Will the Equal Time Rule be enforced equally?

Two things struck me about an interview Stephen Colbert conducted with Texas Senate candidate James Talarico, which aired on YouTube because, Colbert says, CBS refused to let him interview Talarico on “The Late Show.” CBS says it gave him “guidance.”

Either way, I was struck by how far CBS has fallen from the days when its news anchor Walter Cronkite was considered the most trusted man in America. It’s appalling that the network would squander such a legacy by cowering in fear that President Trump’s FCC Chair Brendan Carr might investigate the network as he has done in the wake of Talarico’s appearance on ABC’s “The View.”

Second, I was struck, as I have been by other interviews and stories about Talarico, that he is helping to lead mainline Christians out of a bewildered silence, as they have watched Christian nationalists define what Christianity is. That is, of course, the reason Trump’s devotees don’t want people to hear what Talarico has to say. That, and their fear that Talarico, a Democrat, may flip a Texas Senate seat now held by a Republican.

Talarico isn’t the first or only Christian appalled by the Trump administration. Some Western North Carolinians are among those taking a stand against the administration’s inhumane and often brutal immigration enforcement tactics. One thousand individual United Methodists from across the region recently signed a public statement expressing their horror at the Trump Administration’s immigration enforcement actions and their solidarity with the people harmed by them. But Talarico is one of the most articulate at defining Christian values in opposition to Christian nationalism and he’s acquired a larger audience than most. Here are a couple of quotes from him from an interview conducted by Ezra Klein of the New York Times (Read or listen to the full interview here.)

…The separation of church and state — I was taught that constitutional boundary was sacred, not for the benefit of the state, although there are benefits to our democracy, but for the benefit of the church. Because when religion gets too cozy with power, we lose our prophetic voice, our ability to see beyond the current systems, the current era.

…Concern for the poor, concern for the oppressed, is everywhere (in Scripture). Economic justice is mentioned 3,000 times in our Scriptures, both the New Testament and the Hebrew Scriptures. This is such a core part of our tradition, and it’s nowhere to be seen in Christian nationalism or on the religious right.

As for CBS’s unwillingness to air Colbert’s interview with Talarico on “The Late Show,” it boggles the mind.  In a clear case of self-censorship, the network reacted to new guidance from the Trump administration interpreting the Equal Time Rule as requiring equal air time for political candidates on talk shows. The Equal Time Rule was enacted in the 1920s by the Federal Radio Commission (later the Federal Communications Commission) in an era when few radio and television networks were broadcasting.

Networks were licensed by the government, as they are now, to broadcast on the limited number of available frequencies.  The Equal Time Rule grew out of concern that in a democracy, citizens need access to varying viewpoints to make informed decisions about public affairs, such as elections, in order to govern themselves.

The Equal Time Rule became part of the Communications Act of 1934, with the intention of ensuring fairness in federal political campaign advertising. Stations must be willing to sell an equal amount of advertising to each and every candidate. This law still applies. However, exemptions were made for unpaid political candidate appearances on news and talk shows.

The talk-show exemption seemed to be codified when, in October 2006, California GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, running for reelection, appeared on NBC’s “The Tonight Show,” with Jay Leno. His Democratic opponent protested to the FCC and demanded equal air time. The FCC, then under President George W. Bush, ruled that late-night talk show interviews are subject to the same exemption as news programs.

The Fairness Doctrine, introduced in 1949, had a similar objective as the Equal Time Rule. It required broadcast licensees to present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that was honest, equitable and balanced. In 1985, the Reagan Administration’s FCC eliminated the Fairness Doctrine. Congress then tried to codify it into law, but Reagan vetoed the bill.

It can be argued that in a technological era with multiple news platforms and sources of news and information, there is no longer a need for a Fairness Doctrine. Be that as it may, equitably enforcing a Fairness Doctrine or the Equal Time Rule, as the Trump Administration interprets it, in the present media environment seems a challenging undertaking for Carr’s FCC. For starters, what exactly defines the difference between a talk show and a news program?

Does Carr’s FCC plan to “investigate” to ensure Democratic candidates get equal access every time a Republican candidate appears on a Fox Network talk show during the 2026 election cycle? Or on a right-wing radio talk show? How will the FCC resolve complaints from candidates of both parties who want equal time?

If enforced fairly, Carr’s new interpretation of the Equal Time Rule will give Talarico and other Democratic candidates access to audiences they might not otherwise have reached in a media environment where many Americans live in information silos. Or, if networks self-censor, as CBS did, he may have denied candidates of both parties’ platforms on which to make their cases.

Speaking of the present media environment, if Carr’s objective was to reduce Talarico’s exposure, he failed miserably. The YouTube version of the Colbert interview has been viewed more than 8.6 million times and counting. The Nielsen ratings showed “The Late Show” with an average audience of about 2.6 million viewers in January.

Joy Franklin is a journalist and writer who served as editorial page editor of the Asheville Citizen-Times for 10 years. Prior to that she served as executive editor of the Times-News in Hendersonville.