Tuesday, February 17, 2026

Canceling Cancel Culture

Actually, this is the interview. For technical reasons apparently arising from recent updates, I can’t embed YouTube videos at the moment.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly urged the FCC, which approves mergers in the media and telecommunications industry, to crack down on American broadcasters. In his letter, Carr wrote that “programming motivated by partisan purposes” should comply with the equal time rules.

“Let’s just call this what it is: Donald Trump’s administration wants to silence anyone who says anything bad about Trump on TV, because all Trump does is watch TV, OK?” Colbert said. He added that Carr merely said in the Jan. 21 guidance that he was considering dropping the exemption for talk shows.

“He hasn’t done away with it yet, but my network is unilaterally enforcing it as if he had,” Colbert said.
And :
In the interview, which was posted on YouTube, Talarico called the guidance by the Trump administration and the decision by CBS to preemptively comply as a “threat to all of our First Amendment rights.”

“Donald Trump is worried that we’re about to flip Texas,” Talarico said. “This is the party that ran against cancel culture, and now they’re trying to control what we watch, what we say, what we read. And this is the most dangerous kind of cancel culture — the kind that comes from the top.”

Talarico noted that the FCC opened an investigation into ABC’s “The View” after he sat for an interview this month, casting it as part of a pattern of government overreach dating back to when the agency “went after” Jimmy Kimmel for a joke he made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Kimmel’s show was briefly suspended by ABC in September after the FCC threatened the network.

Talarico added that CBS canceled Colbert’s show after the late-night host told “the truth about Paramount’s bribe to Donald Trump.”

“Corporate media executives are selling out the First Amendment to curry favor with corrupt politicians, and a threat to any of our First Amendment rights is a threat to all of our First Amendment rights,” he said.

The interview also covered Talarico’s Christian faith, Democratic hopes of retaking Texas this year and recent blowback Talarico faced for allegedly referring to Colin Allred, a former Dallas congressman and Democratic Senate candidate, as a “mediocre Black man.” Talarico said he called Allred’s campaigning mediocre but “would never attack him on the basis of race.”
Which may also explain why CBS canceled the interview. Apparently it’s a pretty good one: The questions answer themselves, don’t they?  And have you noticed MAGA no longer talks about “cancel culture”? Why is that…?

I also appreciate the point that CBS lawyers told Colbert his interview would run afoul of the FCC if it was aired. As Colbert points out, Carr was never that definitive. Which means CBS told the lawyers to make it so, and they did. Hey, lawyers are paid to do what the client wants, unless it’s illegal or violates professional ethics.

Conduct yourself accordingly.
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