FCC Chair Brendan Carr and Fox's Laura Ingraham dismissed claims of censorship as a "hoax" by Democrats while confirming that his agency would have gone after Colbert over an equal time rule that doesn't apply to shows like his.
As we already discussed here, CBS's lawyers refused to broadcast an interview with Texas Democrat James Talarico, which was blasted by Stephen Colbert who defied the attorneys and ripped into them and the FCC for pulling the interview.
Lawrence O'Donnell also tore into their lawyers and the network for caving to Trump instead of standing up to him, and for basically handing over bribes to Trump.
Ingraham asked Carr if he would "set the record straight" on what happened, and Carr proceeded to downplay the fact that there has been a chilling effect from the FCC that has led to these networks behaving the way they have, and ignoring the fact that the rule should not apply to talk shows like Colbert's, and admitting they would have tried to enforce it anyway.
CARR: Well, President Trump has been so far ahead of the curve on so many issues, as you noted, on the economy, on border security, and perhaps nowhere else when he called out the legacy media for being fake news.
And yesterday, the American people got to see that on full display. And it's why people have more trust and faith in gas station sushi today than they do in the legacy news media.
This was Democrat on Democrat violence. CBS was very clear that Colbert could run the interview that he wanted with that political candidate. They just said you may have to comply with equal time, which would have meant potentially giving airtime to Jasmine Crockett and another candidate.
But instead of doing that, they claimed that they were victims. This was all about a political candidate trying to get attention and clicks, and the news media ran with it like lemmings. They just ate it up.
INGRAHAM: Would you have gone after them for violating the equal time rule, as Colbert said?
CARR: What we've said, as we've been very clear, is that broadcasters have a unique right and privilege, a license, and one thing they have to do is comply with the equal time rules. But complying with equal time would have meant...
INGRAHAM: When has that been enforced? When's the last time that's been enforced? Again, I used to work for CBS many, many years ago.
CARR: It's been a while, but complying would mean more airtime for more Democrats to say whatever it is that they want. And the equal time rule, at its core, is about stopping legacy media from picking winners and losers in elections, so that the American people can decide.
And perhaps Colbert and other establishment Democrats want to put the thumb on the scale in this Democrat primary for one candidate over the other. I don't know, you'll have to ask them. But we're going to enforce the law and hold broadcasters accountable.
INGRAHAM: So this actually got Jasmine Crockett, of course, because she's running against Talarico. She said CBS didn't try to censor this. They just didn't want her on CBS. Now, why do you think CBS or Colbert, excuse me, wouldn't want Jasmine Crockett on the show?
CARR: Well, that's a good question for them, but this is exactly why, if you're to have one on, you need to make sure that there's equal airtime for all others.
The controversy is not a "hoax." It's just another example of a FCC that's been politicized under Trump and used as a weapon against his perceived enemies. Shame on these two liars for trying to pretend that's not what's going on.
