The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is investigating whether ABC’s daytime talk show “The View” violated federal “equal time” requirements for political candidates, Chairman Brendan Carr said Feb. 19.

“The FCC has an enforcement action underway on that,” Carr told reporters following the agency’s monthly meeting when asked about a potential probe into the program. “And we’re taking a look at it.”

Carr did not provide more details on the investigation.

The equal time rule, rooted in the Communications Act of 1934, generally requires broadcast radio and television stations to provide comparable airtime to legally qualified political candidates. The rule includes exemptions, including for bona fide news programming.

The FCC, in a guidance issued in January, stated that late-night and daytime talk shows should give political candidates equal time. It said any program “motivated by partisan purposes” would not qualify for exemptions under the equal time rule.

The Epoch Times has reached out to “The View” for comment.

Carr previously signaled interest in reviewing the show’s status under the rule. In September, during an appearance on “The Scott Jennings Show,” he said it would be “worthwhile” for the FCC to examine whether “The View” qualifies as a bona fide news program and would therefore be exempt from equal time requirements.

“Potentially, I would assume you can make the argument that ‘The View’ is a bona fide news show, but I’m not so sure about that,” Carr said at the time. “And I think it’s worthwhile to have the FCC look into whether ‘The View’ and some of these other programs ... still qualify as bona fide news programs and therefore exempt from the equal opportunity regime that Congress has put in place.”

Carr’s comments came as the agency also addressed questions about an interview involving “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

The chair said the FCC did not censor an interview between host Stephen Colbert and Texas state Rep. James Talarico, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate.

“There was no censorship here at all,” Carr said. “Every single broadcaster in this country has an obligation to be responsible for the programming that they choose to air, and they’re responsible whether it complies with FCC rules or not ... and those individual broadcasters are also going to have a potential liability.”

Colbert said on air that CBS “told [him] unilaterally” that he needed to abide by the equal time obligations. The interview instead ran on the show’s YouTube channel, which is not subject to the FCC’s equal time rule because it applies to broadcast licensees, not online platforms.

CBS rebutted Colbert’s characterization, saying the network did not prohibit the program from airing the interview, and that the show was given legal guidance that broadcasting Talarico’s interview “could trigger the FCC equal time rule.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.