FCC Head Adds Pressure to The View and Jimmy Kimmel with New Guidance on Equal Time Rules

FCC head Brendan Carr has announced new guidance for how the Federal Communications Commission will interpret its equal time rules, in a move apparently aimed at pressuring shows such as The View, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Tonight Show, and others into broadcasting more conservative viewpoints.

Talk shows have been exempt from the equal time rules since 1996, when the FCC allowed Jay Leno to interview politicians under the bona fide news exemption. That seems poised to change.

“Importantly, the FCC has not been presented with any evidence that the interview portion of any late night or daytime television talk show program on air presently would qualify for the bona fide news exemption,” the FCC said Wednesday (via THR). “Moreover, a program that is motivated by partisan purposes, for example, would not be entitled to an exemption under longstanding FCC precedent.”

These rules prevented stations from offering free time to some political candidates while denying it to others. In the past, the burden didn’t even fall on the stations, but instead on rival politicians, who could file a request with the FCC to receive equal time. This happened in 2024, when Saturday Night Live first hosted Kamala Harris and then Donald Trump.

The FCC argues that today’s talk shows are too partisan to qualify as news, and disputes the precedent that most talk shows with interviews count as news. “This is not the case,” the Commission wrote.

In a statement, Anna Gomez, the only Democrat serving on the FCC, called the new guidance an “escalation in this FCC’s ongoing campaign to censor and control speech.” She continued, “Broadcasters should not feel pressured to water down, sanitize, or avoid critical coverage out of fear of regulatory retaliation. Broadcast stations have a constitutional right to carry newsworthy content, even when that content is critical of those in power.”

Some observers, including from right-leaning publications, have warned that such a change to the equal time rules could make conservative radio hosts vulnerable, since their content is rarely in compliance with the FCC’s new equal time guidance. Questions remain about whether and how the FCC will apply this standard across different formats.