CNN Touts Colbert-Talarico Stunt as a ‘Perfect Storm’ for Dems, Everybody Wins!
20th February 2026
Stephen Colbert is getting the Jimmy Kimmel Free Speech Hero award this week on the leftist cable networks for his stunt putting an interview with Texas state Rep. James Talarico on YouTube instead of CBS. He claimed CBS banned him from putting Talarico on air. Then CBS put out a statement implying Colbert was lying, that they only offered “guidance” about how to fulfill equal-time requirements that might be enforced.
On Tuesday’s The Lead with Jake Tapper, former New York Times reporter Bill Carter and former National Review writer Jonah Goldberg both lined up like good liberals for the Colbert Publicity Train. Tapper tried to glide past Colbert’s claims on “how aggressively they gave that guidance,” but Carter lectured it just had to be Fear of Trump driving everything.