Say goodbye to most appearances by political candidates on daytime and late night talk shows.
After an open meeting on Wednesday, Federal Communications Chair Brendan Carr said that networks should operate under the assumption that shows like The View, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Late Show don’t qualify for long-standing regulatory exemptions that allowed them to discuss political candidates on their shows without having to meet unwieldy requirements. Failing to comply, he said, will trigger an enforcement action.
“The general rule is equal time applies,” Carr said of the FCC provision. “There’s narrow exceptions you have to fit in.”
The clarification marks a dramatic departure from how the commission has historically treated talk shows, which have qualified for exemptions as legitimate news programs for decades and are now considered partisan bad actors under the Trump administration. The change doesn’t necessarily prohibit interviews with political candidates but imposes obligations requiring them to give comparable time to opponents. In practice, it will prevent networks from having anyone on by potentially forcing them to have everyone on. Carr’s remarks come after Colbert said on Monday that CBS killed an interview with Texas State Rep. James Talarico because the appearance would trigger regulatory obligations.
“Congress passed the equal time provision for a very specific reason,” he said. “They did not want the media leads in Hollywood and in New York to put their thumbs on the scale and pick their winners and losers in primaries and general elections. That’s the point.”
Under this FCC’s interpretation of the rule, networks must file a petition to determine whether they qualify for what’s called a bona fide news exemption if they want to interview a political candidate without meeting equal time requirements. If they don’t, a political file of that candidate must be made, through which rivals can then submit equal opportunity requests. The scope of the rule is broad, applying not just for interviews but any appearance of a candidate’s voice or image on a broadcast. In 2003, CBS spiked a The Late Late Show segment that included images of political candidates in the California recall election because it would require them to show pictures of all 135 candidates.
ABC’s The View is currently under investigation by the FCC over an interview with Talarico, after which it didn’t meet regulatory requirements that would’ve allowed his opponents to seek comparable time.
“We encourage people to file petitions,” Carr said. “The ones we have seen have yet to establish that they qualify for the bona fide news exception.”
