By Michael Woyton
The most inept administration of the most stupid and corrupt president has stepped in it again.
For his first show after a week off, Stephen Colbert had an interview scheduled Monday with Texas state Rep. James Talarico, a Democrat running in the primary for United States Senate.
Before the interview actually took place, Colbert was contacted by lawyers for the CBS network on which “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” appears, telling him that Talarico could not be on the broadcast, the New York Times reported.
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Not only could the Texas Democrat could not appear on Colbert’s program, Colbert said he was told by the lawyers that the host could not even mention having him on.
“And because my network clearly doesn’t want us to talk about this,” Colbert explained on his Monday broadcast, “let’s talk about this.”
Colbert said that the reason behind cutting Talarico from the program was a letter released the day after the president was sworn in for the second time from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr stating that he was thinking about dropping the exception to the “equal time rule” for talk shows.
Carr’s rationale was that some of the talk shows, like Colbert’s and Jimmy Kimmel’s, were, in Carr’s opinion, “motivated by partisan purposes.”
Not only did Colbert ignore the network lawyers’ order to not talk about Talarico on the show, he posted the entire un-broadcast interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’s YouTube page.
Watch Colbert’s entire explanation of the brouhaha here as it was broadcast and the entire interview with Talarico here.
Frankly, aside from the reason that the interview had to be streamed separately from Colbert’s regular program, neither Talarico nor Colbert said anything that hadn’t been said elsewhere.
What makes this whole situation unique is the length to which the government led by a 34-time-convicted felon, a consummate liar and an alleged pedophile went to try to prevent any of us from seeing it.
That brings me to the “stupid is as stupid does” part of our program.
Thanks to the head of the FCC desperately wanting to please the grifter-in-chief, there is now a giant telescope on this interview where there would not have been had they not be so stupid and/or petty.
See also Mark Kelly, whose value to the Democratic Party has risen partly because the government tried to accuse him — and five other lawmakers — of treason for stating in a video that military personnel can ignore illegal orders.
Keep in mind that there is no change from the FCC in the equal time rule for talk shows — only that Carr was “thinking” about making a change.
And CBS, with the family of Larry Ellison, a maga billionaire in control, wants to please the felon-in-chief to smooth the regulatory way of a merger between Paramount and Skydance Media.
I’m sure that a big part of it also is, as Talarico said during his interview with Colbert, that “I think Donald Trump is worried we’re about to flip Texas.”
And, funny enough, thanks to the baby-in-chief and those around him willing to subvert norms more people heard about Talarico and his statement that “[t]here is nothing Christian about Christian nationalism” because it’s “the worship of power in the name of Christ and it is a betrayal of Jesus of Nazareth” than would have if they hadn’t made a stink about it.
Come to think of it, good job, Brendan Carr. Good job, Oval Office toddler.
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On the floor of the Senate the other day, Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii had a question for his colleagues on the other side of the aisle.
In light of the failed indictments of Mark Kelly and other lawmakers in which they were threatened with incarceration for exercising their free speech, Schatz wonders if any Republicans have a red line that, once crossed, would turn them against this administration.
Sadly, I think that most if not all GOPers do not have a red line.
Watch Schatz’ impassioned speech.
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Lead art: screen grab from “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”/Paramount+
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