President Donald Trump’s Federal Communications Commission is plotting a regulatory crackdown on politician interviews, changing the enforcement of a longtime rule to effectively prohibit broadcast talk shows from interviewing Democratic candidates without also allowing their Republican opponents to have an interview as well.
At issue is the “equal time” rule, which enforces fairness in political airtime for candidates. This rule has long had a number of exceptions, with talk show interviews that produce newsworthy information being one of them.
According to the Los Angeles Times, “On Wednesday, the FCC’s Media Bureau issued a public notice saying broadcast TV stations would be obligated to provide equal time to an opposing political candidate if an appearance by a politician falls short of a ‘bona fide news’ event. For years, hosts of ‘The View,’ ABC’s ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ and CBS’ ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,’ have freely parried with high-profile politicians without worrying about being subjected to the so-called ‘equal time’ rule, which requires broadcasters to bring on a politician’s rival to provide balanced coverage and multiple viewpoints.”
The FCC made clear that from now on, it will err on the side of treating candidate interviews on talk shows as a political event and not “bona fide” news, and encouraged any network with a talk show planning to host such events seek guidance from regulators.
The change appears calculated to make it more difficult for talk shows to host these interviews altogether, which Trump has long complained give more airtime to Democratic politicians.
This move, the report said, “comes amid FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s campaign to challenge broadcast networks ABC, CBS and NBC in an effort to shift more power to local broadcasters, including conservative-leaning television station groups such as Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group.”
Carr has moved aggressively to put a pro-Trump spin on media rules enforcement, including investigations into the diversity hiring practices at broadcast networks. He also flatly rejected the longstanding principle that the FCC is independent of the president during a recent congressional hearing, after which the FCC immediately began deleting any reference to itself as “independent” from their website.
“For decades, the Commission has recognized that bona fide news interviews, late-night programs, and daytime news shows are entitled to editorial discretion based on newsworthiness, not political favoritism,” said Democratic FCC Media Bureau commissioner Anna Gomez in a statement slamming the move. “This announcement therefore does not change the law, but it does represent an escalation in this FCC’s ongoing campaign to censor and control speech.”
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