FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has said that a 2006 ruling from the commission exempting “bona fide news interviews” in network late-night shows doesn’t give a blanket pass for partisan conversations, and is reminding TV networks of that fact in a recent letter.
In a letter to TV networks, the Commission noted that in 2006, an exemption o the Equal Time provisions was granted for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, stating that an interview between Leno and then Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) was a “bona fide news interview,” and shouldn’t be enforced as an equal time mandate.
That exemption was granted, but the FCC is reminding networks that it wasn’t a blanket exemption for any political purpose.
“Concerns have been raised that the industry has taken the Media Bureau’s 2006 staff-level decision to mean that the interview portion of all arguably similar entertainment programs — whether late night or daytime — are exempted from the section 315 equal opportunities requirement under a bona fide news exemption,” the letter reads. “This is not the case … these decisions are fact specific and the exemptions are limited to the program that was the subject of the request.
“Importantly, the FCC has not been presented with any evidence that the interview portion of any late night or daytime television talk show program on air presently would qualify for the bona fide news exemption.”
In a post on social media, Brendan Carr argued that networks have operated under the guise of news interviews in these situations, but that the FCC would be enforcing equal time rules going forward.
“For years, legacy TV networks assumed that their late night & daytime talk shows qualify as ‘bona fide news’ programs — even when motivated by purely partisan political purposes,” Carr wrote. “Today, the FCC reminded them of their obligation to provide all candidates with equal opportunities.”
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