We're offering a 2-week trial of WrapPRO for $1. If you’ve been wanting to check out our full coverage, now’s the time. Greetings!CBS finds itself plunged into another controversy thanks to Stephen Colbert divulging that his parent company Paramount wouldn't let him air his interview with Texas Senate candidate James Tallarico. The backlash to the Monday cancellation erupted all through Tuesday, particularly after CBS took the unusual step of refuting its late night host's claims, which only stoked further criticism — and extended the news cycle. "I'm just so surprised that this giant global corporation would not stand up to these bullies," Colbert said on his show on Tuesday, saying he'd been prepared to let it go but was blindsided by the statement. It was all another unforced error by Paramount, deferring to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr's guidance last month over giving equal time to political candidates on talk shows — not an actual rule. Paramount chose to preemptively follow that guidance, highlighting the chilling effect that the Trump administration is having over media. As our Michael Calderone writes, the controversy is the latest black eye for the Tiffany network, which has been dogged by accusations of kowtowing to the Trump administration. It was Colbert who blasted CBS-parent Paramount last July for giving a “big fat bribe” to Trump to settle his “meritless” lawsuit over a “60 minutes” edit, as the company sought FCC approval for its merger with David Ellison’s Skydance. CBS News has since come under intense scrutiny since Ellison took control and installed Bari Weiss, co-founder of the right-leaning Free Press, as the news division’s editor-in-chief. She has become a lightning rod; just on Wednesday, she pulled out of a UCLA lecture amid student protests. And it comes at a sensitive time for Paramount, which on Monday secured a short window to convince Warner Bros. Discovery that it can come up with a rich enough bid to convince the board and shareholders to break its $83 billion deal with Netflix (read more about that further down). Carr responded to the controversy on Wednesday during an FCC meeting, saying he was “highly entertained” by Talarico’s claims that the FCC blocked “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” from broadcasting an interview with Talarico on Monday, but called it “a hoax.” “I think yesterday was a perfect encapsulation of why the American people have more trust in gas station sushi than they do in the national news media,” the chairman said. It's a loss both ways for CBS, gaining no favor with Trump, and provoking their late night star. "C'mon, you're Paramount. No, you're Paramount Plus," Colbert quipped. "Plus what, I guess we're all going to find out very soon." Roger Cheng 
Calderone goes further in-depth about Carr's aggressive targeting of media companies, including going after "The View" for its own interview with Talarico, which the FCC chairman confirmed on Wednesday... 
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