After being deprived of its federal funding by Republicans, it’s only natural that NPR is going to sound especially bitter about President Trump engaging in what they claim is “media censorship.” The ruse here is that Stephen Colbert was somehow unable to put leftist Democrat James Talarico on his Late Show because of Trump. But the Trump administration didn’t stop it. CBS’s lawyers warned him it could be an “equal time” violation. 

We know what happened next — massive YouTube views for Colbert and Talarico, leading to millions of dollars in donations to Talarico’s Senate campaign against Rep. Jasmine Crockett — who could ask for “equal time.” On Wednesday’s edition of The NPR Politics Podcast, they turned to NPR media reporter David Folkenflik to warn about FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and his expressed aim to investigate “equal time” on remarkably one-sided shows like Colbert’s. The headline for this episode: 

Is the FCC ‘equal time’ rule leading to media censorship — and self-censorship?

Get a load of how vaguely Folkenflik defines the issue with Carr and his statement about Jimmy Kimmel: 

FOLKENFLIK: Last fall, he essentially, you know, did an impression of a mafioso, as Senator Ted Cruz put it, by saying we can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way after Jimmy Kimmel made some remarks that offended the president’s supporters in the wake of the killing of Charlie Kirk. And Disney took him off the air for some days after two major owners of local TV stations that have ABC affiliates, you know, said that they were going to pull that show from their airwaves.

Some people said something. Jimmy Kimmel’s “remarks” were lying about Charlie Kirk’s killer being a “MAGA” bro, the opposite of the truth, hence they “offended” Trump fans. Folkenflik channeled the Left, that “some of the critics are saying that they’re actually self-censoring” because of Trump and Carr.

Naturally, like other liberals, NPR had to talk about conservative talk-radio shows would fail the “equal time” rules:

MILES PARKS: But, I mean, it feels worth noting that talk radio, which is also governed by the FCC, routinely, I mean, you hear talk radio show hosts interview candidates without the same level of scrutiny. So what am I missing here?

FOLKENFLIK: Well, I think at the moment, it’s fair to say what we’re all missing is consistency in Chairman Carr’s application of where he’s interested in going, what he wants to regulate, where he’d like to have a heavy hand, the easy way or the hard way, right? He’s shown no interest publicly in wading into refereeing whether or not nationally syndicated shows like Sean Hannity’s or local talk radio show hosts, which significantly skew to the right, should equally be scrutinized or regulated or forced to give equal time, given the amount of interviews that they give to favored candidates.

Folkenflik said the goal here is that “you would see a tampening down on certain kinds of conversations that are critical of the president, which, of course, in many ways is the desired outcome here.” NPR political editor Domenico Montanaro interjected: “Yeah, and it’s not really about fairness. It seems to be about Trump and what he wants and what conservatives are looking at here. There certainly is this inconsistency that David’s talking about.”

There’s an enormous hole in NPR’s logic here. Because NPR is a news/talk network from coast to coast, and do they meet “equal time” rules? Our study of their badly-named All Things Considered evening newscast found liberals were interviewed more often conservatives by 53 to 3.  Our study found NPR’s Fresh Air interviewed only liberal journalists, and no conservatives. They’re “not really about fairness.”

Conservative radio hosts would be glad to put some Democrats on their shows for equal time, but how likely is it that the Democrats would accept?!

Wishful thinking followed. Parks talked up if they were any way that Trump’s and Carr’s moves could backfire with the public.

MONTANARO: Look, if there’s a word that’s landed Trump in political hot water in this first year and made him unpopular with independents and persuadable voters, it’s overreach. There’s a risk here in looking like the very thing that his critics are accusing him of being – you know, the idea of autocracy and backsliding and cracking down on what journalists and artists are able to do. And I think that we’re seeing this sort of tension that has risen up. And that’s where the backfiring can kind of come in for Trump and Republicans if they’re viewed as pushing too hard to suppress speech.

When 99 percent of Colbert’s political guests are liberals, who looks like an autocracy?