SAN FRANCISCO, USA – During an appearance on ABC’s popular daytime show The View in November 2024, host Sunny Hostin asked then-Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris if she planned to do anything different from President Joe Biden. “I can’t think of anything,” Harris said.
Analysts said the moment tied Harris closely to the economic hardships and other failures voters faced under the Biden administration. Harris returned to the show a year after losing the election, saying, “In hindsight, I realize I didn’t fully appreciate how much of a problem it was.” In his book “107 Days,” Harris likened his remarks to pulling the pin on a grenade.
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Harris’ appearance may not have helped the election’s prospects, but then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump did not appear on The View before the 2024 election or in the past two elections.
Daytime and late-night programming is typically required by provisions of the U.S. Communications Act to give political candidates equal access to airtime, but The View could be considered a “bona fide news program” and may have been exempt from that requirement.
But last year, shows such as The View, Saturday Night Live and Jimmy Kimmel Live came to the attention of the Federal Communications Commission for not providing equal access and potentially offering partisan coverage. But critics say the FCC’s attempts to suppress such programming could amount to suppression of speech. This, along with increased consolidation of media ownership by corporations, can make them vulnerable to regulatory intervention and rollbacks in media freedom, as has been seen in countries such as Hungary and Russia.
In late January, the FCC issued a public notice saying it was concerned that the interview segments of all daytime and late-night programs would be exempt from equal opportunity requirements. “This is not the case,” the FCC’s notice says, and encourages broadcasters to “obtain formal assurances” that they are exempt from providing equal access.
But Harold Field, a senior vice president at Public Knowledge, a left-wing think tank based in Washington, D.C., said such a process could become a “tool for harassment and intimidation.”
Seth Stern, advocacy director at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said the backlog in the notice and petition process could cause broadcasters to reconsider “which viewpoints they air and which viewpoints they don’t.”
“I like the spirit of the notice,” said Gigi Song, a lawyer who previously worked for the FCC, referring to the principle of giving lesser-known candidates equal access to airtime. “But the effect could be censorship. I’m concerned about how it will be applied.”
“It costs money to abide by principles.”
The FCC’s notice stems from the Communications Act of 1934, which states that because the three stations are provided with public airwaves, if a station provides space to one political candidate, it must provide equal opportunity to all other candidates on that station. Broadcasters must keep a public file of the free time given to candidates so that other candidates can view it and claim equal free time.
When John Kennedy appeared on the Tonight Show in 1959, the FCC had ruled that other candidates would be given equal time. By the time Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared on The Tonight Show in 2006 while running for California governor, more talk shows were on the airwaves and the lines between news and entertainment were blurring. The FCC ruled that The Tonight Show was exempt from the Equal Time Rule as a bona fide news interview.
According to the January FCC notice, the industry interprets this to mean that all daytime and late-night programming is exempt because it is bona fide news programming, which is not the case.
“Let me state the obvious: “Jimmy Kimmel Live” is not “Meet the Press.” It’s not a big deal, and it’s not even close,” Daniel Sarr, president of the Center for American Rights, a right-wing think tank based in Chicago, said in a blog post for the Yale Regulatory Journal.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr also said in a tweet that he has advocated for exemptions for such programs “even if they are motivated by partisan political objectives.” Right-wing analysts cited research showing that The View had 128 liberal guests in 2025, compared to only two conservative guests. A media representative for The View did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.
But some are concerned that the notice is part of a broader effort to suppress satire, comedy and comment.
“To me, this is the most shocking element of what this administration has done,” said Margot Saska, an assistant professor of journalism at American University in Washington, D.C. “This is the censorship of opinion, satire and humor.”
Analysts say such notices could prompt a station’s parent organization to restrict content, citing the example of the Paramount-Skydance merger, which was approved only after a lawsuit over Harris’ interview on 60 Minutes was settled.
“For-profit companies are not known for their bravery,” said Public Knowledge’s Field. “They may keep their heads down and suppress their opinions.”
“Principles cost money,” Berkeley’s Davis said, adding that the administration’s “understanding of the financial needs of media companies is unprecedented.”
Large companies often have mergers on hold or licensing issues, Song said. “So departments can squeeze in energy when there’s not even a problem.”
The notice could also be “intended to drive a wedge between the broadcaster and its affiliates,” Song argued. “Maybe Disney will ask Kimmel not to field political candidates, or maybe an affiliate will pre-empt the show because it would put a strain on the station.”
Mr. Song had been nominated by Mr. Biden to serve as FCC commissioner, but withdrew his nomination after a lengthy and difficult confirmation process.
Last fall, when Mr. Kimmel made comments about Charlie Kirk’s killer, Mr. Kerr, the FCC commissioner, said affiliates could pre-empt or cancel the show, as the two biggest TV owners, NextStar and Sinclair, did. The two did not bring Kimmel’s show back for days after public outrage brought it back.
“Public anger is the best tonic,” Song said of the protests that led ABC to recall Kimmel. “But there are so many outrageous acts.”
“Control the story”
Although the station’s free airwave license comes with a public service responsibility, the FCC’s notice said the daytime and late-night programming is partisan.
But some, such as Berkeley’s Davis, say such notices serve to “control the narrative rather than inform the public.”
“The executive branch has become very powerful and media ownership has become increasingly concentrated in the hands of corporations, creating two forms of power that collude in ways that undermine media independence,” he told Al Jazeera.
This is a pattern that American University’s Saska has seen in other countries where democratic standards are declining, he writes in his forthcoming book, Media Plutocracy, published by the University of Massachusetts Press.
“Hungary was the most prominent example of media ownership being concentrated in the hands of wealthy people aligned with President Orbán,” she said. “This led to media regulation and meant that during the 15 years of the Orbán regime, media independence disappeared and any accountability for journalism disappeared.”
Mr. Stern of the Press Freedom Foundation said that while there are comparisons to developments in Russia and Hungary, where media takeovers have been directed toward favored owners and media independence has declined, these are not the only cases.
“There’s a lot of precedent. Some of what we’re seeing is old, some of it is new, but these comparisons are of limited value because Trump is a unique figure in a unique time.”
More conservative analysts have accused the media of a liberal bias that they have fought to correct. For example, when Harris appeared on 90 Seconds of Saturday Night Live last year and joked that Americans “want the drama to end,” Soule’s Center for American Rights filed a complaint during the same time slot. NBC then filed a public filing offering equal time to Trump, who gave a 90-second speech urging voters to vote for him.
The American Rights Center did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.
“It’s time for closure. I watch Kimmel on YouTube,” said Berkeley’s Davis, who said that while these battles are over broadcast rights, viewers can watch shows even when NextStar and Sinclair aren’t broadcasting, and communications law rules don’t apply.
Data shows that audiences are increasingly turning to social media for news, opinion and humor, regardless of their political views.
“I prefer more speech, not less speech. Restricting that could be a worrying effect of this,” Song said.
