Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is guesting on Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show Monday, and there isn’t anything FCC head Brendan Carr can do about it — or as a result of it.
Last week, the Federal Communications Commission released new guidance that could revoke the exemption to its “equal time” rules that daytime and late-night talk shows have enjoyed since the ’90s. Basically, the equal time policy requires TV stations to provide equivalent amounts of air time to political candidates on both sides of the same election. (The onus is not on the specific show or even the broadcast network — it is the individual stations that must balance the scales. It’s also a bit on the campaigns themselves. When free time is provided to a candidate, a record is placed in the station’s political file. Opposing candidates can then submit an equal opportunities request.) Often the discrepancy…