{"id":148852,"date":"2026-01-25T11:05:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T11:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/148852\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T11:05:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T11:05:23","slug":"fcc-chairs-call-for-equal-time-could-have-chilling-effect-on-tv-and-radio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/148852\/","title":{"rendered":"FCC chair’s call for ‘equal time’ could have chilling effect on TV and radio"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Back in 1963, Richard Nixon needed to rehabilitate his image after he lost his race for California governor. He went on the \u201cTonight\u201d show with Jack Paar and played the piano.<\/p>\n

Bill Clinton\u2019s appearance on \u201cThe Arsenio Hall Show,\u201d where he delivered a rendition of \u201cHeartbreak Hotel\u201d on the saxophone, was considered a breakthrough moment in his successful 1992 campaign for the White House.<\/p>\n

Those memorable segments demonstrated how the desk-and-sofa format could be a tool in the politician\u2019s arsenal for shaping public opinion away from the pesky probing of journalists. It became a way to reach viewers who did not regularly watch TV news. <\/p>\n

But those days may become a relic of broadcast history as Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr is calling for stronger enforcement of a broadcast regulation rule requiring TV and radio broadcasters to offer equal time to all legally qualified opposing political candidates. <\/p>\n

With the new guidance \u2014 which legal and media experts said would be hard to enforce and could stifle free speech \u2014 the FCC questioned whether late-night and daytime talk shows deserve an exemption from the equal-time rules for broadcast stations using the public airwaves. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s the Trump White House\u2019s latest salvo against the network late night talk show hosts, primarily Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers and Jimmy Kimmel, who pound away at President Trump nightly in their monologues and offer ample airtime to his political opponents. The rule also would affect daytime shows such as ABC\u2019s \u201cThe View,\u201d which is under the purview of the Disney-owned network\u2019s news division.<\/p>\n

The equal-time rule has been around for decades but rarely has been enforced in recent years. It did come into play during the 2024 presidential campaign when NBC\u2019s \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d booked Democratic candidate Kamala Harris<\/a> to appear in a sketch. <\/p>\n

NBC filed an equal-time notice with the FCC stating that Harris had appeared on the network for one minute and 30 seconds. Campaign officials for Trump contacted the network and asked for time and they were given two free 60-second messages that appeared near the end of its telecast of a NASCAR playoff race and during post-game coverage of a \u201cSunday Night Football\u201d telecast.<\/p>\n

Experts consider the rule to be antiquated, designed for a time when consumers were limited to a handful of TV channels and a dozen radio stations if they lived in a big city. The emergence of cable, podcasts and streaming audio and video platforms \u2014 none of which are subjected to FCC restrictions in terms of content \u2014 have greatly diminished traditional broadcast media\u2019s dominance in the marketplace.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s very hard to look at trying to regulate over-the-air broadcasters in the same way today as the FCC would have done, you know, 50 years ago,\u201d said Jeffrey McCall, a communications professor at DePauw University. \u201cThe rule was put in place in an era of scarcity which we really don\u2019t have anymore.\u201d <\/p>\n

Michael Harrison, a media consultant and publisher of the radio trade journal Talkers, said the equal-time rule will unfairly burden radio and TV broadcasters that are struggling to compete against tech companies that largely have unfettered access to consumers and are not subject to FCC rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cCarr\u2019s plan would even further handicap federally licensed television and radio platforms that are already facing an existential crisis as they are being eaten alive by unregulated digital media in an increasingly noisy marketplace,\u201d Harrison said. \u201cCarr\u2019s plan is just rhetoric to give the impression that the FCC still has relevance in programming regulation.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCall expressed doubts as to whether the equal-time law would stand up if it were challenged in the courts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Supreme Court, under Chief Justice Roberts, has been pretty supportive in providing robust 1st Amendment protections,\u201d McCall said. \u201cI think they would say free speech is free speech. The media landscape has changed so much over the years and we don\u2019t want the government trying to make decisions as to what counts as political speech and what doesn\u2019t and what counts as fairness and what doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

