By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Jan 29 (Reuters) – A Democratic member of the Federal Communications Commission said on Thursday the Trump administration is threatening major broadcast networks by issuing new guidance on equal time rules for late-night and daytime talk show interviews with political candidates.
The Republican-led FCC said last week that daytime and late-night TV talk shows are not considered “bona fide” news programs that are exempt from equal time rules that require them to give airtime to views of opposing candidates.
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, a Democrat, said at a press conference the announcement last week was an improper threat aimed at news reporting and urged networks not to “be cowed into stopping your independent reporting of what is happening to this country.”
TRUMP CRITICIZES NEWS COVERAGE
President Donald Trump has repeatedly pushed FCC Chair Brendan Carr to take action against U.S. broadcasters. Trump has criticized news coverage and said he will have a role in whether a proposed merger between Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery should proceed.
Until now, talk shows have qualified for the equal opportunities exemption as genuine news interviews, ever since the FCC’s Media Bureau granted an exemption to the interview portion of Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show” in 2006. Networks have relied on the ruling as a precedent for recent interviews with political candidates.
Carr said networks were improperly relying on that ruling.
“If you are Fake News, you’re not going to qualify,” Carr said at a separate press conference, noting one factor is whether there were partisan motivations in airing interviews.
The FCC said last week networks or specific shows could petition for a commission ruling that they qualify for an exemption. Carr said the FCC has not yet received any petitions.
The rules do not apply to what are called bona fide news programs and are typically in effect 90 days before a political candidate’s nomination via convention or caucus.
The major broadcast networks – NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox – have not commented.
Trump has repeatedly criticized the networks and, in December, singled out an ABC News correspondent for asking Saudi Arabia’s crown prince about the 2018 killing of a Washington Post columnist. He suggested the FCC should move to revoke the broadcast licenses of stations airing Disney-owned ABC programming.
(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington, Editing by Franklin Paul, Rod Nickel)
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