Analysis of: CBS accused of ‘corporate capitulation’ amid row over Colbert interview with Democrat – US politics live
The Guardian | February 18, 2026
TL;DR
CBS self-censored a Democratic interview citing FCC rules while Trump's EPA guts climate protections and Congress ignores Palestinian abuse. Corporate media and the regulatory state align to suppress dissent while advancing capital's interests.
Analytical Focus:Class Analysis Contradictions Historical Context
This live blog compilation reveals a multi-front offensive by capital and the state against democratic expression and environmental protection. The CBS-Colbert controversy exemplifies how corporate media, even without direct government orders, anticipates and accommodates authoritarian pressure. FCC Commissioner Gomez's characterization of 'corporate capitulation' is telling—CBS chose self-censorship not because the law required it, but because the political climate made compliance the path of least resistance for protecting corporate broadcast licenses. The simultaneity of these developments is instructive. While media attention focuses on the relatively contained controversy over a late-night interview, the Trump administration's EPA has repealed the endangerment finding—the legal foundation for federal climate regulation since 2009. This represents a far more consequential victory for fossil capital than any single act of media censorship. The lawsuit by environmental groups, while necessary, faces a judiciary increasingly shaped by decades of conservative appointment strategies. The treatment of Palestinian-Americans—whether the detained teenager Mohammed Ibrahim or the Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi facing deportation—demonstrates how the bipartisan consensus on Israel allows the state to selectively criminalize political expression. That fifteen members of Congress must write letters demanding basic accountability for the abuse of a minor American citizen reveals the limits of liberal democratic institutions when confronting settler-colonial interests aligned with U.S. imperial strategy.
Class Dynamics
Actors: Corporate media ownership (Paramount/CBS), Trump administration officials, FCC regulatory apparatus, Fossil fuel industry, Environmental and public health organizations, Palestinian-American activists and their communities, Working-class viewers and citizens
Beneficiaries: Fossil fuel capital benefiting from EPA deregulation, Media conglomerates maintaining favorable regulatory relationships, Israeli state apparatus and U.S. military-industrial complex, Political incumbents shielded from media scrutiny
Harmed Parties: Working-class communities facing climate impacts and pollution, Palestinian-Americans subject to detention and deportation, Democratic political challengers denied media access, Journalists and commentators facing implicit censorship
The state-corporate nexus operates through implicit rather than explicit coercion. CBS requires no direct order to self-censor; the threat to broadcast licenses creates anticipatory compliance. Similarly, the EPA's regulatory capture means industry interests are pursued through state power while environmental groups must fight defensive legal battles. The treatment of Palestinian-Americans reveals how imperial priorities override domestic civil liberties protections.
Material Conditions
Economic Factors: Broadcast license values dependent on FCC relationships, Fossil fuel industry profits protected by regulatory rollback, Media advertising revenue vulnerable to political pressure, U.S. military aid to Israel creating material incentives for political alignment
Corporate media operates under the fundamental contradiction between its stated democratic function and its profit motive. Broadcast networks hold licenses granted by the state, creating structural dependency that shapes editorial decisions. The environmental lawsuit reveals how pollution externalities—costs borne by working-class communities—enable fossil capital accumulation.
Resources at Stake: Broadcast spectrum licenses worth billions, Carbon-intensive production capacity, Public health resources diverted by environmental degradation, Political legitimacy of regulatory institutions
Historical Context
Precedents: McCarthy-era broadcast self-censorship, Reagan-era FCC deregulation and Fairness Doctrine repeal, Bush administration EPA regulatory rollbacks, COINTELPRO targeting of political activists
This represents an intensification of neoliberal governance patterns established since the 1980s. The FCC's equal-time rule, originally designed to ensure democratic discourse, is weaponized to suppress it. Environmental deregulation continues a four-decade assault on the regulatory gains of the 1970s. The targeting of Palestinian solidarity activists echoes Cold War repression of anti-imperialist movements, now updated for the War on Terror framework.
Contradictions
Primary: The contradiction between capital's need for ideological legitimation through 'free press' narratives and its material interest in controlling media discourse
Secondary: The state's claim to protect free speech while using regulatory power to chill it, Environmental agencies captured by industries they nominally regulate, Democratic politicians criticizing censorship while maintaining bipartisan consensus on Israel, Public belief that powerful people avoid accountability (69% per poll) alongside continued participation in electoral politics
These contradictions are intensifying rather than resolving. Corporate media's credibility erosion accelerates as self-censorship becomes visible. Environmental litigation may temporarily slow deregulation but cannot reverse the structural power of fossil capital. The bipartisan immigration crackdown on activists may temporarily suppress solidarity movements while generating longer-term radicalization.
Global Interconnections
The seemingly disparate stories in this compilation share a common thread: the tightening alignment between state power and capital accumulation at the expense of democratic participation and environmental sustainability. The FCC controversy reveals how media concentration creates vulnerability to political pressure—a dynamic replicated globally as authoritarian governments leverage regulatory power over consolidated media industries. The EPA rollback connects to global fossil capital's resistance to climate action, with U.S. deregulation undermining international climate agreements and providing competitive advantages to carbon-intensive industries. The treatment of Palestinian-Americans reflects the broader U.S. role in maintaining Israeli apartheid, itself a key node in the global system of borders and migration control that disciplines labor and suppresses anti-imperial movements. The Epstein poll finding—69% believing powerful people escape accountability—suggests a growing popular awareness of class justice that could become politically significant.
Conclusion
These developments demand analysis beyond individual outrages toward understanding their systemic interconnection. Corporate media self-censorship, environmental deregulation, and political repression are not separate crises but manifestations of intensifying class warfare under conditions of capitalist crisis. The ruling class response to declining legitimacy is not reform but retrenchment—restricting democratic space while accelerating resource extraction. For workers and organizers, this clarifies the stakes: defensive struggles for press freedom, environmental protection, and immigrant rights must connect to offensive strategies challenging the underlying property relations and state structures that generate these attacks. The 69% who recognize elite impunity represent a latent class consciousness that could become a material force.
Suggested Reading
- Prison Notebooks (Selections) by Antonio Gramsci (1935) Gramsci's analysis of hegemony and the role of media in manufacturing consent illuminates how corporate self-censorship maintains ruling-class ideological dominance without direct state coercion.
- The State and Revolution by V.I. Lenin (1917) Lenin's examination of the capitalist state as an instrument of class rule helps explain how regulatory agencies like the FCC and EPA serve capital's interests regardless of their stated missions.
- Blackshirts and Reds by Michael Parenti (1997) Parenti's analysis of how liberal democracies accommodate authoritarian tendencies provides historical context for understanding corporate-state collaboration in suppressing dissent.