Jimmy Kimmel Says FCC’s Equal Time Crackdown Is Another Trump Administration Effort “To Squash Anyone Who Doesn’t Support Them”

Key Highlights

• Related Stories News Renée Fleming Cancels Kennedy Center Performance News Judge Rejects Justice Department Effort To Charge Don Lemon After He Covered Minnesota Anti-ICE Protest Inside A Church But the Media Bureau warned this week that broadcasters that talk shows may not be exempt, meaning shows like Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and The View may put their stations on the hook for equal time when they feature politcal candidates as guests.
• Many talk shows had assumed that they were exempt, given a 2006 FCC decision that NBC stations didn’t have to give equal time to a Democratic rival of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger after he appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
• Watch on Deadline Kimmel said that the rules — which apply to broadcasters but not cable, satellite or streaming — were a throwback to the early days of radio and TV.
• Kimmel said, “Equal time was designed to limit how much influence broadcasters have over public opinion.
• But we’re not the only thing on television anymore.