WASHINGTON—The Federal Communication Commission’s push to enforce political equal time rules on late night TV and network talk shows deemed to be airing `biased’ news content has moved into a more formal phase with the agency’s Media Bureau issuing a Public Notice asking for public comments on whether ABC’s `The View’ should be considered a "bona fide news interview program' that is exempt from providing political candidates equal time.
The FCC announced the move in response to a Petition for Declaratory Ruling by the Disney owned TV station KTRK-TV, Houston, Texas, and KTRK-TV’s parent company, ABC asking the agency to give the daytime TV talk show `The View’ an exemption as a news program from the rules.
“By this Public Notice, the FCC’s Media Bureau seeks comment on the Petition,” the FCC noted. “Does The View qualify as a bona fide news interview program? Does the federal equal opportunities statute pass relevant constitutional scrutiny, either as a general matter or as applied here? Are the relevant decisions on The View, including on format and participants, based on newsworthiness or on an attempt to oppose or support particular candidates within the meaning of FCC precedent? We welcome comment on these and any other relevant points.”
FCC Chair Brendan Carr had previously acknowledged that the FCC was investigating `The View’ for violating equal time rules. The agency has separate ongoing investigations into Disney’s DEI rules and has made the highly unusual move to require Disney’s ABC to file for early renewal of the licenses for its owned-stations.
The case stems from an advisory by the FCC’s Media Bureau in January casting doubt on the longtime exemption dating back twenty years that classified late night programming and talk shows as news programs, which are not subject to equal time rules.
“Late night programming and daytime talk shows have been exempt from that [equal time for political candidates] requirement since 2006 when an exemption was given to Jay Leno because he was conducting bona fide news interviews,” the FCC noted in its latest guidance. “Importantly, the FCC has not been presented with any evidence that the interview portion of any late night or daytime television talk show program on air presently would qualify for the bona fide news exemption…Moreover, a program that is motivated by partisan purposes, for example, would not be entitled to an exemption under longstanding FCC precedent. Any program or station that wishes to obtain formal assurance that the equal opportunities requirement does not apply (in whole or in part) is encouraged to promptly file a petition for declaratory ruling that satisfies the statutory requirements for a bona fide news exemption.”
Critics have complained that this is an attempt to regulate broadcast news content and accused the FCC of selectively applying its standards for bias because it has not opened a similar campaign against conservative talk shows that are widely aired on radio.
In late January at the FCC’s monthly press conference, Carr responded to a question about why the agency wasn’t using the same standard to investigate bias in radio by saying “there wasn’t a relevant precedent that we saw that was being misconstrued on the radio side.”
In terms of “The View”, the FCC opened its investigation into possible violations of equal time rules after it aired an interview with Democratic Texas State Rep. James Talarico, now a nominee for U.S. Senate.
This revised guidance on equal time rules also led to a controversial incident in which Stephen Colbert said he was told by CBS not to air an interview with Talarico. CBS has denied it issued such an order.
The full Public Notice seeking comments is available here.
