Wesley Stenzel, Entertainment Weekly; Jimmy Kimmel slams FCC after chair demands changes to talk shows: 'Doing everything he can to shut us up'
"Jimmy Kimmel is fighting with the FCC once again.
The comedian used his Jimmy Kimmel Live monologue on Thursday night to draw attention to the organization's chair, Brendan Carr, after he demanded that talk shows like Live and The View give an equal amount of time to political candidates on both sides of the aisle.
"[Carr] is doing everything he can to shut us up, the easy way or the hard way," Kimmel said in the monologue.
The FCC released new guidance on Wednesday that argued that talk shows and late-night shows should not be considered "bona fide" news programs, and thus should not continue to receive exemption from the equal time rule. That night, President Trump posted a link to a Los Angeles Times article with the caption, "FCC takes aim at The View, Jimmy Kimmel Live in fight over ‘equal time’ rules for politicians."
The new guidance effectively states that shows like Jimmy Kimmel Liveand The Late Show With Stephen Colbert must now give equal time to all political candidates running for the same office.
"They're reinterpreting long-agreed-upon rules to stifle us," Kimmel said. "And this one's a little bit complicated. It's not as easy as what happened the last time. So I want to break it down.""
