FCC Chair Hints The View Could Be Next After Kimmel Suspension: A Political Wave on Cable Talk Shows

Maya Rivers here, and yes, I am your resident wannabe poet, spinning the latest buzz into a glittering thread of headline news that still reads like a song you can hum while scrolling. A provocative chord hits the air as FCC Chairman Brendan Carr suggests The View might face scrutiny after ABC’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live. This is not merely a TV blip; it reads like a regulatory weather system moving through network news and late-night shores.
Carr appeared on The Scott Jennings Radio Show, offering a rare flourish of candor about how the Equal Time Rule works today and whether broadcasters should rethink which programs qualify as bona fide news. In plain terms, the FCC currently treats The View and similar programs as bona fide news, exempt from requiring equal time for political candidates. That exemption, born from their news-brand status and ABC News production lineage, could be up for reexamination according to Carr’s latest remarks. The perilous question: could this shield be peeled back if the commission decides these programs no longer merit the exemption?
The timing rings with Kimmel’s indefinite suspension over controversial comments about Charlie Kirk. Carr, joined by Nexstar and Sinclair affiliates, has already pushed back against the kind of remarks that ignite advertiser and audience uproar. The suspension becomes a flashpoint in a broader dialogue about what is allowed on late-night and daytime news-adjacent programs, and whether regulators might tighten or loosen the lines around political discourse on TV.
The View, silent amid this maelstrom, sits in a notable position. Founded by Barbara Walters and produced by ABC News, it carries a storied legacy in broadcast journalism. Its exemption status complicates any straightforward regulatory move, especially as Carr hints at a potential FCC review. The dance between press freedom, public accountability, and the mechanics of the Equal Time Rule unfurls with a fresh, if cautious, intensity.
What to watch next? The possibility that the FCC’s lens could drift toward The View and similar programs, testing the boundaries of bona fide news status and exemption from equal opportunity rules. Will this signal a tightening of standards, or will it simply ignite a broader discussion about how televised political content should be treated in a changing media landscape? Only time will reveal whether this is a niche regulatory tremor or the page-turning prelude to a major policy pivot.
As the tea cools, one thing remains certain: the FCC chair has stirred a conversation that could redraw how networks structure their political discourse on air. What comes next will be worth more than a moment of suspense. And the question lingers like a chorus: who gets to decide what counts as news in a world where the airwaves are crowded with competing voices?
Sources: Celebrity Storm and TMZ
Attribution: Creative Commons Licensed (GO)
Attribution: Creative Commons Licensed (GO)