The Federal Communications Commission says it has received a number of complaints about a monologue given by CBS’ “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert in which he made some crude jokes about President Trump.
During an interview Thursday on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said he had a chance to view the clip and has received “a number of” complaints about it. He said his independent agency will look into the matter.
“We are going to take the facts that we find and we are going to apply the law as it’s been set out by the Supreme Court and other courts and we’ll take the appropriate action,” Pai said. “We’ll follow the standard operating procedures, as we always do, and make sure we evaluate what the facts are and apply the law fairly and fully.”
At issue is Colbert’s word choice when mocking Trump over abruptly ending a recent interview with CBS’s John Dickerson on “Face the Nation” when he was pressed on his unverified claims that President Obama wiretapped his office. After calling the episode “Disgrace the Nation,” Colbert went on to say that Trump’s “mouth is good for is being Vladimir Putin’s cock holster.”
Critics have said the joke was indecent and perhaps even homophobic, resulting in a trending social media boycott: #FireColbert.
Colbert, though, he said he didn’t regret his “choice insults” directed at Trump, said if he were to do the monologue again he would “change a few words that were cruder than they needed to be.”
As we reported earlier, here's @StephenAtHome's response on @colbertlateshow to the #FireColbert backlash. https://t.co/S65SB3HBki pic.twitter.com/EmdnOiZCwB— Frank Pallotta (@frankpallotta) May 4, 2017
Pai, during an interview earlier on Thursday with Neil Cavuto on the FOX Business Network, said that if the agency receives complaints, it “will take a look at the facts that are alleged and apply the law.”
After 10 p.m., (Colbert’s show starts at 11:35 p.m. ET), “obscene” language is prohibited on broadcast TV and radio. According to the FCC, obscene content, not protected by the first amendment, is subjected to a “three-pronged” test established by the Supreme Court: “It must appeal to an average person’s prurient interest; depict or describe sexual conduct in a ‘patently offensive’ way; and, taken as a whole, lack serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.”
Before that time, between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m., only “indecent and profane” language are prohibited due to the likelihood that children could be tuning in.
Pai asserted that if the agency does find a violation, then it will determine what the appropriate “remedy” should be. “A fine, of some sort, is typically what we do,” he added.