No network executive contacted was willing to comment on the record, but privately they say it\u2019s an attempt by Carr to use the government\u2019s regulation of the free public airwaves to keep the president\u2019s critics in line. Trump has frequently called for TV licenses to be pulled when he\u2019s unhappy with a network reporter\u2019s question or a late-night monologue. <\/p>\n

They also believe that Carr wants to create a wedge between the broadcast networks and their affiliate stations, which are responsible for providing equal time if a candidate makes a request. Carr has said he wants to examine the network-affiliate relationship and how much influence is exerted by Hollywood and New York on local broadcasters.<\/p>\n

Enforcing the rule also would be a major headache for TV stations as all legally qualified candidates on minor party tickets could ask for airtime. Under the rule, if a candidate appears on a TV or radio program, their opponents have seven days to request equal time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can be a headache for sure,\u201d said one TV station executive not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.<\/p>\n

At Trump\u2019s behest, Carr has been aggressive in suggesting the use of FCC rules to punish late-night hosts in Trump\u2019s crosshairs. He threatened the TV station licenses of ABC in September after Kimmel made remarks on his program about slain right-wing activist Charlie Kirk that upset conservatives. Two major TV station groups pulled the program and the network suspended Kimmel\u2018s program<\/a> for a week.<\/p>\n

Trump on Wednesday posted a link to a news story that said the FCC was focused on ABC daytime talk show \u201cThe View\u201d and ABC late-night talk show \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carr\u2019s call for greater enforcement of the equal-time rule also could have an effect on conservative-leaning broadcasters. Although right-leaning hosts are largely nonexistent on broadcast network TV, they are the dominant draws on talk radio. Those hosts would also have to abide by the rule as well when they give unfettered platforms to Republican candidates.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the FCC pushes this on the television and not radio, they\u2019re going to be opening themselves to all kinds of claims of trying to protect certain messages, but not others,\u201d McCall noted.<\/p>\n

Conservative Fox News host Sean Hannity, who does a daily radio program carried on 750 stations across the U.S., told The Times in a statement that he is opposed to further government regulation of broadcast content.<\/p>\n

\u201cTalk radio is successful because people are smart and understand we are the antidote to corrupt and abusively biased left wing legacy media,\u201d Hannity said in a statement. \u201cWe need less government regulation and more freedom. Let the American people decide where to get their information from without any government interference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interestingly, it\u2019s the rise of Trump and his unorthodox approach to campaigning and governing that has made political commentary and humor such a dominant part of late-night TV. His emergence as a presidential candidate after being a major prime-time TV star through NBC\u2019s reality hit \u201cThe Apprentice\u201d pushed politics into the center of the national pop culture conversation. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) has been a guest on \u201cThe Late Show with Stephen Colbert\u201d 19 times.<\/p>\n

In a fragmented media landscape, politicians have become some of the most broadly recognizable figures on TV and have since become fixtures as late-night guests. For years, the executive producer of Stephen Colbert\u2019s \u201cThe Late Show,\u201d was Chris Licht, whose background was in news. He left the job to briefly run CNN.<\/p>\n

Trump himself was a beneficiary of the late-night platform. He hosted \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d twice \u2014 even in 2015 when he was already running for the Republican presidential nomination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back in 1963, Richard Nixon needed to rehabilitate his image after he lost his race for California governor.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[46126,25183,73822,73821,73820,11105,73823,48,52,51,47,50,49,2971,4576,4201,9150,1860,26111,1519,2822],"class_list":["post-148852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-carr","tag-chilling-effect","tag-disney-owned-network","tag-equal-time","tag-equal-time-rule","tag-fcc","tag-jeffrey-mccall","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-nbc","tag-program","tag-radio","tag-recent-year","tag-show","tag-stephen-colbert","tag-trump","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}