Stephen Colbert, the host of CBS’s The Late Show, is alleging that the network refused to air a prescheduled interview with Texas U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico due to new guidance from the Federal Communications Commission, the latest example of CBS appearing to bow to pressure from the Trump administration.

Colbert opened his show Monday by telling his audience that he would be joined later by actress Jennifer Garner as his guest. But then the late-night host began to talk about who wouldn’t be part of that evening’s broadcast. “You know who is not one of my guests tonight? That’s Texas state representative James Talarico. He was supposed to be here, but we were told in no certain terms by our network’s lawyers — who called us directly — that we could not have him on the broadcast,” Colbert said. “Then I was told, in some uncertain terms, that not only could I not have him on, I could not mention me not having him on. And because my network clearly doesn’t want us to talk about this, let’s talk about this.”

Colbert then began to describe the FCC’s “equal time” rule, which requires radio and broadcast television programs to provide equal coverage to all of an election’s candidates, saying there’s been a long-standing exemption for news interviews and talk-show interviews with candidates. But Colbert said that........

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