Jen Psaki

OK, a couple of things here.

First of all, Ecolide viewers probably noticed that was not a picture of James Tallarico over Stephen Colbert's shoulder.

That was on purpose.

Now, the reason that CBS pulled Colbert's interview with James Tallarico was because of a new kind of made up rule by Donald Trump's FCC chair, Brendan Carr.

Last month, Carr ended the FCC's longstanding policy of exempting talk shows and late night comedy shows from an equal time rule, an exemption that dates back to none other than this guy.

Arnold Schwarzenegger appearing on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno back in 2006 when he was running for governor of California.

Since then, it's pretty much been in place, both parties.

Now, Carr's new policy might sound wonky or technical or kind of random, but it's actually pretty simple when you consider the source here.

Brendan Carr is the same Trump official who attempted to get late-night comedian and Trump critic Jimmy Kimmel pulled from the air with mob-like intimidation tactics.

And Reuters is now reporting that Brendan Carr has launched an investigation into The View over its decision to host the same Texas Democratic candidate.

So it's not a surprise that Brendan Carr's new rule would be designed to intimidate talk shows and late night comedy shows out of featuring political guests.

Now, CBS released a statement today saying, quote, The late show was not prohibited by CBS from broadcasting the interview with Rep.

James Tallarico.

The show was provided legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the FCC equal time rule for two other candidates, including Rep.

Jasmine Crockett, and presented options for how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled.

As I mentioned, I'm going to ask Jasmine Crockett about how the network invoked her there in just a second.

But the truth is that CBS could have chosen to challenge Brendan Carr's bogus interpretation of the equal time rule, and it sure seems like they chose not to.

And again, that's not that surprising when you consider the source.

Because CBS is part of Paramount Skydance, the company led by David Ellison, who, along with his father, Larry Ellison, has been cozying up to Trump in what appears to be an effort to curry favor with this administration.

And just this week, CBS's parent company reopened talks to acquire Warner Brothers, which owns CNN, in a deal that would require approval from the Trump administration.