Stephen Colbert says CBS forbid interview of Democrat because of FCC threat • Hacker News Board

Re: Stephen Colbert says CBS forbid interview of Democrat because of FCC threat

#41

Post by AshleyGrant » Tue, Feb 17, 2026, 8:50 PM UTC

CGMthrowaway wrote: post #38

atoav wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well the problem I see with this is that the population means very little in terms of national politics in comparison to most modern democratic nations. So you can be California which in terms of population and GDP will surpass most of central America combined and it still just gets two representatives. Now I get that the idea here was to avoid a dictatorship of the majority that can just ignore smaller states, but t…

>you can be California which in terms of population and GDP will surpass most of central America combined and it still just gets two representatives Doesn't California have 54 reps, out of 485? And 90 out of ~800 Article III judges (lifetime appointment). It also collects $858 billion a year in state and local taxes that it gets to do mostly what it wants with

Yes, but it only has two senators. The 39.5 million people in California have the same Senatorial representation as the less than 600 thousand people in Wyoming.

In what world is that fair or remotely democratic?

Re: Stephen Colbert says CBS forbid interview of Democrat because of FCC threat

#42

Post by CGMthrowaway » Tue, Feb 17, 2026, 8:52 PM UTC

AshleyGrant wrote: post #41

CGMthrowaway wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>you can be California which in terms of population and GDP will surpass most of central America combined and it still just gets two representatives Doesn't California have 54 reps, out of 485? And 90 out of ~800 Article III judges (lifetime appointment). It also collects $858 billion a year in state and local taxes that it gets to do mostly what it wants with

Yes, but it only has two senators. The 39.5 million people in California have the same Senatorial representation as the less than 600 thousand people in Wyoming. In what world is that fair or remotely democratic?

Don't think it was ever supposed to be. The Senate was set up by the founders to be picked by the State Legislatures anyway, not a direct vote. Did you read the Federalist Papers?

Re: Stephen Colbert says CBS forbid interview of Democrat because of FCC threat

#43

Post by snowwrestler » Tue, Feb 17, 2026, 8:58 PM UTC

I think it’s funny that while GOP supporters are investing tens of $billions to take over popular broadcast and social media brands to privilege their point of view, Brendan Carr threatens to invoke the equal time rule, which would completely negate their structural advantage.

This is kind of like when conservatives spent years wrapping their advocacy in the banner of free speech, and then Brendan Carr announced that free speech is over, actually, because Jimmy Kimmel was mean. Oops! Nevermind.

Re: Stephen Colbert says CBS forbid interview of Democrat because of FCC threat

#44

Post by snowwrestler » Tue, Feb 17, 2026, 9:00 PM UTC

SimianSci wrote: post #12

Conservatism has largely been unpopular outside of rural townships, and the nation continues to undergo a process of urbanization as young people continue to move to cities. Normally, a healthy response to this would be to realign and target a more popular set of messaging and policy objectives. Instead the American Right has decided instead that this popularity (and the reflection in media) is a threat to its abilit…

> It should come as no surprise that the moment they were handed the power, they began to push the boundaries of what is acceptable when it comes to censoring media they see as a threat.

To be clear, they were “handed power” by decisively winning a national election, which sort of undercuts your opening statement about how unpopular they are.

Re: Stephen Colbert says CBS forbid interview of Democrat because of FCC threat

#45

Post by filoeleven » Tue, Feb 17, 2026, 9:01 PM UTC

CGMthrowaway wrote: post #42

AshleyGrant wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but it only has two senators. The 39.5 million people in California have the same Senatorial representation as the less than 600 thousand people in Wyoming. In what world is that fair or remotely democratic?

Don't think it was ever supposed to be. The Senate was set up by the founders to be picked by the State Legislatures anyway, not a direct vote. Did you read the Federalist Papers?

The idea was that the House of Reps exists to represent the people of the state, and the Senate exists to represent the state itself. The 17th Amendment did away with state legislatures choosing senators, so we have this wonky system left for no good reason.

