Commenting in the matter in a post on X (formerly Twitter), an official with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) sounded off on both NBC and Vice President and 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris for what he alleged was a “clear and blatant” attempt to evade FCC rules.
Particularly, he argued that the “Equal Time Rule,” which requires American radio and television broadcast stations to provide equivalent access to political candidates, a rule meant to prevent them from tilting the political scales, was what was blatantly violated when NBC’s Saturday Night Live hosted Kamala Harris.
Making that point on X, FCC commissioner Brendan Carr said, “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.”
Continuing, he noted that the rule has been enforced on SNL before, saying, “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.”
Building on that, Carr noted, “Federal law requires that broadcasters provide comparable time and placement to all legally qualified candidates when the Equal Time rule is triggered. With only days before the election, NBC appears to have structured this appearance in a way that evades these requirements. What comparable time and placement can they offer all other qualifying candidates ?”
Carr then noted that SNL was aware of the legal implications of hosting candidates, writing, “Just weeks ago, SNL’s Lorne Michaels said that they *would not* be bringing any of the candidates on due to election and equal time laws: ‘You can’t bring the actual people who are running on because of election laws and the equal time provisions,’ Michaels said.'”
On that same point about NBC and SNL’s awareness of the legal aspects of the appearance, Carr noted, “NBC has now filed a notice acknowledging that they provided free airtime last night to the Democratic Party’s nominee within the meaning of the FCC’s Equal Time rule.”
Carr also argued, “There’s another complicating factor here given that NBC’s SNL initially said that no candidates would appear on SNL b/c of the federal Equal Time rule. Since SNL made a secret 180 only 50 hours or so before election day, their decision runs into the seven-day rule component of the Equal Time statute. The FCC’s seven-day rule affords qualifying candidates one week to request their Equal Time from the broadcast station.”
Further explaining that matter, he said, “The FCC adopted the seven-day rule to avoid gamesmanship by candidates (usually gamesmanship by the candidate seeking the Equal Time in the exemplar case) and for orderly planning (usually for the broadcaster). But the one week right also allows the candidate seeking the Equal Time an opportunity to plan for their use of the time that the law affords them. Maybe they don’t have material in the can or maybe they want to cut a new ad or maybe they want a couple of days to prepare for their Equal Time. They would need some time for that. And the rule does not require candidates to choose between a snap response or none at all. Nonetheless, NBC structured the SNL candidate appearance (just hours before an election) in a way that denies all other candidates their one week procedural right.”
Watch one of the awful parts of Kamala’s SNL appearance here:
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