Pirate's Cove

I disagree with this, but, it is delicious in it’s irony

FCC says TV talk shows must offer equal time to political candidates

The Federal Communications Commission warned TV broadcasters Wednesday that daytime talk shows and late-night programs must give equal time to opposing political candidates.

The move addressed a genre of TV that President Trump has long argued is politically biased, leading to calls from the president to revoke broadcasters’ FCC licenses.

The announcement hinges on a decades-old federal law requiring any FCC-licensed broadcaster that lets a political candidate appear on its airwaves to also offer “equal opportunities” to all other candidates running for the same office. The law exempts “bona fide newscasts” and news interviews from the equal time rule.

In 2006, the FCC said the news exemption applied to an interview on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” meaning the late-night comedy show could feature then-California gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger on-air without also inviting his Democratic opponent.

But in a four-page notice on Wednesday, the FCC said it is “not the case” that all late-night and daytime entertainment shows are exempt. The regulator said it decides whether the exemption applies on a case-by-case basis, and it “has not been presented with any evidence” that interviews on those shows qualify for the news exemption.

The Fairness Doctrine itself was an FCC policy requiring broadcasters to present contrasting viewpoints on controversial issues of public importance, meaning they had to supply both sides of an issue. The rule was repealed in 1987 as it violated the 1st Amendment. Democrats seriously wanted to reinstate it during the late Clinton years, Bush 43 years, and Obama years, as a way to destroy Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and other Conservatives on the radio. Moonbats wanted to force them to give equal time to Democrats as a way of getting their narrative out, especially on radio, because Democrats tended not to do well. Remember the Air America failure? Of course, Fox actually had way more Democrats on shows than any other network did. Remember when it was Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes?

It’s also part of the “public values test”, in which a license would be determined if the station was serving the “public interest.” Dems ran this up the flagpole during the Obama years, again, as a way to get rid of Conservative stations, TV and radio.

Democratic FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez sharply criticized the FCC’s announcement, calling it “an escalation in this FCC’s ongoing campaign to censor and control speech.” She also argued the notice was “misleading” since the FCC hasn’t formally changed any of its rules, a process that typically involves a public comment period and a vote by the commissioners.

“Broadcasters should not feel pressured to water down, sanitize, or avoid critical coverage out of fear of regulatory retaliation,” Gomez said in a statement. “Broadcast stations have a constitutional right to carry newsworthy content, even when that content is critical of those in power. That does not change today, it will not change tomorrow, and it will not change simply because of this Administration’s desire to silence its critics.”

In other words, Democrats should feel free to complete an utter partisans for the Democratic Party, spewing their moonbattery, being 98% one sided.

Those comments drew bipartisan criticism, with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas arguing Carr overstepped and could set a bad precedent the next time there’s a Democratic president.

“I gotta say, that’s right out of ‘Goodfellas.’ That’s right out of a mafioso coming into a bar, going, ‘nice bar you have here, it’d be a shame if something happened to it,'” Cruz said of Carr’s remarks on Kimmel, mimicking a mob boss’s accent.

I did not like this when Democrats pushed it and I’d be against it now. But, the precedent has been set, and it would be fun if Republicans would push this simply to troll Democrats. Even if Republicans said they were trolling the Democrats would still moonbat-out. Let’s not forget a big part of the Obama-era Net Neutrality was an attempt to control what is on the Internet to limit Conservative reach. If late night “talk” shows want to be all Dem, let them. If the networks want to lose tens of millions a year, that’s on them.