The Vergecast The speech police came for Colbert
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Feb 19, 2026 They debate an FCC move that led to a late-night interview being pulled and the corporate caution that followed. They unpack Meta's plan to add facial recognition to smart glasses and the privacy risks of face-ID databases. They preview Apple’s rumored March hardware and AI gadgets. Quick hits include Tesla's robotaxi crash stats, a robovac security failure, and memory shortages affecting device availability.
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Government Chilling Shapes Corporate Censorship
- Nilay Patel and David Pierce argue Brendan Carr's talk about reviving the equal-time rule chilled speech by making networks self-censor.
- CBS preemptively blocked Stephen Colbert from airing an interview to avoid ambiguous FCC enforcement risk.
Law Exists But Fear Drives Compliance
- The equal-time exceptions for bona fide news and interviews are codified but administratively complex to enforce.
- Networks avoid litigation by self-restricting rather than forcing FCC rulemaking to clarify precedent.
Colbert's On-Air Rip And YouTube Streisand Effect
- Colbert read and ridiculed CBS's corporate statement on-air and later posted the interview on YouTube, which exploded in views.
- The Streisand effect made the forbidden interview far more visible than airing it would have.