Corrects first paragraph to add dropped word 'denied'

WASHINGTON, Feb 18 (Reuters) - The chair of the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday denied the government had censored CBS late-night show Stephen Colbert from airing a candidate interview and confirmed that the agency is investigating ABC's "The View."

FCC Chair Brendan Carr confirmed that the FCC had opened an enforcement into whether the ABC daytime talk show violated equal time rules for interviews with political candidates.

Colbert said on Monday that the network's lawyers barred him from airing an interview with Democratic Texas State Representative James Talarico, who is running for his party's nomination for the U.S. Senate, after the FCC issued new guidance on January that said daytime and late-night talk shows were not exempt from equal time rules for candidate interviews.

(Reporting by David Shepardson, Editing by Franklin Paul)

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