Democrat Cory Booker’s ‘View’ Segment Is Show’s First Political Guest in 40 Days After FCC Warned Against Booking Only Liberals

Amid warnings from the Federal Communications Commission against broadcast networks airing one-sided, partisan programming, ABC News’ anti-Trump daytime talk show, “The View,” quietly stopped interviewing politicians for more than a month.Indeed, the appearance of far-left Democratic Senator Cory Booker on Monday’s installment of “The View” – likely a long pre-scheduled segment to promote a book – was the first political guest on “The View” in 41 days (and 30 shows). During his appearance, Mr. Booker denounced President Trump for his handling of the war with Iran, calling him an “out of control president” who “set off chaos in the entire world.” There was no conservative voice on the program to rebut or challenge Mr. Booker. The guest co–host in the lone “conservative” slot, “Never Trump” Republican Abby Huntsman, did not engage with Mr. Booker on his criticisms of the president. In January, the FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, issued a notice that he is considering enforcing the equal time rule, which says that broadcast networks (such as ABC, CBS, and NBC) that interview a politician must provide equal time to that candidate’s legally filed opponents. For decades, the FCC has declined to take action against late-night shows or daytime talk shows for alleged violations of the rule. In light of their unofficial exemption, those programs have typically interviewed almost exclusively Democratic candidates and left-wing activists, and their hosts often attack Mr. Trump and the MAGA movement. The few Republicans who have been interviewed tend to deeply oppose Mr. Trump.For political segments like Mr. Booker’s, ‘The View’ puts up a ‘political’ bug. ABCEven though “The View” has been overseen by ABC News for the last several years, it is considered a daytime entertainment program – despite its increasingly political bent and reputation as a regular stopping point for Democratic politicians. In February, the FCC launched an investigation into “The View” after the show hosted James Talarico, who at the time was running for the Democratic Senate nomination in Texas. The show then interviewed Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on February 10, in what was likely a long-ago-scheduled promotional segment for her memoir, “Lovely One.” But after that interview, no political guests appeared on the program until Mr. Booker showed up on March 23. Mr. Booker was likely also a pre-scheduled guest (a booking made prior to Mr. Carr’s investigation) since he is also promoting a book. These promotional segments for books authored by celebrities (including celebrity liberals) are usually arranged many months in advance.Mr. Booker’s appearance appears to fit within a kind of loophole of the equal time rule, as the appearance occurred before the deadline for candidates to file to run for office in New Jersey — meaning that while he has signaled he is running for re-election, he was not a legally filed candidate at the time of the interview, and therefore the equal time rule likely does not apply to his appearance.James Talarico appears on ‘The View.’ ABCLawyers at CBS appear to have adopted that view of the rule. The anti-Trump host of “The Late Show,” Stephen Colbert, interviewed several Democratic candidates on his program — apparently without any warnings from the network’s lawyers — since the start of the year. Of the candidates who appeared on the program after Mr. Carr’s statement that he may change the equal time rule, none were active candidates, until Mr. Colbert interviewed Mr. Talarico, who was actively running in a primary that was, at the time, just weeks away. The Talarico interview led to turmoil at CBS as Mr. Colbert falsely claimed that the network had prevented him from airing the interview, or even talking about it, and told him he could only share it on YouTube. CBS later said it told Mr. Colbert that if he wanted the interview to air on TV, he should provide equal time to Mr. Talarico’s primary opponent, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, to avoid triggering enforcement action by the FCC regarding the equal time rule. Mr. Talarico was able to convert the left-wing rage at CBS allegedly censoring his interview on behalf of the FCC into a fundraising bonanza before the primary, which he won, to the surprise of the Democratic establishment. Republican Senator Ted Cruz has been having a field day publicizing Mr. Talarico’s extreme views on gender, which may be out of sync with mainstream Texas. Two days after the Talarico flare-up, Mr. Colbert interviewed Senator Jon Ossoff, a Democrat running for re-election in Georgia, without issue. At the time of the interview, Mr. Ossoff had not formally filed his paperwork to run for re-election. A person close to “The View” insisted to the Hollywood Reporter that the show had not changed the way it books its guests.

Democrat Cory Booker’s ‘View’ Segment Is Show’s First Political Guest in 40 Days After FCC Warned Against Booking Only Liberals

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