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Stephen Colbert’s ongoing dispute with his CBS bosses · The Daily Article

• 0:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome, and we're glad you joined us for the Daily Article podcast on this Thursday, February the 19th, 2026.
• 0:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm near-rater Chris Elkins, giving voice to today's Daily Article, written by published author and cultural theologian, Dr. Jim Denison.
• 0:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was the unseen interview seen round the world.
• 0:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: On the late show Tuesday night, Stephen Colbert told viewers that CBS told him an interview he tape with Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Tolerico could not be aired.
• 0:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: According to Colbert, CBS was concerned about an FCC rule requiring broadcasters to give equal time to opposing candidates when an interview is broadcast with one of them.
• 0:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: The network, however, flatly denied Cobra's claim saying, the late show was not prohibited by CBS from broadcasting the interview.
• 0:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: It added that the network provided legal guidance and presented options for how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled.
• 1:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: In quote, The show then presented the interview through its YouTube channel where FCC rules do not apply.
• 1:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: As of this morning, it has been viewed more than 7.4 million times, roughly triple what the CBS program draws each night.
• 1:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Mr. Tallahureko also reported that he raised $2.5 million in campaign donations in the first 24 hours after the interview.
• 1:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: You may decide with Mr. Cober and is ongoing dispute, you may side with CBS or you may not care.
• 1:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: But it's worth noting that Mr. Cober's show will end in May.
• 1:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: We might wonder if the fact that he has little to lose in his conflict with the network contributes to his willingness to stage it.
• 1:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: If so, this would be unsurprising, and a principal worth considering for reasons that far transcend the story that illustrates it.
• 1:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: The actor George Clooney famously stated, quote, I don't believe in heaven and hell, I don't know if I believe in God.
• 2:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: All I know is that as an individual, I won't allow this life the only thing I know to exist to be wasted, in quote.
• 2:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: I strongly agree with his emphasis on the urgency of life, but for reasons that contradict his.
• 2:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: The philosopher Arthur Schopenauer declared, the shortness of life, so often lamented, may be the best thing about it, in quote, we don't have to adopt his pessimistic nihilism to appreciate the value in recognizing the brevity of our lives.
• 2:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: or of our jobs, in the case of Stephen Kowair.
• 2:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: First, admitting the shortness of life should insulate us from the deceit of materialism.
• 2:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: In Psalm 49, verses 11 and 12, the Psalmist spoke of those who called lands by their own names, but warned that this is feudal, man in his pomp will not remain, he is like the beast that perish.
• 2:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, the Psalmist states in verse 17, when he dies, he will carry nothing away.
• 2:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Just because we name lands for ourselves doesn't mean that we live on in this world.
• 3:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is a vanity for the present, not a reality for the future.
• 3:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: After we die, anyone can rename our possessions as they wish.
• 3:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: We do not own them as much as we think we do, or at least not for long.
• 3:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like Monopoly, when the game is over, the money goes back in the box.
• 3:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Second, when we embrace our finitude, the result should not be the nihilistic pessimism of atheism, but the robust optimism of faith.
• 3:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: We should seek to live this day fully, knowing that it is the only day we know we have.
• 3:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: But unlike those who have no relationship with the God of the universe, we can ask and trust him to redeem this day for his greatest glory and our greatest good.
• 3:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: We can live each moment by the motto, my utmost for his highest, as Oswald Chambers famously put it.
• 3:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: We can say with Paul from 1 Corinthians 10, verse 31,
• 3:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Whether you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
• 4:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Dwight Moody advised, let God have your life, he can do more with it than you can.
• 4:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: The German pastor Martin Neemuller spent three years in the horrors of Dockhal, kept in solitary confinement in one of the world's worst concentration camps.
• 4:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: According to Pastor and author Paul Powell, an interviewer asked Pastor Neymolor, years later, how he retained his sanity.
• 4:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: He answered, you can stand far more than you think you can.
• 4:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: You are much stronger than you think you are, if God is dwelling in your life."
• 4:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: In quote, There was a time I would have agreed with George Clooney's rejection of heaven and hell, had his skepticism regarding the existence of God.
• 4:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: But then I met Christians who refused to allow their lives to be, quote, unquote, wasted.
• 4:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was the joy I saw in them that drew me to their Lord.
• 4:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Christianity will appeal to skeptics to the degree they see something in our lives they want in their own.
• 4:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Francis Chan was therefore right to say, the world needs Christians who don't tolerate the complacency of their own lives."
• 5:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Martyred Missionary Jim Elliott is best known for his statement.
• 5:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
• 5:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: But Elliott also prayed, for give me, for being so ordinary, while claiming to know so extraordinary a God, in quote,
• 5:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: How can we tolerate complacency or live lives that are ordinary?
• 5:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: If we are empowered by his spirit, we will manifest his fruit.
• 5:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, listed in Galatians 5 vs. 22 and 23.
• 5:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: can we then look and live like those who do not walk in such intimate fellowship?
• 5:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Billy Graham wrote, many people are willing to have Jesus as part of their lives, as long as it doesn't cost them anything, they may even profess faith in Jesus and join a church.
• 6:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: But Jesus to them is like an insurance policy, something they obtain and then forget about until they die.
• 6:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: But Jesus calls us to follow him.
• 6:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: every day.
• 6:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: What keeps you from being his disciple, in quote, we have only this day to answer his question.
• 6:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: The 17th and 18th centuries Thomas Ken penned one of the most famous hymns in Christian history, the Doxology.
• 6:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like many congregations around the world, our church sings its first stanza to close our worship services each Sunday.
• 6:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: It begins
• 6:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: If the second phrase is true, the first is only logical, but can wrote three other stances.
• 6:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Here's the last.
• 6:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Direct, control, suggest this day, all I design or do, or say, that all my powers with all their might, in thy sole glory may unite.
• 6:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: Will you make his prayer yours today?