The Federal Communications Commission today issued a warning to late-night and daytime talk shows, saying these shows may no longer qualify for an exemption to the FCC’s equal-time rule. Because the FCC is chaired by vocal Trump supporter Brendan Carr, changing how the rule is enforced could pressure shows into seeking out more interviews with Republican candidates.
The public notice providing what the FCC calls “guidance on political equal opportunities requirement for broadcast television stations” appears to be part of the Trump administration’s campaign against alleged liberal bias on broadcast TV. Carr, who has eroded the FCC’s historical independence from the White House, previously pressured ABC to suspend Jimmy Kimmel and threatened ABC’s The View with the equal-time rule.
The Carr FCC’s public notice today said that federal rules “prevent broadcast television stations, which have been given access to a valuable public resource (namely, spectrum), from unfairly putting their thumbs on the scale for one political candidate or set of candidates over another.” These rules come from “the decision by Congress that broadcast television stations have an obligation to operate in the public interest—not in any narrow partisan, political interest,” the Carr FCC said.
While the public notice doesn’t make allegations against any specific station or program, a conservative group that has filed FCC complaints against broadcast stations treated the move as a victory against “left-wing” shows.
“This major announcement from the FCC should stop one-sided left-wing entertainment shows masquerading as ‘bona fide news,'” wrote Daniel Suhr, president of the Center for American Rights. “The abuse of the airwaves by ABC & NBC as DNC-TV must end. FCC is restoring respect for the equal time rules enacted by Congress.” Suhr’s group filed bias complaints against CBS, ABC, and NBC stations that were dismissed during the Biden era, but the group’s complaints were revived by Carr in January 2025.