Dublin already ran. This microphone is in Bristol and on YouTube.
Reuters, Los Angeles, Sept. 12, posted Sept. 13: FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said an ESPN interview Saturday with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) did not violate the commission’s equal-time rule. He was answering college Democrats on social media. Carr: the rule applies to broadcast TV stations, not cable. It also applies only to legally qualified candidates. Cruz is not a candidate in this year’s midterms. ESPN did not immediately comment. Reporting by Lisa Baertlein.
Days earlier the FCC warned ABC — ESPN’s sister network — over Jimmy Kimmel’s interview with James Talarico, a Democrat running for Texas’s other Senate seat against Attorney General Ken Paxton. Kimmel aired that interview on YouTube on Thursday instead of the network broadcast, citing the FCC threat. In January, the Republican-led FCC said daytime and late-night talk shows are no longer “bona fide” news programs exempt from equal-time.
Cruz earlier this year criticized an FCC review of Walt Disney broadcast licenses. He told Punchbowl, confirmed by his office: “It is not government’s job to censor speech and I do not believe the FCC should operate as the speech police.”
A chair’s post is not a statute rewrite. A YouTube upload is not a finding that Talarico got equal time.
What this means for you
If you needed Connolly, that was last night. If you needed a Senate race, this is a warning and a clip, not a vote. If you needed Austin’s score, that is the other unused file.
Bottom line: Carr said GameDay is cable. Cruz is not on this ballot. ABC got the warning.
GLHR NEWS explains the news. Not investment, tax, or trading advice. Do your own work before you act.
