Trump has long been on the war path against talk shows because A) he can’t take a joke, B) he can’t handle the truth, and C) he’s bigly hurt that the smart, talented, cool kids don’t like him. He’s flat out said that mocking him is “probably illegal.” The only thing that bruises more easily than Trump’s hands is his ego. So the thin-skinned little dictator has tasked his FCC chair Brendan Carr with doing his worst to get all the TV meanies off the air. Carr was a central instigator in Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension last September, and he seemed to be quieter after Kimmel came through that ordeal victorious.
But I guess Carr’s New Year’s resolution was to get back on track with dismantling free speech, because he issued a letter last month that’s reverberating across talk shows. Historically, talk shows have been exempt from the equal time rule for political candidates, but in his letter, Carr stipulates that nope, that’s not gonna fly anymore, because reasons. And it looks like Carr settled on Texas Rep. James Talarico — who’s running for the Democratic Senate nomination — as a test subject, because interviews with Talarico on two shows from two separate networks have been put on notice recently. We talked earlier this week about Stephen Colbert not being allowed to broadcast his Talarico interview (he uploaded it to YouTube instead), and now Carr himself has confirmed that there’s “an enforcement action” pending for Talarico’s appearance on The View earlier this month.
“The FCC has an enforcement action underway on that,” Carr said when asked if the agency had opened a probe into the daytime series over potential violations of the “equal time” rule, because of an interview with politician James Talarico. “And we’re taking a look at it.”
Talarico, a Democratic candidate running to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate, appeared on the show earlier this month.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who will face Talarico in the Democratic primary, has also been a guest.
The View declined to comment; however, a network source pointed out that the talk show, which premiered in 1997, routinely hosts political leaders and candidates from across the political spectrum to discuss current events, including politics, and their differing viewpoints. The format is consistent with how the show has operated for years and what audiences expect and tune in for, the source said.
Late-night host Stephen Colbert also mentioned Talarico on Tuesday when he criticized The Late Show’s network, CBS, for allegedly prohibiting him from airing the interview in order to avoid triggering the equal time rule.
Network lawyers, he said, “told me unilaterally that I had to abide by the equal time rules, something I’ve never been asked to do for an interview in the 21 years of this job. That decision, I want to be clear, is their right, just like I have the right to talk about their decision on air.”
Colbert explained that talk shows have traditionally been exempt from the rule.
“We looked, and we can’t find one example of this rule being enforced for any talk show interview, not only for my entire late-night career, but for anyone’s late-night career going back to the 1960s,” Colbert told his audience. “But on Jan. 21, we heard from FCC chairman Brendan Carr [who] issued a letter saying he was thinking about getting rid of that talk show exception. He’d not gotten rid of it yet, but CBS generously did it for him.”
…CBS said in a statement to PEOPLE that Colbert “was not prohibited by CBS” from airing the conversation with Talarico, but was “provided legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the FCC equal-time rule for two other candidates, including Rep. Jasmine Crockett.”
Colbert also noted on his show Tuesday that he’s had Crockett on twice.
[From Entertainment Weekly via Yahoo]
Subtlety is anathema to this administration, and their glaring tells in these latest machinations have been twofold. For one, the fact that it’s James Talarico interviews repeatedly getting dinged by the FCC. The second tell is the way they keep intentionally bringing up Rep. Jasmine Crockett (she’s running against Talarico in the Democratic primary) as an example of talk shows not giving equal time. They’re deliberately pitting the Democratic candidates against each other, which is a distraction from their real objective of giving Republicans more screen time. I hope that this means Republicans by and large are terrified about the midterms, but I despair that there’s no criminal low this administration won’t stoop to come November to negate the will of the electorate.
So the white male Democrat scares them? But not the awesome, take no prisoners, Representative Jasmine Crockett (also Democrat).
Jasmine does scare them, that’s why they’re stirring up controversy for James. They’d rather he win than her.
Jasmine was on Colbert TWICE. So this idea that he’s playing favorites is not borne out of facts.
Talarico scares them way more than Crockett. Like Crockett, he’s an excellent speaker and a very competent public servant. He’s also a Presbyterian seminarian who speaks out against Christian nationalism, and supports the separation of church and state. MAGA is terrified of a candidate who is not only “acceptably” white and male, but also a progressive Christian who could give white evangelicals a permission structure to vote for a Democrat.
Jasmine Crockett has been relentless in her condemnation of DT and he & his administration is absolutely more fearful of her than an unproven local representative.
I’m aware of his resume and up until I found out he was taking money from Miriam Adelson for his campaign I had hopes for him. But knowing that he’s taking money from a fervent trump supporter I don’t have faith in him. But this for our fellow citizens from Texas to decide.
I’m not talking in terms of who deserves to win the election. I like Jasmine Crockett. If I lived in Texas, I would vote for her.
I’m assessing who is strategically more threatening to MAGA in Texas. Rep. Crockett may very well bring in a lot of independents, as well as people who typically don’t vote. But white evangelicals are not going to flip for her.
There were no complaints from Brendan Carr and the FCC when Crockett was on the Late Show last spring. But they freaked out when Talarico appeared on the Late Show and the View.
I’m going to say this in layers.
A) no the media, such as these talk shows, are NOT giving equal airtime to Jasmine because….institutionalized racism and the press penchant for caring more about pretty white men in politics vs. women and especially Black women.
B) FCC has already stated their reach can only go so far. They dgaf about that noise (probably also, see point A).
C) Colbert has every right not to have someone on his show if he doesn’t want to but his public statement was pure hogwash malarkey and it’s actually not giving what he thinks it gives and demonstrates how comfortable again, see point A.
I’m exhausted with the way Black women are constantly mistreated, especially by the Dem party when they have found their white savior. And I am exhausted with the swarth of white liberals who consistently and constantly move against Jasmine. I am tired of seeing Dems/liberals on the wider national scale dump on Jasmine and support Talarico while ignoring the voices and opinions of Texans entrenched in state politics.
This all tells me that they are really worried about Texas going purple and the possible loss of the Senate to Democrats
Exactly. Are they going after programs on Fox News that interview Republican politicians without giving equal time to Democratic candidates? Nope. Are they going after “Christian” conservative radio that hosts Republican candidates, but never air interviews with Democrats?
We need a powerhouse lawyer to start filing these types of counter-lawsuits. The ACLU is overcome with the work of just stanching the flow of all the laws and EO gutting civil rights.
The constant chipping away of having media transparency, journalistic integrity, real unbiased investigative journalism, not allowing media to be monopolized by giant corporations, etc. We have so much work to do, so many years of political bad intent that needs to be righted. Stand up. Fight back!