WASHINGTON, May 14 (UPI) -- Stephen Colbert said he was exasperated by the amount of paperwork and legalese his tongue-in-cheek political action committee has stirred up in Washington.
The television host was in the capital Friday to seek a so-called media exemption for his fledgling PAC that would mollify Viacom, the parent company of Colbert's Comedy Central network.
"Why does it get so complicated to do this," Colbert said. "I mean this is page after page of legalese. All I'm trying to do is affect the 2012 election. It's not like I am trying to install iTunes."
Viacom is in a position of potentially having to list air time Colbert devoted to promoting his PAC as a political donation unless it receives a media exemption, which is commonly used by news networks, CBS said. Without the exemption, Viacom could be vulnerable to outside complaints and irksome examinations of its books and other internal documents.
Campaign finance experts told Politico the decision Federal Election Commission makes on the exemption could have a significant ripple effect among the political media.
In particular, the experts said, was Fox's stable of pundits such as Karl Rove, a veteran political operative who plugs his Super PAC American Crossroads on the air.
