Seth Ashley, a professor of communications, published “Why Stephen Colbert is right about the ‘equal time’ rule, despite warnings from the FCC” in The Conversation US on Feb. 22, 2026.
An excerpt from the article reads:
“Talk show host Stephen Colbert made headlines on Feb. 17, 2026, when he wrapped a network statement in a dog-waste bag and tossed it in the trash.
He did it live, while on air.
The move came after CBS lawyers reportedly told him he could not broadcast a scheduled interview with Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico on his show, Late Night with Stephen Colbert. According to Colbert, the network warned him that broadcasting the interview could trigger the Federal Communications Commission’s equal time rule, which requires broadcasters to allow political candidates equal access to the nation’s airwaves.
CBS said it gave Colbert “legal guidance” that airing the segment could raise equal time concerns and suggested other options.
Colbert countered that in decades of late-night television, he could not find a single example of the rule being enforced against a talk show interview. He ultimately posted his Talarico interview on YouTube instead, where broadcasting rules don’t apply.
As a media scholar, I believe Colbert is right about the law. Congress has deliberately protected editorial discretion to prevent equal time rules from chilling political speech. And the FCC has extended this privilege to shows like his.
To understand why, you have to go back to 1959 and to a forgotten fight over the role of broadcasting in a democratic society.”