Brendan Carr has said the equal-time rule is “about stopping legacy media from picking winners and losers in elections.“
Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr warned he would"enforce the law" amid Stephen Colbert's dispute with his bosses at CBS over what he can air on his late-night talk show.was"about stopping legacy media from picking winners and losers in elections.
It’s so that the American people can decide." He added:"Perhaps Colbert and other establishment Democrats want to put the thumb on the scale in this Democrat primary for one candidate over the other, I don't know, you'll have to ask them, but we're going to enforce the law and hold broadcasters accountable."The"equal time" rule requires broadcasters and radio stations that operate on public airwaves to provide comparable airtime opportunities to opposing political candidates. However, the rule has not traditionally been applied to talk shows. The dispute comes after a series of actions have been taken against the media by President Donald Trump's administration, includingColbert said during his show on Monday that CBS attorneys told him"in no uncertain terms" not to air the interview with Talarico amid fear of retaliation by the FCC. He also accused Carr of wanting to censor critics of Trump."Let's just call this what it is: Donald Trump's administration wants to silence anyone who says anything bad about Trump on TV because all Trump does is watch TV," Colbert said. CBS denied it prohibited Colbert from airing the interview, and said it"presented options for how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled." Carr, a Trump appointee, said on Fox News that the dispute was a case of"Democrat-on-Democrat violence." He said CBS was"very clear" that Colbert could air the interview."They just said, you may have to comply with equal time… But instead of doing that, they claimed that they were victims," Carr said.on Tuesday, Colbert said that Carr had not yet removed an exemption to the"equal time" rule for talk shows, but added that"CBS generously did it for him." "We looked and we can't find one example of this rule being enforced for any talk show interview, not only for my entire late-night career, but for anyone's late-night career going back to the 1960s," he said. Colbert added that he was"so surprised that this giant global corporation would not stand up to these bullies." CBS is owned by Paramount Global."Congress passed the equal time provision for a very specific reason. They didn't want the media elites in Hollywood and New York to put their thumb on the scale and pick the winners and losers in primaries in general elections. That's the whole point." He added:"If you have a legally qualified candidate on, you have to give comparable air time to all other legally qualified candidates, and we’re going to apply that law.""On January 21st, we heard from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr… he issued a letter saying he was thinking about getting rid of that talk show exception. He had not gotten rid of it yet, but CBS generously did it for him and told me unilaterally that I had to abide by the equal time rules, something I have never been asked to do for an interview in the 21 years of this job."was not prohibited by CBS from broadcasting the interview with Rep James Talarico. The show was provided legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the FCC equal-time rule for two other candidates... and presented options for how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled. The Late Show decided to present the interview through its YouTube channel with on-air promotion on the broadcast rather than potentially providing the equal-time options."View Editorial & AI Guidelines
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