NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo has weighed in on Stephen Colbert’s battle with CBS and the FCC.
Cuomo devoted an episode of his podcast to discussing the drama between Colbert and his network, after CBS bosses refused to air his interview with Texas Democratic state Rep. James Talarico.
Cuomo described the network’s justification for declining to air the interview—it cited concerns regarding the FCC’s equal-time rule, which Trump-appointed chair Brendan Carr has sought to ensure will now also apply to late-night shows—as “bulls–t.”
“To say that it’s a preemptive move for the equal time doctrine is bull—t,” Cuomo said, explaining that the equal-time rule is not a preemptive one; the doctrine states that political candidates seeking equal air time can submit an equal opportunities request to the relevant network after said network has featured one of their opponents.
“Just say, ‘We want to be nice to Trump,‘” Cuomo continued. “Don’t try to make it like you’re being high-handed, and don’t have the lawyers handle it. It’s not a legal issue.”
“So your answer to having equal time is having no time?” Cuomo asked. “That’s your answer? That’s more fair than what the equal time doctrine is supposed to be approaching, which is balance as fairness? You’re going to have just nothing as fairness? It’s bulls–t.”
Cuomo also said that Colbert was “wrong,” but that he understands why he’s “fighting that fight.” He argued that it was not Colbert’s fight to have, and that he’s “given the middle finger to his employer.”
“He does not own his show. He does not own the right to broadcast it. CBS does. And he works for them. And they told him to do something and he didn’t. And they would be absolutely in their right to fire him. I don’t know why they haven’t,” Cuomo continued.
Colbert’s Late Show was canceled by CBS in July in what many viewed as an attempt to appease Trump, and will air its final episode in May.
Calling it a “scary time in America,” Cuomo said there was “so much wrong in this situation.” “Everybody likes to say they’re for free speech,” he added. “Everybody likes to say they’re against censorship until they don’t like the speech. Until they’d rather see somebody or something not platformed.”
The 55-year-old criticized CBS and its parent company Paramount, noting that CBS did not do the right thing either and adding, “Shame on Paramount.”
“CBS has a right to be worried about [the equal-time rule]. They just didn’t have to preempt it. Paramount did not have to preempt this. Did they do this to please the Trump administration? That’s for them to answer, but I don’t know how it isn’t.”
He also referred to Paramount’s interest in buying CNN, noting, “Of course, Paramount wants to get its deal done.”
“They are Trump’s buddies. So it is interesting to me that they would be so obsequious to Trump when he really likes them and wants them to do more because he thinks they’ll cover him more fairly,” Cuomo added.
The Daily Beast has reached out to CBS for comment on Cuomo’s claims.
Colbert has not been shy about calling out his bosses for the refusal to air his interview with Talarico, which now has more than 8 million views online.
“I was told in some uncertain terms that not only could I not have him on, I could not mention not having him on,” Colbert told viewers on Monday. “And because my network clearly doesn’t want us to talk about this, let’s talk about this.”
Colbert noted that while the FCC has not entirely enforced the equal-time rule for late-night television, his network was “unilaterally enforcing it as if he had.”
“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. Okay? He’s like a toddler with too much screen time. He gets cranky and then drops a load in his diapers. So, it’s no surprise,” Colbert said.
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