{"id":2571173,"date":"2026-02-18T16:29:02","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T21:29:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/carr-denies-hoax-that-fcc-blocked-colbert-talarico-interview\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T16:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T21:31:10","slug":"carr-denies-hoax-that-fcc-blocked-colbert-talarico-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/carr-denies-hoax-that-fcc-blocked-colbert-talarico-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Carr denies &#8216;hoax&#8217; that FCC blocked Colbert-Talarico interview"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcarr-denies-hoax-that-fcc-blocked-colbert-talarico-interview%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2571173&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said he was \u201chighly entertained\u201d by the Colbert\u2013Talarico interview controversy and CBS\u2019s decision not to air it. He rejected Talarico\u2019s portrayal of the episode as a hoax and argued the situation reflected how the news media can be used to raise money and generate clicks.The dispute centers on the FCC\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fcc-commish-kamalas-snl-appearance-specially-designed-to-evade-federal-regulations\/\" title=\"FCC Commish: Kamala&#039;s SNL Appearance Specially &#039;Designed to Evade&#039; Federal Regulations\">equal-time rule<\/a>, with colbert and Talarico claiming the interview was blocked and Carr noting ongoing enforcement actions, including against The View for a separate Talarico interview. Colbert has sparred with CBS over whether he was prevented from airing the segment or was guided by legal concerns,and CBS has said the Late Show will end its run in May for financial reasons. Talarico, who is running for the Texas Senate, said his campaign raised about $2.5 million in 24 hours after the interview appeared on YouTube. Polls show a competitive Texas primary: Talarico vs. Jasmine Crockett on the Democratic side, and John cornyn vs. Ken Paxton with Wesley Hunt close behind on the Republican side.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">FCC chairman denies &lsquo;hoax&rsquo; that agency blocked Colbert-Talarico interview: &lsquo;Highly entertained&rsquo;<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_2509440\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/federal-communications-commission\/\">Federal Communications Commission<\/a> Chairman Brendan Carr told reporters he was &ldquo;highly entertained&rdquo; by the drama unfolding surrounding <em>The Late Show with <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/stephen-colbert\/\">Stephen Colbert<\/a><\/em>&lsquo;s interview with Texas Democratic state Rep.&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/james-talarico\/\">James Talarico<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Carr made his first public statements on Wednesday in the fallout of <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/cbs-news\/\">CBS News<\/a> not airing Colbert&rsquo;s interview with Talarico on the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/late-night-shows\/\">late-night<\/a> broadcast. Colbert has <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/4461438\/colbert-slams-cbs-crap-statement-denying-it-pulled-james-talarico-interview\/\">sparred<\/a> with CBS on whether he was barred from airing the interview by his corporate bosses or was &ldquo;provided legal guidance&rdquo; against doing so, as CBS said in its statement.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommended-stories\">\n<h2>Recommended Stories<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/business\/4461616\/netflix-warner-bros-merger-lawsuit\/\">Netflix faces consumer lawsuit as Warner Bros. merger scrutiny mounts<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/entertainment\/4461734\/colbert-disinterested-both-sides-show-joe-concha\/\">Colbert is &#8216;not interested&#8217; in giving &#8216;both sides&#8217; a spot on his show: Joe Concha<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/entertainment\/4460516\/fcc-equal-time-rule-colbert-talarico-interview\/\">What is the FCC equal time rule at center of Colbert-Talarico interview controversy?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>&ldquo;I think it was one of the most fun days I&rsquo;ve had in the job watching sort of the hilarity of how this story played out,&rdquo; Carr said. <\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/entertainment\/4460516\/fcc-equal-time-rule-colbert-talarico-interview\/\"><strong>WHAT IS THE FCC EQUAL TIME RULE AT CENTER OF COLBERT-TALARICO INTERVIEW CONTROVERSY?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Talarico &mdash; who is running for Senate in Texas in a race that has hotly watched, contested primaries on both sides of the aisle &mdash; claimed on X that the Trump administration&rsquo;s &ldquo;FCC refused to air my interview with Stephen Colbert.&rdquo; He called it &ldquo;the interview [President] Donald Trump didn&rsquo;t want you to see&rdquo; and wrote that Trump is &ldquo;worried&rdquo; his campaign will flip Texas blue.<\/p>\n<p>But Carr denounced Talarico&rsquo;s characterization of the FCC&rsquo;s involvement as a &ldquo;hoax.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Anybody that&rsquo;s not suffering from a terminal case of Trump derangement syndrome could see right away yesterday the exact story arc and how it was going to play out. You had a Democrat candidate who understood the way the <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >news media works<\/a>, and he took advantage of all of your sort of prior conceptions to run a hoax, apparently, for the purpose of raising money and getting clicks, and the news media played right into it,&rdquo; Carr <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2026\/02\/the-view-fcc-abc-equal-time-1236728402\/\">said<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Colbert and Talarico have said that their interview was not allowed to air because of the enforcement of the FCC&rsquo;s equal time rule, a rule that requires broadcast networks to grant equal time to opposing candidates running for the same office.<\/p>\n<p>Carr also confirmed on Wednesday that the FCC is conducting an &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ca-is-violating-civil-rights-of-women-with-its-trans-obsession\/\" title=\"CA Is Violating Civil Rights Of Women With Its &#039;Trans&#039; Obsession\">enforcement action&#038;rdquo<\/a>; against <em>The View<\/em> after the ABC show aired an interview with Talarico.<\/p>\n<p>Colbert announced last year that <em>The Late Show with Stephen Colbert<\/em>&nbsp;would end its run on CBS&rsquo;s network in May. CBS has said the show&rsquo;s cancellation was a financial decision.<\/p>\n<p>Talarico posted <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/jamestalarico\/status\/2024124888391287234?s=20\">on X<\/a> that his campaign has raised &ldquo;$2.5 million in 24 hours&rdquo; after the interview aired on YouTube.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/senate\/4456839\/why-it-could-take-weeks-brunt-dhs-shutdown\/\"><strong>WHY IT COULD TAKE WEEKS TO FEEL THE BRUNT OF A DHS SHUTDOWN<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Talarico is facing off against Rep. <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/jasmine-crockett\/\">Jasmine Crockett<\/a> (D-TX) in the contested Democratic primary for Texas&rsquo;s U.S. Senate seat. Polls have varied in the primary; an Emerson College poll from mid-January found <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/emersoncollegepolling.com\/texas-2026-poll\/\">Talarico up by 9 points<\/a>, while a late January University of Houston poll found <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uh.edu\/hobby\/primary2026\/\">Crockett up by 8 points<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Republican primary is also in a dead heat between incumbent Sen. <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/john-cornyn\/\">John Cornyn<\/a> (R-TX) and Attorney General <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/ken-paxton\/\">Ken Paxton<\/a>, with Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX) trailing not too far behind. The Emerson College poll found Paxton up by 1 point, with a May runoff likely.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FCC chairman calls Colbert-Talarico hoax, amused<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3976,"featured_media":2571174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AP26014647066780.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[12425,16609,8857],"class_list":["post-2571173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-carr","tag-fcc","tag-hoax"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AP26014647066780.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2571173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3976"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2571173"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2571173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2571177,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2571173\/revisions\/2571177"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2571174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2571173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2571173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2571173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}