Trump FCC threatens to enforce equal-time rule on late-night talk shows

"The equal-time rule, formally known as the Equal Opportunities Rule, applies to radio or TV broadcast stations with FCC licenses to use the public airwaves. When a station gives time to one political candidate, it must provide comparable time and placement to an opposing candidate if an opposing candidate makes a request. The rule has an exemption for candidate appearances on bona fide news programs. As the FCC explained in 2022, "appearances by legally qualified candidates on bona fide newscasts, interview programs, certain types of news documentaries, and during on-the-spot coverage of bona fide news events are exempt from Equal Opportunities." Entertainment talk shows have generally been treated as bona fide news programs for this purpose."

""Nothing has fundamentally changed with respect to our political broadcasting rules," Gomez said. "The FCC has not adopted any new regulation, interpretation, or commission-level policy altering the long-standing news exemption or equal time framework. For decades, the commission has recognized that bona fide news interviews, late-night programs, and daytime news shows are entitled to editorial discretion based on newsworthiness, not political favoritism. That principle has not been repealed, revised, or voted on by the commission. This announcement therefore does not change the law, but it does represent an escalation in this FCC's ongoing campaign to"

The Equal Opportunities Rule requires licensed radio and TV stations to offer comparable time and placement to opposing political candidates when one candidate is given broadcast time, unless an opposing candidate does not request it. The rule exempts candidate appearances on bona fide newscasts, interview programs, certain news documentaries, and on-the-spot coverage of bona fide news events. Entertainment talk shows have typically been treated as qualifying under that exemption. A recent FCC public notice and a commissioner’s comment raised questions about whether shows like The View should still qualify. A Democratic commissioner asserted that no regulation, interpretation, or commission-level policy has changed the longstanding exemption.

Read at Ars Technica