Back in 1963, Richard Nixon needed to rehabilitate his image after losing teh race for California governor. He appeared on “The Tonight Show” with Jack Paar and played the piano.
Bill Clinton’s appearance on “The Arsenio Hall Show,” where he performed “Heartbreak Hotel” on the saxophone, was considered a breakthrough moment in his successful 1992 campaign for the White House.
Those memorable segments demonstrated how the relaxed, desk-and-sofa format could be a tool for politicians to shape public opinion, moving away from the direct questioning of journalists. It became a way to reach viewers who didn’t regularly watch TV news.
But those days may become a relic of broadcast history. Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr is calling for stronger enforcement of a broadcast regulation requiring TV and radio broadcasters to offer equal time to all legally qualified opposing political candidates.
With the new guidance – which legal and media experts say would be hard to enforce and could stifle free speech – the FCC is questioning whether late-night and daytime talk shows deserve an exemption from the equal-time rules for broadcast stations using the public airwaves.
This is the Trump White House’s latest response to network late-night talk show hosts,primarily Stephen Colbert,Seth Meyers,and Jimmy Kimmel,who regularly critique President Trump in their monologues and provide airtime to his political opponents.The rule would also affect daytime shows like ABC’s “The View,” which falls under the Disney-owned network’s news division.
The equal-time rule has existed for decades but hasn’t been actively enforced in recent years. It resurfaced during the 2024 presidential campaign when NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” booked Democratic candidate Kamala Harris for a sketch.
NBC filed an equal-time notice with the FCC, stating Harris appeared on the network for one minute and 30 seconds. Trump campaign officials contacted the network and were given two free 60-second messages that aired near the end of a NASCAR playoff race telecast and during post-game coverage of “Sunday Night Football.”
Experts consider the rule antiquated, designed for a time when consumers had limited TV channels and radio stations. The rise of cable,podcasts,and streaming audio and video platforms – none of which face FCC content restrictions – has diminished traditional broadcast media’s dominance.
“I think it’s very hard to regulate over-the-air broadcasters today the same way the FCC did 50 years ago,” said Jeffrey McCall, a communications professor at DePauw University. “The rule was created in an era of scarcity, which we no longer have.”
Michael Harrison, a media consultant and publisher of the radio trade journal Talkers, said the equal-time rule will unfairly burden radio and TV broadcasters already struggling to compete with tech companies that have largely unrestricted access to consumers and aren’t subject to FCC rules.
“Carr’s plan would further handicap federally licensed television and radio platforms already facing an existential crisis as they are overtaken by unregulated digital media in an increasingly noisy marketplace,” Harrison said. “Carr’s plan is just rhetoric to give the impression that the FCC still has relevance in programming regulation.”
McCall expressed doubts
