FCC chairman Brendan Carr confirmed Wednesday that the commission has started enforcement proceedings of what he asserted were violations of the equal time rule involving political candidates by ABC’s daytime mainstay “The View.”
Carr appeared on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle,” where he also slammed Stephen Colbert and CBS’ “The Late Show” over the flap that emerged Monday and Tuesday over the show’s interview with James Talarico, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Texas.
Carr has made public statements in recent weeks that appear designed to put broadcast networks on notice that the FCC plans to enforce its equal time rules related to political candidates on shows that historically have been seen as exempt from the rule because they are akin to news programs. News programs are not bound by the rule that demands that networks give equal airtime to viable political candidates during the lead-up to an election.
“If you are bona fide news, you don’t have to give candidates equal air time,” Carr told Ingraham. “But, Disney and ‘The View’ have not established that that program is, in fact, bona fide news. We’ve started enforcement proceedings, taking a look at that. And, again, we’re going to hold broadcasters accountable.”
A rep for “The View” could not immediately be reached for comment.
Carr, as usual, praised President Donald Trump for what he described as Trump’s leadership in attacking the news media. “The days that these legacy media broadcasters get to decide what we can say, what we can think, who we can vote for are over. I think President Trump played a key role in just smashing the facade that they still get to decide the narrative here,” Carr said.
Carr then turned to the controversy that erupted Monday evening when Stephen Colbert told viewers that CBS had blocked him from airing an interview segment with Talarico because of Carr’s statements about late-night shows and the equal time rule. On Tuesday, CBS denied that it made any such decision and was only advising “The Late Show” producers of the legal guidelines, given Carr’s new interpretation of the equal time rule.
Carr seized on CBS’ denial to harshly criticize Colbert and Democrats in general.
“President Trump has been so far ahead the curve on so many issues, on the economy, on border security, and perhaps nowhere else when he called out the legacy media for being fake news. And yesterday the American people got to see that on full display. It’s why people have more trust and faith in gas station sushi today than they do in the legacy news media. This was Democrat-on-Democrat violence,” Carr said.
Carr pointed to the fact that Talarico’s campaign got a burst of attention from the Colbert flap, which translated to more than $2 million in donations to his campaign. Carr stated without evidence that the dust up was manufactured to benefit Talarico. “This was all about a political candidate trying to get attention and clicks. And the news media ran with it like lemmings. They just ate it up.”
