FCC Chairman Brendan Carr threatens broadcasters over Iran war coverage
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has warned broadcasters they could lose their licenses over their coverage of the Iran war, following President Donald Trump’s claims of misleading reporting.
- The FCC chairman announced action against ABC in February consistent with the Equal Time Rule. In a May petition, the network asked the FCC to declare “The View” exempt from such rules.
- The committee is divided over “views,” with Kerr describing the investigation as a procedural matter and chairwoman Anna Gomez characterizing the action as politically motivated.
- The commission is seeking comment on whether the program’s decision-making appears to be “based on newsworthiness or an attempt to oppose or support a particular candidate.”
According to a May 22 public notice, the Federal Communications Commission is accepting public comments on whether ABC’s “The View” should be exempted from requirements to provide equal broadcasting opportunities to political candidates.
This follows a May 7 petition from ABC and its Houston affiliate KTRK-TV asking the FCC to “immediately confirm that ‘The View’ remains eligible for the bona fide news interview exemption.”
The Communications Act of 1934 established equal opportunity rules for both radio and later television. It was amended in 1959 to exempt news programs, news interviews, news documentaries, and on-the-ground coverage of news events from that requirement.
The FCC said in January that there is no blanket exemption for daytime and late-night TV talk shows. The commission previously determined that interview portions of “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” were eligible for the news interview exemption, but argued that in the years since, that unique decision has been interpreted and applied too broadly, according to the notice.
The following month, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced that the commission had taken action against ABC under equal time rules after state Rep. James Talarico (D-Texas) appeared on The View while running in the state’s Democratic Senate primary.
At the FCC’s public meeting in March, Carr described the issue as a procedural matter. He said ABC, which is owned by Disney, had not filed the proper filings declaring political candidates to appear, opening the door for rival candidates to request “equal time and placement.”
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, appointed by President Joe Biden in 2023, rejected Carr’s characterization during the meeting and accused the FCC under President Donald Trump of “using the equal time rule as a means to harass broadcasters with unfavorable content.”
ABC’s May 7 filing said equal opportunity rules in the current context “are in serious tension with the First Amendment” and said the FCC’s “actions threaten to overturn decades of well-established laws and practices and chill critical protected speech, both with respect to ‘The View’ and more broadly.”
In a May 22 post in the X, Kerr wrote that television programming would not be exempt “if the decision is based on a partisan purpose, such as the intent to advance or undermine an individual’s candidacy.”
Gomez also said on May 22 that the FCC is “once again targeting critics of the administration through mob rule.”
“Let’s stop pretending that the FCC hasn’t made up its mind yet,” Gomez wrote in the X post. “All they want is for their pro-censorship partisan allies to nod in agreement. My message to Disney is don’t flinch. Fight.”
The commission is seeking comment on whether “The View” qualifies as a genuine news program, whether the equal time rule “passes relevant constitutional scrutiny as a general matter or as applied here,” and whether the program’s decision-making appears to be “based on newsworthiness or an attempt to oppose or support a particular candidate,” the notice said.
Comments may be submitted through the FCC’s electronic comment filing system. The deadline for submitting comments is June 22nd.
USA TODAY has reached out to ABC for comment.
Breanna Frank is USA TODAY’s First Amendment reporter. please contact her bjfrank@usatoday.com.
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