This Reminds Me Of The Time A Student Mildly Complained About The Banh Mi In The College Cafeteria

Though much less worrying.

The FCC‘s proposed changes to the equal time rules for TV talk shows is officially taking its toll on late night.

CBS‘ Late Show host Stephen Colbert says that lawyers for the network blocked him from interviewing Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful James Talarico, citing the FCC’s new guidance for political candidates on talk shows.

Colbert opened his show Monday by explaining the situation. “You know who is not one of my guests tonight: That’s Texas State Representative James Talarico. He was supposed to be here, but we were told in no uncertain terms by our network’s lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast,” Colbert told the audience. “Then I was told in some uncertain terms that not only could I not have him on, I could not mention me not having him on, and because my network clearly doesn’t want us to talk about this, let’s talk about this.”

One can even be in favor of some version of an Equal Time rule while fully understanding it is not being deployed consistently. Or, I suppose, fully understanding that it is being deployed consistently, just not as one imagines it should be.