Is the FCC 'equal time' rule leading to media censorship — and self-censorship?
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What is the FCC's 'equal time' rule and why is it controversial?
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Hey there. It's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Myles Parks. I cover voting. And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent. And NPR's media correspondent is here with us, David Folkenflik. Hi, David. Hey, guys. And today on the show, we're going to talk about the FCC, Stephen Colbert, and what an argument about equal time rules for candidates says about the Trump administration's pretty aggressive stance towards the media. So, David, let's just start with last week. This is something that a lot of listeners may have seen on their phones or on their computers. But Stephen Colbert comes on his late night TV show and says this about Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talrico.
He was supposed to be here, but we were told in no uncertain terms by our network's lawyers who called us directly that we could not have him on the broadcast.
The actual interview aired on The Late Show's YouTube channel. David, can you explain exactly what happened?
Sure. And we have some competing versions of exactly what happened. But as we heard that excerpt, Colbert came out to his audience and said, we can't present to you this interview. We were told by lawyers that it's not possible and that if we did, we'd have to offer his two leading competitors in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate seat from Texas this year equal time on the show. And that said, CBS came out the next day and said, no, no, we just gave him advice and said this is what his show would have to do in that context if they were to do that. We tried to advise him. And Colbert that very night came forward once more and said, absolute baloney. That's not what this network said. The that I couldn't do this, even though I don't really want to get in a spat with my own network on this.
And so it all was this argument over who was enforcing an adherence to a particular interpretation of the equal time rule.
Let's rewind here. What is the equal time rule exactly? And why is it the first time we're really hearing about it if it relates to talk shows?
Well, it's not exactly the first time, but the equal time rule is this. Now, there is. exception to this for news divisions or news reports. And there have been exemptions given to late night talk shows and chat shows. They're seen basically as news adjacent. And that is if something is newsworthy, federal government gets a little more nervous about interfering and saying, well, you can't interview the this person or can't interview that. But this is the idea behind it.
Well, look, this is part of the Trump administration's push to try to rein in what they see as information that's too liberal on TV.
How did Stephen Colbert's interview with James Talrico spark media scrutiny?
This is obviously something that President Trump pays very close attention to. He loves TV. He And it really rankles him and rankles a lot of conservatives that they feel like there are way too many of these networks that are pushing a liberal agenda in their view. And we've seen in past administrations, in Democratic administrations, where conservatives have complained that they feel like they are under assault. That's their view. They see the country as moving in too much of a liberal direction. And they've tried to really reverse that aircraft carrier. And Brendan Carr, who's the chairman of the FCC, was elevated to that position by President Trump. He has kind of been Trump's bulldog on this, going after media organizations in ways we really haven't seen before.
Well, so explain that, because in January, Carr, all of this is tied up in Carr announcing some changes related to the equal time rule. Is that right, David? Yeah.
Yes and no. Carr said in January that he was thinking about making changes to that exemption for the late night talk shows. And if we recall, last fall, he essentially, you know, did an impression of a mafioso, as Senator Ted Cruz put it, by saying we can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the FCC's 'equal time' rule and why is it controversial?
0:00–3:04
2
How did Stephen Colbert's interview with James Talrico spark media scrutiny?
3:04–11:35
3
What exceptions exist within the equal time rule for news and talk shows?
11:35–17:25
4
How is the Trump administration influencing media regulations?
17:25–18:09