FCC Commissioner Anna M. Gómez has slammed the release on Wednesday by the Media Bureau of guidance “on the application of the statutory equal opportunities requirement and the bona fide news exemptions to broadcast television stations, including their airing of late-night and daytime talk shows.”
As the lone Democratic Party-aligned vote maker on the Commission, Gómez says it is a “misleading announcement” that suggests certain late-night and daytime programs may no longer qualify for the long-standing “bona fide news interview” exemption under the Commission’s political broadcasting rules.
At issue is a four-page FCC memorandum from the Media Bureau, led by Acting Chief Erin Boone, that arrives in an era when an appearance by Democratic Presidential Candidate and then-Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on NBC’s Saturday Night Live just three days before the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
Is that exempt from equal time rules? To be clear, the FCC has not changed any of its rules, as its Republican leadership seeks to remind broadcast television networks of what they are allowed to do under existing regulations.
Gómez sees it in a whole other light, claiming that Boone’s communiqué suggests that “certain late-night and daytime programs” — such as Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The View, perhaps, given the politically divisive discussions surrounding each show — may no longer qualify for the long-standing “bona fide news interview” exemption under the Commission’s political broadcasting rules.
Without tackling the question of whether Harris’ SNL appearance was a “bona fide news interview” (it wasn’t) or appearances by political candidates across late-night network television, Gómez goes on the offensive.
“Nothing has fundamentally changed with respect to our political broadcasting rules,” she said. “The FCC has not adopted any new regulation, interpretation, or Commission-level policy altering the long-standing news exemption or equal time framework. For decades, the Commission has recognized that bona fide news interviews, late-night programs, and daytime news shows are entitled to editorial discretion based on newsworthiness, not political favoritism. That principle has not been repealed, revised, or voted on by the Commission. This announcement therefore does not change the law, but it does represent an escalation in this FCC’s ongoing campaign to censor and control speech.”
With a “First Amendment Tour” a 2025 highlight, Gómez goes on to warn against government intimidation. “Broadcasters should not feel pressured to water down, sanitize, or avoid critical coverage out of fear of regulatory retaliation,” she said. “Broadcast stations have a constitutional right to carry newsworthy content, even when that content is critical of those in power. That does not change today, it will not change tomorrow, and it will not change simply because of this Administration’s desire to silence its critics.”
The advisory, viewable here in full, states that “concerns have been raised that the industry has taken the Media Bureau’s 2006 staff-level decision to mean that the interview portion of all arguably similar entertainment programs— whether late night or daytime—are exempted from the section 315 equal opportunities requirement under a bona fide news exemption. This is not the case.”
In the opinion of the Boone-led Media Bureau, “these decisions are fact specific and the exemptions are limited to the program that was the subject of the request.”
What is perhaps most explosive is the declaration by the Media Bureau that “the FCC has not been presented with any evidence that the interview portion of any late night or daytime television talk show program on air presently would qualify for the bona fide news exemption.”
With Gómez sparring against the GOP majority on the matter, the Media Bureau “encourages all television broadcast stations to ensure that they are making all appropriate equal opportunity filings in accordance with section 73.1943 of the FCC’s rules and as required by agency precedent.”
The communiqué closes by saying it is important that both broadcasters and legally qualified candidates understand the FCC’s equal opportunities regulations and how they can result in broadcasters offering opposing legal qualified candidates comparable time and placement.
