Topline
Late-night hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert on Thursday night responded to the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to enforce its “equal time” mandate—which requires networks to provide equal time to opposing political candidates—on their talk shows, labeling the move as a “crackdown” and a bid to “stifle” the shows.
Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel criticized the FCC’s decision to impose the “equal time” rule on their shows.
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Key Facts
Kimmel had briefly mentioned the FCC’s notice to the networks in his Wednesday monologue, noting that President Donald Trump was continuing his “war on talk shows” and posted on Truth Social about “how his minions at the FCC” are planning to make interviews with politicians difficult.
The ABC late-night host elaborated on this in his Thursday night monologue, as he referred to FCC chair Brendan Carr as “Brendan Cartel” and said the agency was “reinterpreting long-agreed-upon rules to stifle us.”
Kimmel acknowledged this issue is more complicated than his previous dust-up with the FCC chair, before explaining the “equal time” mandate and saying it was established at a time when “radio was the dominant broadcast medium,” and the rules later applied to television.
Kimmel pointed out that late-night shows have operated under an “equal time” exemption granted to news networks since 2006, when then-California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared on “The Tonight Show.”
The ABC host said Carr was “doing everything he can to shut us up the easy way or the hard way,” and removing the news exemption from talk shows was a “sneaky little way of keeping viewpoints that aren’t his off the air.”
Kimmel also questioned the relevance of such a rule at a time when broadcast TV viewership was declining, saying: “Broadcast TV used to account for 100% of viewing…now it’s like 20%.”
Crucial Quote
In the monologue, Kimmel said the likes of Fox News, Newsmax and One America News Network were doing “24/7 Trump programming” and said: “I have no idea what the outcome of this is going to be. We’ll find out. I guess whatever happens, I want to just point it out because it is another example of this administration trying to squash anyone who doesn’t support them by following the rules. And we know how much respect these people have for the rules.”
What Did Stephen Colbert Say About The Fcc Rule?
The Late Show host Stephen Colbert addressed the FCC’s move in one of his later segments on the show on Thursday. “I got to watch what I say about Trump, because Johnny Law is once again coming after your’s truly here,” Colbert told his audience, triggering a chorus of boos. After reading out a New York Times headline which described the move as a “new crackdown on late-night TV,” he joked, “that has enormous implications for me for four more months,” a reference to CBS’s decision not to renew his show for another season. Colbert said his lawyer had warned him not to talk about “these new crackdown rules,” and said this is “clearly an attempt to silence me, Jimmy and Seth.” Colbert then jokingly addressed the FCC directly on camera, saying: “Hey, I’m flattered you think that appearing on my show has the power to affect politics in any way…I’ve been doing this job for 21 years, and let me tell you something, buddy, if our government had turned out the way I had chosen, you would not have the power to make this announcement.”
Further Reading
Late Night, Talk Shows Must Offer Opposing Political Candidates Equal Time, FCC Says (Forbes)