DAVID MARCUS: How Stephen Colbert conned Dem donors and burned Jasmine Crockett
Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico’s campaign is $2.5 million richer this week and a bit closer to victory after Stephen Colbert, host of "The Late Show" on CBS, made up a ridiculous lie about being censored by President Trump.
It took a few days for the dust to settle, but now that we have a clear picture of what happened, it is about as bad as it can be. In fact, it would likely be a fireable offense if the ratings challenged Colbert was not already slated to get the ax in May.
According to Colbert’s version of events, which is falling apart faster than a house of cards in a wind tunnel, he was told by CBS lawyers on Monday, just minutes before he was set to interview Talarico, that he could not air the conversation. Why? Because of the Trump administration Federal Communication Commission’s new rules on equal time.
A petulant Colbert went on to tell his audience that he wasn’t even supposed to mention being censored to them, but, putting on his free speech super hero cape, he would do the interview anyway, defying his bosses and release it on YouTube.
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The only problem with all of this is that, according to both CBS and the FCC, nobody told Colbert the interview could not air. He just made it up. All that happened was that CBS lawyers told him if he had Talarico on, he might also have to give equal time to his Demcorat primary opponent, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas.
It is not clear why Colbert would have any issue with having Crockett on, unless perhaps he and his friends in high places think the preppy White Bible school boy is more electable than the sassy Black finger-snapping lady.
Talarico was fundraising off of Colbert’s lie within minutes and raked in $2.5 million. Oh, and did I mention that early voting in Texas started on Tuesday, the day after this duplicitous debacle?
It truly was remarkable to watch. Even by Wednesday, when they knew quite well Colbert had not been censored, CNN had an entire panel that argued the Trump administration’s pressure on CBS had backfired because of the fundraising and the 5 million YouTube views the video got.
But there was no pressure on Colbert from the Trump administration. As FCC Chairman Brendan Carr told Fox News Channel’s Laura Ingraham, "CBS was very clear that Colbert could run the interview that he wanted with that political candidate. They just said, you may have to comply with equal time… But instead of doing that, they claimed that they were victims."
All that the FCC has said, without taking any action, is that it may enforce equal time rules for talk shows, something it has not done in the past, but given how skewed late night comedy and daytime talk have become, it is worth considering.
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"The View," ABC’s mid-morning girl gaggle, had 128 liberal guests in 2025 and only two conservatives, one of which was actress Cheryl Hines, who is actually not conservative, just married to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Put bluntly, the reason that the equal time rules have not been enforced on talk shows is that they never had to be, because Johnny Carson, Tom Snyder and Phil Donahue didn’t turn their shows into nonstop political ads. Obviously, that has changed.
Colbert has been very clear that he purposefully uses his "comedy show" to push a political agenda, in this case, to the benefit of James Talarico and the detriment of Jasmine Crockett, who is now in the awkward position of defending the Trump administration.
However, wherever one comes down on the equal time rules, it is crystal clear that Colbert is just flat-out, stone-cold lying when he says they were used to ban his interview from the air. Sadly, it is a lie many Democratic voters may take to their deathbeds.
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There were two big victims to Colbert’s perfidy, the first being Crockett, who may be discovering that she is a little too Brown and uppity for the rich White men who still control liberal media and politics.
The second victim was the average citizen, who was separated from their money based on Colbert’s lies to fill the coffers of Talarico.
Thankfully, we only have about two more months to deal with Colbert’s nonsense and lies, at least on CBS late night. After that he can go to YouTube and interview anyone he pleases, just as he could have on Monday night.