‘Same hoax’: FCC Chief Brendan Carr accuses Talarico of exploiting Kimmel interview for clicks

WASHINGTON, DC: FCC Chairman Brendan Carr accused Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico of running a “hoax” with late-night host Jimmy Kimmel as their Friday, September 11, conversation continued to draw millions of views online.

Carr said Talarico was using the dispute over the FCC’s equal-time rules to generate attention and donations, calling it a repeat of what he described as a similar episode involving Stephen Colbert. Kimmel's interview had reached 6.8 million YouTube views by Saturday evening, while a previous Talarico interview with Colbert drew 9.6 million views.

Brendan Carr accuses James Talarico of repeating the Stephen Colbert 'hoax'

Carr responded to the discussion surrounding Kimmel’s decision to release his interview with Talarico online rather than broadcast it on television. The late-night host had said the decision was connected to the FCC’s recent enforcement guidance concerning political candidates appearing on broadcast programs.

Carr accused Talarico of deliberately presenting the situation as a government effort to suppress the interview. “He’s just running the same hoax he did a few months ago on Colbert for the purpose of getting clicks and donations, he’s banking on people not understanding the statute or operating as partisan lemmings,” he wrote in a lengthy post on X (formerly Twitter).

The dispute follows a similar appearance Talarico made with Colbert in February. Colbert posted that interview on YouTube after saying network executives had warned him about featuring Talarico on the broadcast. The interview eventually generated 9.6 million YouTube views, surpassing the average audience for Colbert’s late-night broadcast. 

Talarico also posted the Kimmel interview on X, calling it “the interview Trump’s FCC doesn’t want you to see.” "We’re not just going up against the most corrupt politician in Texas. We’re going up against this entire corrupt system," he wrote. 

Kimmel has also accused the FCC of interfering with editorial decisions. He said the agency was attempting to “make our editorial decisions for us, which of course we cannot accept.”

Carr has rejected the characterization that the FCC’s enforcement of equal-time rules amounts to censorship. In his latest post, he explained how the agency interprets the law and why he believes it does not apply in the same way to cable programming.

“The Equal Time statute does not prohibit anyone from interviewing anyone on broadcast TV. It is about more speech, not less. Congress wanted to ensure that voters would decide elections, not media gatekeepers picking winners and losers by providing preferential airtime to some candidates and not others," he said. 

Brendan Carr explains why equal-time rule doesn't apply to Ted Cruz’s 'College GameDay' appearance

Carr made the comments while responding to a post from University of Texas Democrats about Senator Ted Cruz’s appearance on ESPN’s 'College GameDay'. He argued that the equal-time statute did not apply to Cruz because 'College GameDay' is carried by a cable network rather than a broadcast television station.

Carr also pointed to the requirement that the rule apply to legally qualified candidates, noting that Cruz is not running for reelection this year. Talarico is running for the Democratic nomination for US Senate in Texas, with Republican Ken Paxton as his opponent.

For decades, daytime and late-night television programs have generally operated under the assumption that they were exempt from these requirements. The FCC’s equal-time rule requires broadcasters that give airtime to qualifying political candidates to provide comparable opportunities to their rivals as well, while cable and streaming programming have generally been exempt.