the entire time about the Trump administration pulling the Talarico interview.
I’m guessing it also isn’t true that Trump yelled “This is Gutfeld country!!” during the attack. pic.twitter.com/TbNkMTyyrb
— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) February 17, 2026
What happened was not the FCC “refusing” to air anything. It was a host and a candidate recasting legal guidance as political persecution to help his preferred candidate. It’s no wonder “The Late Show” will be going off the air in May.
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