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Welcome to The Logoff: The Trump governance,and now the FCC under its influence,is again impacting late-night TV.
What happened? On Monday night, comedian Stephen Colbert, who hosts CBS’s late-night talk show The Late Show, said he had been advised by CBS lawyers to refrain from airing a pre-taped interview with Texas Democratic Senate candidate Colin Allred over concerns about a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rule.
Late-night shows have long been considered exempt from the equal-time rule, which requires equal airtime for candidates contending for the same office. However, in February 2024, the FCC signaled it would begin to enforce the rule. (The Late Show did post Colbert’s Allred interview on YouTube, where the show isn’t subject to the same restrictions; it’s racked up more than 2.7 million views as of Tuesday evening.)
Allred is currently facing Democratic Rep. jasmine Crockett in the Democratic primary, which will take place on March 5th, 2024 (early voting began February 15th). Whoever wins will face the Republican nominee in November in a bid to flip a Republican Senate seat currently held by Sen. John Cornyn.
what’s the context? President Donald Trump has long been critical of America’s late-night hosts. Most notably, his administration intervened last year to pressure the comedian Jimmy Kimmel,who hosts ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!,regarding his commentary on the shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Trump also criticized CBS’s decision last year to end Colbert’s Late Show after its current season, stating that “his talent was even less than his ratings.” CBS has maintained the cancellation is a financial decision,though it occurred shortly after its parent company settled with the Trump administration for $16 million.
Why does this matter? The FCC’s renewed focus on equal-time rules appears to be politically motivated, and it is being actively enforced — along with the situation with Colbert, the agency is investigating whether ABC’s The View violated the same equal-time rule by interviewing Allred earlier this month.
And with that, it’s time to log off…
Have you, like me, been hearing so, so much about the new “Wuthering Heights” film? (Mind the quotation marks, which are in fact part of the title.) Do you also want to know what’s going on, perhaps without spending several hours in the theater? Vox’s Constance Grady has you covered with her new, scathing, informative review — you can read it