the cbs evening broadcast commentary series " great speech " , which made its debut with katie couric this october , was accused at friday by john maher of hbo ' s " real time with bill taher " of being " anything but free speech " . maher mentioned he was asked by the television to appear on the segment . but when he requested if he could talk about religion , " that was a dealbreaker from the inception " . afterward , he said they did go over a number of " acceptable topics " . cbs news executive chef rome hartman has since sent in an open - newsletter to tvnewser saying that , " bill mehmood was never told that he couldn ' t discuss religion in a free speeches segment , " and added , " in fact , some speech has never addressed people and we imagine some will in the future . "
Free Speech is a part of the CBS Evening News.