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MY THOUGHTS - Among the many affronts to the Bill of Rights arising from the Trump administration, the effort to use the “equal time” provision of the Federal Communications Commission’s rules is among the most egregious. The effort is a direct assault on the First Amendment’s ban on government “abridging of freedom of the press.”
The premise, championed vigorously by Trump-appointed FCC Chair Brendan Carr, promotes the notion that the government can dictate what must be included in programs. That’s something of a switch. Most threats to a free press center on government efforts to quash publication or airing of media content; this one doesn’t tell media what it can’t offer, it tells them what they must include. Either way, the concept overtly abridges press freedom.
The most recent example of this perverse FCC reading led CBS to kill a Stephen Colbert interview with James Talarico, a Democrat running in a primary for a Texas senate seat. (Colbert promptly posted the interview on YouTube.) CBS banned the interview from airing on their network to avoid an anticipated “equal time” confrontation with Carr and the FCC. In doing so, CBS all but conceded that the FCC has the power to tell a network what it must air; failure to grant “equal time” results in self-censorship to avoid sanctions. That decision – weak if not cowardly – has dangerous implications.
There has long been in place an exemption to the “equal time” rule. Since 2006, talk shows have not been required to book (for example) a GOP congressman every time they interview a Democrat. The assumption is that talk shows are entertainment, not news. While that line is so blurry as to disappear in these times (Donald Trump has turned the White House into the stage for an endless soap opera starring Donald Trump), it nevertheless gave a generation of hosts the freedom to discuss political issues openly, nurturing a robust late night political debate which the administration perceives to be a threat to their power and, thus, subject to Federal control. Such an unconstitutional effort must be met with powerful resistance.
There are viable options. Media networks must embrace their essential role as the source of verified and vetted information and stand up, firmly and fiercely, to the FCC. Thus far, the conglomerates which control television networks have been dangerously dedicated to profit over principle, a posture which presumably makes Brendan Carr ever more aggressive. Media leaders, editors, publishers, CEOs, news managers and millions of shareholders should band together to challenge the FCC every time it even muses about controlling media.
If media giants won’t stand strong (currently, the evidence suggests they won’t) some of their most talented employees can and should. What would happen if Colbert and Stewart and Kimmel and Maher turned the FCC’s equal time gambit into a weapon? Those and a host of others could make every effort to book guests who love MAGA and Trump. Armed with verified facts and wicked sharp senses of humor, it seems more than likely that those of the radical right who guest on The Late Show or the Daily Show would be hard-pressed to withstand the assault (imagine, for example, Mike Johnson or J.D. Vance facing off against Jon Stewart).
An equally effective result seems likely to emerge if talk show producers take the FCC mandate to heart. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of elected Republicans who would prefer stone cold silence to a public defense of ICE or unauthorized military attacks or Pam Bondi. The FCC can’t control a talk show producer who proffers clear evidence that he or she tried, on numerous occasions, to book the “other side” only to be denied or ignored: “We can’t provide equal time because they won’t appear on our show.”
One way or another, the FCC needs to learn that it cannot and must not control content in American media. Anything less puts the very heart of democracy – a truly free press – in severe jeopardy.
(David M. Hamlin’s previous commentaries can be found in the CitywatchLA archive. His latest novel, Murder in Tolland, is available at a variety of digital bookstores.)
