FCC chair Brendan Carr says media were ‘lied to’ over Stephen Colbert controversy
www.theguardian.com
Carr says the Federal Communications Commission has also opened an enforcement action into ABC’s the View

Carr says the Federal Communications Commission has also opened an enforcement action into ABC’s the View

The chair of the US’s top media regulator claimed on Wednesday that journalists had been tricked into covering claims by the late-night host Stephen Colbert that he had been blocked by his network from interviewing a Texas Senate candidate.

Brendan Carr, the avowedly pro-Trump chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), made his comments after Colbert accused the Trump administration and CBS of censorship.

CBS has countered Colbert’s claims in a statement, saying it had not blocked him from interviewing James Talarico, a Texas Democrat, but had merely provided legal guidance that such an interview might trigger equal time regulations that would require him to also platform Talarico’s campaign rivals.

  • MedicsOfAnarchy@lemmy.world
    20·
    10 hours ago

    But Carr told reporters that the FCC was simply enforcing the rules on the books. “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,” he said.

    This is interesting - the rules are for “equal time” but not “Equal time to answer the same interview questions”, which would be fun although we’ve seen how some folk can’t answer questions (cough Pam Bondi cough).

    I wonder if the same rules should apply for advertising, since those are going out over networks? If a Grand Old Pedophile gets a 1-minute ad, should the network give a 1-minute space to an opponent?

    Edit: Yeah, the rule says they gotta offer time “at the same rate”. That seems fair, I guess.

    • Blade9732@lemmy.world
      11·
      7 hours ago

      This whole thing is a mis statement of the rule. The only violation Colbert would face, is if the other candidates request the air time, and they denied them. This whole thing is completely blown out of proportion, due to the fact that the election in question, is the democratic primary, not a general election. The two other candidates are Democrats also. I also believe that the FCC couldn’t actually enforce the rule on a primary election anyway, as it is not covered by normal election rules. A party is under no obligation to even hold a primary election, they can nominate any candidate with any rules they see fit.