Kimmel’s Backers, Casting Equal Time Rule as Sinister, Come Around to the Right’s Dim View of the FCC

The titular host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” is blaming President Trump for having to move an interview with the Democratic candidate for Senate in Texas, James Talarico, to YouTube. But the Federal Communication Commission’s rules are a long-standing irritant to conservatives, too, highlighting the universal problem of government efforts to referee speech.“His FCC,” Mr. Kimmel said on Thursday, implying that Mr. Trump directs the agency, “threatened me, threatened our show, threatened our network — ABC — our affiliates, our local stations, based on simple, traditional editorial decisions: Guest bookings it would seem they don’t like.”The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, Governor Gavin Newsom, Democrat of California, posted Thursday on X, “must be so proud.” But the Radio Act imposed the Equal Time Rule in 1927. For a century, it has required that any station with a government-granted license that hosts one candidate “shall afford equal opportunities to all other such candidates.”The rule applies 30 days before primaries and 60 days before general elections. In November 2024, NBC gave Mr. Trump 90 seconds to match Vice President Harris’s appearance on “Saturday Night Live.” ABC could have fulfilled its obligation by offering time to Mr. Talarico’s GOP opponent, Attorney General Warren “Ken” Paxton. As the 2024 GOP candidate for Senate in New Jersey, Curtis Bashaw, told The New York Sun, he watched “the powers that be … weaponize the FCC … crushing small stations” in the 1950s. His grandfather, the Reverend Charles “Curtis” McIntire, was syndicated on 600 affiliates. Some aired “the perennial Communist Party presidential candidate,” Gus Hall, without incident.Yet “liberal groups,” Mr. Bashaw said, used the FCC to push McIntire off the air. In response, he “rented a retired Navy minesweeper” and broadcast “Radio Free America” from “international waters” off Cape May, New Jersey. Mr. Bashaw’s grandfather told him that “if a person won’t use their freedom to defend their freedom, they’ll lose their freedom.”Today, non-broadcast outlets operate in the equivalent of international waters, and shows the FCC judges “bona fide news” are exempt from equal time. In May, I wrote for the Sun in defense of ABC’s efforts to preserve that classification for “The View,” lest — as the Texas Republican, Senator Rafael “Ted” Cruz warned — it set a precedent for censoring conservatives.The FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, answered complaints Saturday night on X that Mr. Cruz was allowed to appear on ESPN’s “College GameDay.” The chairman pointed out that the show is on cable, adding that the Equal Time Rule “does not prohibit interviews.” Mr. Cruz is also not a candidate in November.Mr. Carr said that Congress sought “to ensure that voters” decide elections; “not media gatekeepers” who play favorites. He noted that the FCC gives stations “licenses worth many billions of dollars to use as a public resource … in the public interest.” This “sets them apart from newspapers and cable shows and podcasts,” which are free to all.Other broadcasters — like this columnist’s former employer, Rush Limbaugh — challenged the FCC often. On “Rush Limbaugh the Television Show” in 1996, a fellow producer proposed showing the GOP presidential nominee, Senator Robert Dole, in a parody commercial. The FCC under Dole’s opponent, President Clinton, would have demanded equal time.”The Late Late Show” met the same roadblock. “A group of CBS lawyers,” the host, Craig Kilborn, wrote in a 2003 New York Times op-ed, “demanded” he cancel “a satire” featuring California’s Democratic incumbent, Joseph “Gray” Davis. One of his GOP opponents, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was also shown. So was a “porn actress,” Mary Carey.When told that “The Late Late Show” couldn’t display even a picture of Mr. Schwarzenegger “unless we are prepared to show pictures of all 135 candidates” in that recall election, Mr. Kilborn joked that it would be unfeasible. “The audience,” he said, “tends to tune out after the 81st one.”The FCC’s rules can feel arbitrary, eroding public trust, and politicization is always a danger. Yet more outlets than ever provide alternatives. Mr. Talarico’s YouTube interview — boosted by the allegations of censorship — has racked up over 7 million views.

Kimmel’s Backers, Casting Equal Time Rule as Sinister, Come Around to the Right’s Dim View of the FCC

Kimmel’s Backers, Casting Equal Time Rule as Sinister, Come Around to the Right’s Dim View of the FCC

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