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On Monday, February 16, Stephen Colbert made a (not-so) shocking announcement at the beginning of his show. After introducing the band and announcing his guest for the evening, he stopped for a moment and announced that a certain guest would not be appearing, even though he was supposed to. According to Colbert, he was barred from airing his interview with Texas State Representative James Talarico. Talarico, a Democratic Representative, has been steadily growing in favour in Texas, and is beginning to garner enough attention to threaten the incumbents. The FCC used its ‘equal time' rule, created to prevent broadcast channels from promoting partisan ideologies through the promotion of politicians. Colbert claimed that Paramount's lawyers contacted his team directly, forbidding Colbert from airing the interview.
Who is James Talarico
James Talarico is one of the most notable up-and-coming Democratic politicians. An ordained minister and former schoolteacher from Texas, he merged progressive and populist ideas to create a kind of politics palatable for Texans without promoting hateful ideologies. Talarico is focusing on the class war, not the culture war, and his message is resonating in Texas, a state with 20% of its children living in poverty. First elected to the Texas House in 2018, Talarico not only survived, but managed to thrive in the Republican controlled state. Talarico has served four terms already, and in every election, his popularity has risen. Talarico won more than 76% of the vote in the 2022 Texas House of Representatives 50th district election, the most decisive Democratic win in the district's history.
Why censor Talarico
In multiple clips posted to the Late Show YouTube and Facebook accounts the following day, February 17, Talarico didn't mince words while theorizing why the FCC canned the interview. According to Talarico, Donald Trump is scared that Texas will flip to the Democrats, and he's willing to do anything to prevent it, including First Amendment violations. This isn't even the first time the FCC has censored an interview with Talarico. Earlier in February, an interview Talarico did on the show ‘The View' caused the FCC to open a probe into the show, strong-arming the producers to stop airing Democrats.
The equal time rule
The equal time rule was created to prevent broadcast channels from promoting partisan ideologies through the promotion of politicians. The rule forces broadcasters to showcase every campaigning politician in a district, not just their preferred candidate. While the rule has been in place for decades, initially, news interviews and talk-show interviews were not included in the restrictions. Since both forms of broadcast tend focus on current affairs and specific stories, the FCC used to allow them freedom outside the rules. Since Donald Trump took office in 2025, that's changed. In January of 2026, the FCC published a letter claiming it would now be holding talk shows to the same standard as the rest of broadcast and radio.
The FCC claimed these changes were made because certain talk shows were promoting ‘partisan ideas'. Ah, yes, the censorship of speech crime, welcome to Tuesday in the United States. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has previously directly targeted Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel, claiming that if they want to continue doing their programming, they should move to podcast or cable. While the irony of a broadcast Chairman encouraging audiences to stop watching broadcast is ironic enough, Carr added to the irony by also stating that talk radio would not be a target of the FCC's new equal time rules. Talk radio, a traditionally strong tool for conservative politics, will remain unscathed, while shows that disagree with the Trump administration will face government pressure.
Gross double standard
In the interview clips with Colbert posted to Facebook, Talarico outlined the gross double standard at play. Donald Trump and right-wing media have led the charge against ‘cancel culture', promoting their twisted version of free speech and hailing the First Amendment like a god. MAGA got its wish; Donald Trump can spout racist, xenophobic, homophobic, and any other kind of hate speech from Air Force One.
He can usher out reporters without explanation. He can indiscriminately steal Americans off the street and send them to third-world countries they've never been to, and he can do all of it while actively censoring anyone who speaks against him.
Donald Trump is playing a game the world has seen before. You could read it in the book ‘1984', you may have studied it in high school.
It's what James Talarico is claiming to fight.
It's also what Donald Trump wants to censor.