And don't get me started on freezing the rep count to 435. I certainly don't feel represented by my congresscritter.

Re: Stephen Colbert says CBS forbid interview of Democrat because of FCC threat

#46

Post by filoeleven » Tue, Feb 17, 2026, 9:03 PM UTC

jjtheblunt wrote: post #37

atoav wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well the problem I see with this is that the population means very little in terms of national politics in comparison to most modern democratic nations. So you can be California which in terms of population and GDP will surpass most of central America combined and it still just gets two representatives. Now I get that the idea here was to avoid a dictatorship of the majority that can just ignore smaller states, but t…

> Sorry to all Republicans on here, but if your party needs to prevent people from voting to win, that also hurts you. Isn't their main assertion that only citizens should vote? (something like 80% of people claiming allegiance to both parties said the same, last i saw, but numbers surely fluctuate from poll to poll)

It's an assertion not backed by data. Non-citizens voting is infinitesimally small. Between that, Noem saying out loud "we want the right people to vote", and Trump calling for nationalized elections, it's clear what the real purpose is.

Re: Stephen Colbert says CBS forbid interview of Democrat because of FCC threat

#47

Post by SpicyLemonZest » Tue, Feb 17, 2026, 9:04 PM UTC

nomel wrote: post #20

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This notice was published as a flagrant act of unlawful retaliation against late night shows for criticizing the sitting President. I think it's misleading to present it as a legitimate action, even if the Trump regime might attempt to enforce it and courts might uphold that enforcement. As the only non-regime FCC commissioner remaining has pointed out, the FCC specifically did not engage in the actual rulemaking pro…

> I think it's misleading to present it as a legitimate action Legitimate or not, the policy is what's there now, until challenged. You agree with that: > might attempt to enforce it and courts might uphold that enforcement And, clearly, so do their lawyers.

The problem is that the policy will not be challenged if people accept it as legitimate. Talk shows aren't common enough or important enough that a challenge is guaranteed to come. And so the ratchet of authoritarian takeover advances a little bit further, as Donald Trump works towards his quite explicit goal of making it illegal for the media to say bad things about him.

Re: Stephen Colbert says CBS forbid interview of Democrat because of FCC threat

#48

Post by apparent » Tue, Feb 17, 2026, 9:10 PM UTC

wrs wrote: post #39

apparent wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, should apply there for sure. I wonder if Democratic politicians would want to go on conservative talk shows, though. My general understanding is that Republican politicians are more often refused speaking slots on non-Right media, whereas Democratic politicians don't want to go on Right media.

You’re saying Republican politicians are demanding to be interviewed by Steven Colbert? And even if they were, that would matter? (I would think Mr. Colbert would love to have a bunch of R politicians lined up to skewer on his show.)

I don't recall ever saying anything about Colbert. I made a general statement ("my general understanding is...") about politicians on the right and left and their general interest in going on news shows hosted by non-co-partisans.

Do you disagree with that general statement?

Re: Stephen Colbert says CBS forbid interview of Democrat because of FCC threat

#49

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Feb 17, 2026, 9:11 PM UTC

meowface wrote: post #35

SimianSci wrote: post #12

Conservatism has largely been unpopular outside of rural townships, and the nation continues to undergo a process of urbanization as young people continue to move to cities. Normally, a healthy response to this would be to realign and target a more popular set of messaging and policy objectives. Instead the American Right has decided instead that this popularity (and the reflection in media) is a threat to its abilit…

While I agree with much of what you say, there are a lot of urban, educated, socially left, economically right people (including myself) who complicate some of this analysis. Many economically right-wing people believe a free market is the most effective and helpful path to improve the standard of living for the working class and the poor. ("Progressive neoliberal social democracy", one might call it.) The issues wit…

[deleted]

Re: Stephen Colbert says CBS forbid interview of Democrat because of FCC threat

#50

Post by JohnTHaller » Tue, Feb 17, 2026, 9:15 PM UTC

It's worth remembering that CBS is now run by a right-wing billionaire. It's the reason 60 Minutes stories that would anger the Republican administration keep getting pulled.