Given the chance by the Federal Communications Commission to get a liberal Democrat on his soon-to-be history talk show, Stephen Colbert gave Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia free rein to throw mud at President Donald Trump.
Which liberal voice would be receiving Colbert’s softball questions had become an issue after CBS pulled the plug on Colbert’s plans to give Democrat James Talarico a dose of airtime on Monday.
Talarico is running in a primary against Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas to become the candidate to oppose Republican Sen. John Cornyn in the November election.
Deadline noted that Talarico is covered by FCC rules because he is considered a legally qualified candidate, while Ossoff is not, even though he has made no bones about his plan to seek another term.
“Ossoff … isn’t a ‘legally qualified candidate,” Deadline explained, noting, “the qualifying period for the primaries in Georgia doesn’t kick in until the start of March.”
“This means he is free to appear on ‘The Late Show’ without CBS having to invite his rivals on as well, if they asked, of course,” Deadline explained.
And so, as Mediaite noted, Ossoff was free to liken Trump to leaders who censored the media.
“And I’ll just say that more and more, Donald Trump’s America reminds me of those places and those societies and that should chill us all to the bone,” he continued to cheers and applause.
“I think Donald Trump’s rise — Donald Trump himself — is a symptom of a deeper disease in our society. I mean, how is it that a demagogue who promised to tear it all down was twice elected to the presidency on false promises?” he said.
“It’s because the system really is rigged. He’s not unrigging it — he’s re-rigging it for himself,” Ossoff said.
The incident comes as an AI search shows Adam Kinzinger, the former Republican member of Congress from Illinois, was the last Republican on Colbert’s show, and that was in January 2025.
Colbert, whose show fades away in May, made sure to tell his version of the Talarico tale during his show, Deadline noted.
“ … [W]e were told in no uncertain terms by our network’s lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast,” Colbert said. “Then, I was told, in some uncertain terms, that not only could I not have him on, I could not mention me not having him on and because my network clearly doesn’t want us to talk about this, let’s talk about this.”
CBS offered a different version of the story.
“The show was 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,” CBS said in a statement.
“‘The Late 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,” CBS said.
FCC chairman Brendan Carr said rules, not politics, were at work.
“There was no censorship here at all,” he said, according to The Washington Post.
Carr said Talarico “took advantage” of the news media “for the purpose of raising money and getting clicks.” The interview was posted to YouTube and has been seen over 6 million times.
Media reports about Talarico and Colbert were “a perfect encapsulation of why the American people have more trust in gas station sushi than they do in the national news media,” he said.
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