Did the executive director say one thing to the news and whisper the arrangements behind closed doors or what happened with this? An FCC official has called out both NBC and Kamala Harris for evading an Equal Time law. She was a last minute appearance on Saturday Night Live. The rule was designed to keep networks from tilting political scales before an election. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr spoke on X.
The law is relative now
For Democrats. Carr posted, “This is a clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC’s Equal Time rule. The purpose of the rule is to avoid exactly this type of biased and partisan conduct — a licensed broadcaster using the public airwaves to exert its influence for one candidate on the eve of an election. Unless the broadcaster offered Equal Time to other qualifying campaigns.”
Harris’ appearance wasn’t announced til the day it happened, eliminating any time for her competitor. This equal time is federally mandated.
Obama enforced the law
In 2016, Obama allowed Trump equal time. Carr explained,
“In the 2016 cycle, President Obama’s FCC Chair made clear that the agency would enforce the Equal Time rule when candidate Trump went on SNL. NBC stations publicly filed Equal Opportunity notices to ensure that all other qualifying candidates could obtain Equal Time if they sought it. Stations did the same thing when Clinton appeared on SNL.”
This was done on purpose. NBC structured Harris’ appearance so the network couldn’t offer Trump comparable time.
Somebody ignored the law
SNL’s Lorne Michaels spoke on this mid-September, “You can’t bring the actual people who are running on because of election laws and the equal time provisions. You can’t have the main candidates without having all the candidates, and there are lots of minor candidates that are only on the ballot in, like, three states and that becomes really complicated.”
NBC didn’t offer Trump an appearance. Harris was at first scheduled to fly to Michigan but her flight was rerouted to New York for the appearance with Secret Service already on the ground preparing the area for her arrival. A source said it was “Hush hush”.
