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:
BILL CARTER: I mean, it's interesting because Talarico is running in a primary against another Democrat. So it doesn't seem like, you know, triggering the rule to have Jasmine Crockett. She's already been on Colbert [in 2025, before she was a candidate]. It's not like that would have been such a major event. But it just does seem like they wanted to lay down the rules now because, you know, primary season and then election season is coming up and they don't want Colbert probably booking guests that will rile Donald Trump because this is about not having a critic of Donald Trump have it free, have his free speech rights. That's what I've interpreted it all along.
Tapper and Carter wanted to drive this narrative about a "chilling effect." Carter claimed "Every president has been criticized by late night TV, only this one wants to sic his FCC on them."
Since 2022, Colbert has put on 214 liberal or Democrat guests to one Republican -- if you count Liz Cheney. (Let's not.) Does anyone think Colbert won't have another 20 or 30 Trump-trashing liberals on his show before it all ends? The guest list is pretty much unanimous, but the "chilling effect" is the idea that someone (including another leftist) might get equal time?
Pompous pricks Tapper and Goldberg sound no different than liberal Bill Carter in scoffing at the FCC/CBS/Colbert situation and, in their snide, arrogant ways, mocked conservatives warning about free speech when, in their view, censorship is rampant in Trump's America
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 17, 2026
When you… pic.twitter.com/VqAGsmRmwb
Tapper asked Goldberg for his opinion, and he said oh my stars and garters, this was terrific for Colbert and Talarico:
JONAH GOLDBERG: This actually was very good for Talarico, right? There's this thing that people call the Streisand Effect -- where you protest a little bit about something, and the protesting of it actually amplifies the message more than if you just ignored it. The interview got far more views on social media and on YouTube than it would have if it just aired as just the normal appearance on the show. And so in some ways, this was a gift for Talarico, and it was also a gift for Colbert, who was looking for opportunities to stick his thumb in the eye at CBS and of Trump. And this whole thing, I mean, I'm not saying that they don't deserve to have their thumbs in -- have the thumbs in their eyes, but the whole thing was sort of set up as a perfect storm where everybody kind of comes out a winner in this.
Tapper also cued up Goldberg to hit conservatives as hypocrites. They said Trump would bring free speech, but this is "cancel culture" against Colbert:
GOLDBERG: I think there's a cancel culture of the left and a cancel culture of the right. But the argument from conservatives was always that, you know, the most dangerous kind is when the federal government uses the power of the state to impose its will on free speech. And like we've seen the cycle with lawfare, with violations of norms, one side violates the norms and the other side gets into power and violates them even more because they use that precedent. We can talk about that with things like the filibuster or all sorts of things. If you don't think there'll be enormous pressure on the next Democratic administration to play tit for tat against right wing talk radio, I think you're crazy.
Of course they're going to try and do that. And that's why you're supposed to have neutral rules to the merits rather than this sort of bring one junta in, attack the other side, bring the other junta in and get payback. And that's the cycle that we're going to see here.
