Broadcast network talk shows can’t shirk their responsibility to provide equal opportunities to political candidates by claiming they’re acting as “news” shows, the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Media Bureau warned Wednesday.
Citing Section 315 of the Communications Act, the Bureau’s Public Notice reminds broadcasters that, if they provide airtime to one candidate, they are required by law to provide equal and comparable access to airtime to all opposing legally-qualified candidates:
“Adherence to these requirements are (sic) central to a broadcast licensee’s obligation to operate in the public interest.”
Exemptions to this requirement are granted if the candidate’s appearance serves a genuine (“bona fide”) news purpose, specifically:
- A bona fide newscast,
- A bona fide news interview,
- A bona fide news documentary (if the appearance of the candidate is incidental to the presentation of the subjects covered by the news documentary), or
- On-the-spot coverage of bona fide news events (including, but not limited to, incidental political conventions and activities).
Supposed entertainment programs, such as both late night and daytime talk shows, may or may not qualify for the “bona fide news” exemption, depending on the specifics of each political candidate’s interview. The notice recalls two contradictory rulings by the FCC’s Media Bureau over the years, both regarding “The Tonight Show.”
However, since the 2006 ruling that a candidate interview on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” did qualify as “bona fide news,” broadcast networks have assumed that all candidate interviews on similar entertainment programs are exempt.
Not so, the FCC notes warns:
“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 the air presently would qualify for the bona fide news exemption.
“Moreover, a program that is motivated by partisan purposes, for example, would not be entitled to an exemption under longstanding FCC precedent.”
"The FCC is doing its job. Broadcasters use public airwaves for free, and in return they are required to follow the law,” Media Research Center (MRC) President David Bozell said, commenting on the FCC notice:
“Equal time and fair treatment are not optional. They are the price broadcasters agreed to pay for what is effectively a massive taxpayer subsidy."
“Left to their own ‘news judgment,’ the broadcast networks would naturally tilt toward putting on Democrat politicians, and that air time sounds promotional, like Scott Pelley buttering up Joe Biden on ‘60 Minutes,’” MRC’s Tim Graham, executive director of NewsBusters, added.
“The FCC is talking about equal time for candidates, and not forcing the networks to grant equal respect, because they tend to celebrate Democrats and attempt to ruin Republicans,” Graham explained, noting that broadcasters’ liberal-leaning bias is extensively documented by NewsBusters studies, such as:
- “2025: The View Chatted Politics with 128 Lib Guests, 2 Conservatives*”
- “Late Night Comedy Shows Go Six Months With 99% Liberal Guests, Again”
- “STUDY: Late Night Comedy Shows Begin 2025 With 99% Of Guests Being Left-Wing”
Under the Act, the FCC has sole discretion to determine the scope of each exemption and is tasked with the responsibility to address “Congressional concerns that broadcast stations would apply the exemption too broadly in service of a political agenda,” thereby frustrating the Act’s intent.
Programs do not qualify for the exemption if they are “designed for the specific advantage of a candidate,” the FCC notice explains:
“The federal equal opportunities regulations operate to prevent broadcast television stations, which have been given access to a valuable public resource (namely, spectrum), from unfairly putting their thumbs on the scale for one political candidate or set of candidates over another.”
A program does not have a blanket exemption for all subsequent shows and candidate interviews, simply because it was once granted a news exemption for a single, particular show it aired, the FCC warns.
Each FCC decision is distinct, fact-specific and “based on the show that was the subject of the [exemption] request as it existed at the time of the request,” the notice explains.
In order to ensure compliance, broadcasters should keep a log of their political interviews and file requests for exemptions, the notice says.
