FCC Won’t Fine Colbert Over Trump-Putin Joke

Stephen Colbert arriving on the red carpet at the Costume Institute Benefit at The Metropolitan Museum of Art celebrating the opening of Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garcons: Art of the In-Between in New York City, NY, USA... Stephen Colbert arriving on the red carpet at the Costume Institute Benefit at The Metropolitan Museum of Art celebrating the opening of Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garcons: Art of the In-Between in New York City, NY, USA, on May 1, 2017. Photo by Dennis Van Tine/Sipa USA(Sipa via AP Images) MORE LESS

NEW YORK (AP) — There will be no fine for Stephen Colbert’s risque joke about President Donald Trump.

A Federal Communications Commission spokesman said Tuesday that the agency received “thousands” of complaints about the late-night host’s May 1 show, so it reviewed the material as “standard operating procedure.” It’s the FCC’s job to police obscene or indecent material on TV when it receives complaints.

The agency found that the joke, which involved Trump, Russian leader Vladimir Putin and a crude word for penis, did not warrant punishment.

Colbert’s politically-tinged “Late Show,” rife with Trump jokes, has become the most popular of the late-night circuit.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  1. Well, the CBS execs must be big GOP contributors. Still.
    But, maybe this was our best chance not to see a 4 to 1 ratio of bag-of-wind GOP senators to Democrats on Face the Nation.
    This is great news for John McCain.

  2. Good. The dangerous repubs want to destroy all talk they don’t like. This is very dangerous for our country.

  3. Why is it great news for McCain?

  4. Nice. The twits that organized the ‘outrage’ to the FCC should have just stuck with the tried-and-true boycott threat of the show (although they all profess to not watch it) and their outcries would have been duly noted and we would have moved on. NOW they ‘lost’ which probably just fueled their perceived rage against the ‘culture’.

  5. McCain seems to be booked more than any GOPer on the Sunday shows. It 's somewhat of a running joke here. Also when McCain ran for president, whatshisname Halperin was constantly saying that this or that occurrence was “great news for John McCain” regardless of whether said occurrence was a boon or disaster. Also a running joke, although a very old one.
    Like me.

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