Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Stephen Colbert Did Not Break The Law With "Cock Holster" Trump Joke, FCC Says

Mark Kauzlarich / Reuters

Federal regulators have determined that Stephen Colbert did not violate any obscenity and indecency laws when he said on air that the only thing President Trump's mouth was good for "is being Vladimir Putin’s cock holster."

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Ajit Pal, said his office had received a flood of complaints about the comment during the opening monologue of the Late Show, prompting a standard investigation into whether the joke violated the obscenity rules for television broadcast.

Ultimately, the FCC concluded the joke did not.

“The FCC received thousands of complaints about the May 1 broadcast of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” FCC spokesperson Neil Grace said in a statement. “Consistent with standard operating procedure, the FCC's Enforcement Bureau has reviewed the complaints and the material that was the subject of these complaints. The bureau has concluded that there was nothing actionable under the FCC's rules."

Representatives for the Late Show and Stephen Colbert did not immediately respond to BuzzFeed News' request for comment.