Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr has revealed that an “enforcement action” is being contemplated against ABC’s far-left daytime talk show, The View, after inviting Democrat Senate candidate James Talarico on the show.
“We’re taking a look at it,” Carr said on Wednesday, citing a concern that ABC violated the Equal Time Rule, which requires broadcasters to offer equal time to a candidate’s opponents of they request the air time, Deadline reported.
The FCC had already warned shows such as The View that they should not assume they are exempt from the rule when they invite candidates on the air.
Carr also blasted Stephen Colbert and CBS over the drama over the network’s decision to prevent Colbert’s interview with Texas candidate Talarico to appear during the Late Show time slot.
“Look, anybody that’s not suffering from a terminal case of Trump derangement syndrome could see right away yesterday the exact story arc and how it was going to play out,” Carr said. You had a Democrat candidate who understood the way the news media works, and he took advantage of all of your sort of prior conceptions to run a hoax, apparently, for the purpose of raising money and getting clicks, and the news media played right into it.”
Carr added that Colbert overplayed the drama. “There was no censorship here at all,” Carr said.
The FCC chief added that CBS did not tell Colbert he was not allowed to air the Talarico interview at all, but had told him he could not air it on CBS’s Texas affiliates, where Talarico is running for Senate.
Colbert initially claimed that President Donald Trump had ordered CBS to cancel the Talarico interview. But that was false. Then Colbert shifted to claiming CBS, which was also not exactly true, either.
Carr also slammed the media for its misreporting of the facts on the Colbert interview situation, saying that “perfect encapsulation of why the American people have more trust in gas station sushi than they do in the national news media. This was plainly an effort ginned up to get clicks and raise money, and you guys ate it up.”
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