Democratic Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett said on Friday that she was never invited on CBS’ “Late Night with Stephen Colbert” after her opponent’s segment was pulled to comply with the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) guidelines.
CBS decided not to air Colbert’s interview with Democratic Texas state Rep. James Talarico on Monday due to the network’s concern that the segment could violate the FCC’s equal time rule, which would require Colbert’s program to give Crockett airtime since she is his primary opponent in the Senate race. Crockett said on “Morning Joe” that she never received an invitation to appear on the program before or after the interview with Talarico.
“No, I’ve not been invited on Colbert prior to his interview nor post his interview,” Crockett said. “Obviously, I’ve done Colbert twice in the past. And so there were questions that people had about whether or not basically equal time, so to speak, had been offered to me in order to try to avoid Brendan Carr and his misinterpretation or his reinterpretation of the rules. The only information that I got was after this debacle took place, I did receive a phone call from the parent company, from a representative for the parent company that basically saidthey did not tell them they couldn’t air it.”
“They just said, if you air it, just make sure that you offer the representative equal time,” Crockett continued. “Now, obviously, I wasn’t engaged in that conversation, so I cannot confirm the veracity of any statements. But I can confirm that I had never been asked to go on as it relates to kind of talking about the Senate race.”
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Colbert and Talarico suggested that the interview did not air because of FCC Chairman Brandon Carr, who warned networks in a Jan. 21 letter that they may no longer be exempt from complying with the equal time rule in the future. CBS News confirmed on Tuesday that they were not prohibited from airing the segment, although they received guidance that the segment could “trigger the FCC equal-time rule” for the candidates running against Talarico.
Talarico announced on Wednesday that his campaign raised $2.5 million in just 24 hours following CBS’ decision. He continued to falsely accuse the FCC of banning the interview.
During a press conference on Wednesday, Carr told reporters that he was “highly entertained” by the controversy surrounding CBS’ removal of the interview.
“A Democrat candidate who understood the way that the news media works and took advantage of all of your prior conceptions to run a hoax apparently for the purpose of raising money and getting clicks,” Carr said. “And apparently the news media played right into it.”
The FCC opened an investigation into ABC’s “The View” on Feb. 7 over a potential violation of the equal time rule following the program’s interview with Talarico. Disney, ABC’s parent company, did not file equal-time paperwork with the FCC for Talarico’s appearance, which prompted the investigation.
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