February 17, 2026
Stephen Colbert is beefing with his own network – CBS. He says CBS refused to allow him to interview with a Democratic candidate for the US Senate seat in Texas – James Talarico on his show. But why would CBS do that? Because of something called the equal time rule and because of this guy’s move to change the rule and follow President Trump’s lead to crack down on daytime and late night TV. So let me explain.
Brendan Carr – who is the chairman of Trump’s FCC – which is the US agency that oversees broadcasting and broadcast licenses in this country – recently distributed this public notice to all broadcasters in this country. In the letter he talks about the what we all call the “equal time rule” and he also talks about the bona fide exceptions to that rule.
The law under the communications act applies to broadcasters on TV or broadcasters on the radio – not cable shows. Not online shows. Not streaming shows – but broadcasters on TV and radio. The law says if the TV or radio broadcasters gives a qualified political candidate for office — air time on their broadcast TV program or on their broadcast radio show – they must also give equal time to all the other qualified political candidates in that race. The idea is to make sure that things are fair and everyone gets equal time on public airwaves. However – congress built in an exception to that rule. And that exception is for bona fide news programs on broadcast TV or on radio. If you have a bona fide newscast, a bone fide news interview, bona fide news documentary or are broadcasting about a bona fide breaking news event – on broadcast t-v or broadcast radio — the law says you do not have to follow the equal time rule because congress didn’t want to dictate who a news organization deems news worthy.
So you’re probably thinking – Stephen Colbert isn’t a bona fide news program… he hosts a late night talk show so – if we’re following the law the way I just described it – then if Stephen Colbert wanted to have James Talarico on his late night show – then he should also have all the other candidates running against him for that US Senate seat in Texas on his show too– to include Rep. Jasmin Crockett, Ken Paxton and the guy currently holding the seat — Senator John Cornyn. But not so fast – up until Trump came into office – Stephen Colbert’s show and all late night shows and even day time talk shows have been granted the bona fide new program exception. But why?
Because of this guy. For all you younger folks that’s Jay Leno. He was the host of the Tonight Show on NBC long before Jimmy Fallon. Ps—that’s also when the tonight show was located in Los Angeles. And back in October of 2006 – Jay Leno wanted had a candidate on his show who was running for governor of California. A Republican named Arnold Schwarzenegger. Leno had Schwarzenegger on his show for 15 minutes and 41 seconds. Well – the Democratic candidate for governor who was running against Schwarzenegger said wait a minute—since Jay Leno is on NBC…which is broadcast TV – and he gave Schwarzenegger 15 minutes and 41 seconds of free air time – I want 15 minutes and 41 seconds too. And he petitioned the FCC arguing that Jay Leno’s tonight show was not a bona fide news program therefore Leno is not exempt from the equal time rule and leno must give him equal time. Well – under then President George W. Bush – his FCC told that Democrat candidate to pound sand. They issued this order a few weeks later saying that Jay Leno’s tonight show *is* considered a bona fide new show because he has interviewed all kinds of news worthy people and has conducted news interviews so Jay Leno is not required to follow the equal time rule. That decision came after the FCC made a similar decision in 1984 about an older daytime talk show that you probably won’t remember called “Donahue.” And ever since then – late night and day time broadcasters have *not* had to follow the equal time rule.
But now – under the Trump administration commissioner Brendan Carr says wait a minute we don’t think these late night talk shows or day time talk shows should be exempted from the rule anymore because according to the Trump administration all those shows are “motivated by partisan purposes.” Carr says he’s thinking about changing the rule. So now – all of a sudden after 20 years– the FCC is changing the policy? I’ll let you decide why that’s happening now.
But you should also of course put this in the context of President Trump’s war on late night and daytime talk shows – remember — he and commissioner Carr tried to get Jimmy Kimmel fired last year and of course Trump slams The View all the time. What they all have in common is that they all criticize Trump and his policies. In fact the FCC just opened up an investigation into The View ironically enough – because of their broadcast interview of James Talarico.
One more piece of this you need to know — if this new equal time rule was being applied evenly across the board – it would also apply to radio…where conservative talk radio really is king. So does this apply to those conservative talk radio shows too? Should be forced to also have all candidates on the air not just conservative ones? Just a few weeks ago Brendan Carr said conservative radio is not the problem. So they would still get the bona fide news exemption.
Read the Public Notice from the FCC commissioner here.
Read the FCC ruling from 2006 here.
