During a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, host Joe Rogan sat down with comedian Matt McCusker, where the conversation turned to the recent controversies surrounding CBS and late-night television.
McCusker admitted he hadn’t realized that Stephen Colbert was still hosting a late-night show. He stated: “I didn’t even know he [Stephen Colbert] still was doing a show.”
Rogan responded that Colbert’s program was continuing “until like April or May or something.” The two then talked about the recent controversy involving a cancelled interview with Texas State Representative James Talarico.
Rogan said he had heard conflicting explanations about why Colbert’s interview with Talarico did not air on CBS and was instead released on YouTube.
“What is the official story,” Rogan asked, “where they had to air that Talarico interview on YouTube? Because I’m hearing two versions.”
According to Rogan, one explanation circulating was that CBS declined to broadcast the interview due to concerns involving former President Donald Trump and possible political sensitivities.
“I’m hearing one version is that CBS wouldn’t let them air it because like Trump was involved, the government was involved somehow or another because they’re worried about this Talarico guy, this very charismatic guy in Texas that I really like,” Rogan said.
Rogan spoke positively about Talarico, noting, “Very nice guy. Had him on the show. Brian Simpson told me about him.”
He then outlined a second explanation tied to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) equal-time rules. He said, “And then the other thing that I’m hearing is no, with FCC equal time rules. If he had Talarico on, he would also have to have Talarico’s opponent, which is I think Jasmine Crockett.”
When McCusker indicated he wasn’t familiar with these rules, Rogan elaborated: “I think there’s rules like that for the FCC that don’t exist for podcasts. You know what I’m saying? Like, if you have this person on that’s running for office, you also have to have someone that is opposing them, right? They have to have equal time.”
During the podcast, Rogan also shared why he personally found Talarico compelling, focusing on his background as a former public school teacher.
“His story is very interesting. He was a school teacher,” Rogan explained. “And his story was that he had this kid that was very troubled in his class, but the kid was receiving counseling and was starting to get better. But then budgets got cut. And when budgets got cut, they cut off the counseling. And this kid started f**king off and, you know, acting out and really falling apart.”
Rogan said that experience deeply affected Talarico and motivated him to pursue public office in hopes of addressing systemic issues in education funding. He continued: “And he wound up getting kicked out of school and it really hurt him because he was like this kid had like real potential and he is a teacher you know. And so then he decided to run for office and to try to remedy these problems.”
