Carr, Matsui Spar on FCC Finding That TV Talk Shows Aren't Exempt From Equal-Time Rule
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr pushed back Thursday against criticism from House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Doris Matsui, D-Calif., about the Media Bureau's Wednesday guidance that late-night and daytime TV talk shows aren't automatically exempt from the obligation to provide political candidates equal time (see 2601210064). The bureau found that partisan-motivated programming wouldn't qualify for the exemption under long-standing precedent. The equal opportunity rule requires that political candidates be given equal time on non-news broadcast programming.
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Matsui said Wednesday night that Carr “is pulling every dirty trick in the book to weaponize his agency against dissenting voices and attack our First Amendment rights.” He's “trying to mislead the American people and pressure talk shows to go easy on the Trump Administration,” she said. “We must stop it,” in part by passing Democrats’ Broadcast Freedom and Independence Act (HR-1880/S-867). That bill would bar the FCC from revoking licenses or taking other action against broadcasters based on the viewpoints they broadcast (see 2503070013).
Carr countered Thursday on X, saying, “Decades ago, Congress made the decision to prevent covered broadcast tv programs from being used to advance certain partisan political purposes. While some may have been ignoring or misreading the law in recent years, enforcing the statute passed by Congress is not weaponization.”