FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said the agency “has an ongoing enforcement action” against ABC view after the show, he featured James Talarico, a Democratic candidate for the US Senate, as a guest.
“We’re looking at it,” Carr told reporters Wednesday, but declined to elaborate. Fox News reported earlier this month that view was investigated for a potential violation of the equal time rule, which requires broadcasters presenting candidates to give airtime to rivals if requested.
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ABC has yet to comment. The show also featured Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), one of Talarico’s primary Democratic opponents, as a guest, but not
Carr’s comments follow Stephen Colbert’s show on Monday, when the host said CBS lawyers refused to allow an interview with Talarico to air out of concern of triggering the equal time rule.
CBS disputed Colbert’s account, saying it was not barred from featuring Talarico, but “received legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the FCC’s equal time rule for two other candidates.” On his show Tuesday, Colbert rejected CBS’s statement, saying the network’s lawyers had reviewed what he said on the previous night’s program. Instead, the interview was posted on YouTube, which is outside FCC oversight.
Talk shows previously operated under the assumption that their interviews were exempt from the equal time rule under a “bona fide” news exemption. Things like news and coverage of news events have been exempted, and the FCC has confirmed in the past that talk shows are also exempt from the rule.
But the FCC, under Carr, issued warning broadcasts last month, such as the view, Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel Live they should not assume they are exempt when running political candidates. Instead, the FCC recommended that those broadcasters consult with the agency if this is the case.
The Colbert incident became a major political and media story on Tuesday, raising questions about whether CBS was stifling a candidate to try to stay on the good side of the Trump administration. Carr, however, said it was “a lot of fun. I think it was one of the most fun days I’ve had on the job watching the kind of hilarity of how this story unfolded.”
He added: “Look, anyone who isn’t suffering from a terminal case of Trump Derangement Syndrome was able to see right away yesterday the exact story arc and how it was going to play out. You had a Democratic candidate who understood how the media works and took advantage of all of your previous conceptions to pull a farce, apparently in order to raise money and clicks for his new media.”
Carr cited CBS’ statement that Colbert was not barred from airing the Talarico interview. “There was no censorship here at all,” he said. He said airing Talarico’s interview was among options that could have been considered, but not on Texas stations because the rules apply only to regions where a candidate is on the ballot.
Talarico’s campaign reported Wednesday that it raised $2.5 million since the Colbert interview, a record.
Talarico posted on X a link to the YouTube interview and the message: “This is the interview Donald Trump didn’t want you to see. His FCC refused to air my interview with Stephen Colbert. Trump is worried we’re about to flip Texas.” In fact, it was CBS and/or Colbert’s show that made the decision about the interview, not the FCC.
Carr also criticized news outlets for their coverage of the incident, calling it a “perfect encapsulation of why the American people trust gas station sushi more than the national news media. This was clearly an effort to get clicks and raise money, and you guys ate it up.”
In its guidance last month on the equal time rule, the FCC said that when examining whether a broadcast is exempt, it would consider whether a talk show presentation of a political candidate is “motivated by partisan purposes.”
Pressed on what that means, Carr said a host’s political donations to candidates could be one factor considered. Colbert has attended political fundraisers, including those for Joe Biden in 2020 and 2024, and Kimmel is emceeing an event next month for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Carr also said the equal time rule applies in media, radio and TV. Talk radio is dominated by right-wing voices like Sean Hannity and Hugh Hewitt, who also feature political candidates as guests.
He said the TV talk shows were singled out because “it appeared that the programmers either overread or misread some of the case law on the equal time rule as it applies to broadcast TV.”
“We’ll take a look at whatever comes up, at the end of the day,” Carr said.
He said neither view or The Late Show with Stephen Colbert contacted the FCC to rule on whether they fall under the Equal Time exemption. But the FCC’s guidance issued last month said the agency had received no evidence that “the interview portion of any daytime or nighttime television talk show program currently qualifies for the bona fide news exemption.”
Donald Trump criticized the late-night TV hosts and urged Carr, whom he appointed to chair the FCC, to take action.
Anna Gomez, the lone Democrat on the panel, characterized the Colbert incident as another example of the FCC using its enforcement power to punish broadcasters for speech the Trump administration doesn’t like.
“I think the threats are key, the harassment is key, because the commission is not going to survive appeal if it takes action against these broadcasters, because what they’re doing is a violation of the First Amendment,” she said. “So keeping everyone on their toes, forcing them to answer the agencies’ questions — it’s all part of the ultimate goal of getting these broadcasters.”
She cited the FCC’s 2006 ruling that The Tonight Show with Jay Leno fell under the waiver when the host interviewed Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was then seeking re-election as governor of California. His Democratic challenger, Phil Angelides, sought equal time, which led to the agency’s opinion.
In 2024, after Saturday Night Live featured a cameo with Kamala Harris, just days before the election, NBC gave equal time to the Trump campaign during the following day’s sports programming. However, the FCC has yet to rule on a complaint about Harris’ appearance, Gomez said.
“The threat, the environment, the fear, that’s what this administration is looking for, because when you look at the actual enforcement of the equal time rule, it’s not that big of a deal,” Gomez said. “So let’s focus on the bigger picture of the pattern of what we’ve seen under this administration when we talk about these issues.”
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