Last night on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Stephen Colbert did something rare on corporate television … he told the audience the lawyers stepped in and pulled the plug.

Texas State Rep. James Talarico was scheduled for an interview. CBS legal told Colbert “in no uncertain terms” the interview could not air. Then they told him he couldn’t even talk about it.

So he talked about it anyway.

Why? Because suddenly, the FCC’s equal-time rule is being waved around like a hall pass to scare networks. The rule requires equal opportunities for political candidates on broadcast TV. For decades, bona fide news interviews and talk shows had an exemption. That’s how political guests have appeared on late-night for generations.

Now FCC Chair Brendan Carr is floating language about reviewing that exemption, suggesting some appearances may be “motivated by partisan purposes.”

Translation: the regulatory goalposts might move depending on who’s in charge.

Colbert didn’t whisper. He called it out. He even told the FCC off on air. He said what a lot of people are thinking: if you threaten broadcasters with regulatory ambiguity, corporations will fold before you even issue a fine.

And here’s the kicker … the interview will still air on YouTube. Because the FCC regulates broadcast licenses, not the internet. Same content. Different pipe. Different rules.

So what just happened?

A federally regulated broadcast network pulled a sitting elected official’s interview out of legal fear. A comedian publicly defied his own corporate counsel. And the workaround was to post it online where the federal speech regulator has no authority.

That’s not a conspiracy. That’s regulatory pressure meeting corporate risk aversion in real time.

Call it what it is: when government officials start hinting they may reinterpret speech rules, media lawyers panic first, executives second, and free expression last.

Democracy doesn’t collapse in one dramatic swoop. It erodes through “just being cautious.”

And if you’re comfortable with federal regulators hovering over who gets to speak on TV, remember … the power you cheer today is the power your opponent uses tomorrow.

The First Amendment isn’t supposed to need a permission slip from a licensing bureau. — feeling pissed off.