CNN's Audie Cornish challenged a conservative political operative to address whether President Donald Trump's administration was imposing right-wing ideology on the media.
Panelists on "CNN This Morning" discussed late night-talk show host Stephen Colbert's feud with his own network CBS, which he claimed had barred him from airing an interview with Democratic Texas senate hopeful James Talarico because network lawyers had warned him it went against federal "equal time" rules, and conservative activist Terry Schilling downplayed the move.
"Well, look, I think that this is a story much ado about nothing," said Schilling, president of the American Principles Project. "I think that what's happening is James Talarico and Stephen Colbert are taking advantage, getting as much spotlight as they can on this. Colbert does not have a broad viewership. He's been falling in the numbers."
Colbert led off Monday's show by announcing Talarico's absence and directing viewers to his YouTube page, where the scrapped interview was posted and has garnered more than 5 million views so far, and Schilling suggested that the TV host's influence was largely social media-driven as his broadcast ratings decline.
"So why fight it?" Cornish asked. "This is one of my questions. When I think of someone like [FCC chair] Brendan Carr, who I'm going to play a clip for you in a moment, the Republican line is usually he doesn't matter, it's too small, but then they weigh in, right? So here's Brendan Carr at the end of January, talking about how he thinks about these rules. "
Carr warned last month that the Federal Communications Commission would re-examine the long-standing exception to "equal time" rules that applied to "bona fide news," such as candidate interviews, but he questioned whether so-called "fake news" should enjoy the same protections – although talk radio won't face the same scrutiny.
"What's clear to everyone, they mean, the folks who are in charge, clearly are aiming towards state-run TV," argued Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright, as Schilling scoffed. "If you are anti this administration, if you're anti their policy, their agenda, they want to silence and suffocate your voices and the rule, the same rules do not apply to Fox News. They do not apply to networks and coverage. That praises the uplift the right-wing extreme agenda."
Cornish pointed out that Carr had argued during the controversy around ABC suspending late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel that the media had been culturally captured by the left, and the host asked wither the administration was pushing to swap out left-leaning ideology for their own right-wing ideology.
"Well, look, to be fair," Schilling jumped in, "This Texas primary election is in less than a month, right? It's in just a couple of weeks. I think that this is a fair thing and, frankly, I don't think that Colbert really wanted to deal with having [Rep.] Jasmine Crockett on the show. We'll see."
"You're not answering the question about is it a swap?" Cornish interrupted. "Is it basically, are you now watching an ideology in place that you're like, look, the left, your time is over. It is now the time to balance it more and therefore Carr and others are going to be more aggressive about inserting and forcing these conversations about point of view?"
Schilling disagreed, saying the administration hasn't done anything like Cornish had suggested.
"No, I think we have a long way to go before anyone should be worried about the right wing taking over America's media apparatus," Schilling insisted. "You've got the New York Times, you got the Washington Post, you got MSNBC, you know, I think you have a lot of news outlets that are very left-leaning. The right is more decentralized. It's more blogs and podcasters."
"But we're at the table with someone who's been banned from the White House," Seawright interjected, gesturing toward an Associated Press correspondent, Michelle Price.
"Is that true?" Cornish asked.
"The Associated Press is banned from the White House [press pool]," she said.
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