Posted on 10/11/2006 8:33:54 AM PDT by SmithL
After jousting with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in a debate full of one-liners, Democratic challenger Phil Angelides thinks he's ready for late-night television.
The state treasurer complained Tuesday that NBC's "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" booked Schwarzenegger as a guest for tonight's show without giving him equal time as required by federal law.
The Austrian-born governor is scheduled to appear alongside another German-speaking celebrity, supermodel and television host Heidi Klum, who is not running for office.
Schwarzenegger blurred the line between news and entertainment three years ago when he declared his candidacy in the gubernatorial recall on Leno's show.
The Republican incumbent stands to receive at least several minutes of free national airtime tonight during a critical stretch in his race against Angelides, not to mention promotional blurbs during primetime shows. Californians voting by mail have begun to receive ballots, while less than four weeks remain until the Nov. 7 election.
Angelides is trying to overcome Schwarzenegger's double digit percentage-point lead in recent polls. In the final campaign month, reaching voters through television is crucial, either through paid commercials or free airtime on news shows.
The Federal Communications Commission requires electronic media outlets to give equal time to political candidates, but grants exemptions to bona fide news programs.
"Consistent with 'The Tonight Show with Jay Leno's' previous practice, NBC is following the news guidelines for interviewing a political candidate," said "Tonight Show" spokeswoman Tracy St. Pierre in a statement. "Under the news guidelines, the scheduled appearance of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on the Oct. 11 broadcast is not subject to the FCC's equal-time provisions."
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Heidi Klum. Has she ever taken a lousy photo? Gorgeous and a most personable woman.
See? This one passes my two tests. It doesn't have the "B-word" in its summary and it will make "Hurricane Jackie" cry the tears of infinite sadness if it passes.
I think it goes beyond Arnold.
If Klum is on the show, then Leno should have either Natalia Vodianova or Lilly Cole on, for equal time.
Or maybe Noot Seer.
That's why Phil Analeaties NEEDS to go onto the show. Chances are he'll be such a dud that news of it will be the last nail in his poltical coffin.
I vote absentee and haven't gotten my ballot nor the voter handbook yet.
same, and neither have I. I did catch a couple minutes of that Arnold vs. the crybaby debate and Angelides was pathetic, rambling & rambling, he could have taken the whole hour to espouse his idiocies and Arnold seemed more than content to just let him ramble along.
We got our handbook last week. It is the size of a phonebook. I read in the CCTimes that absentee ballots will be late because they are so large.
Whoa! Fortunately, I pretty consistently vote "R" and "NO," so that saves time on reading the voter handbook. What makes me mad is the way they try to disguise new socialist programs by entitling them "clean air!" and "clean water!," and then it turns out the program actually imposes a new tax or some new school bond issue.
We got ours back on September 21st (I log my mail, so I know the exact date). In fact we got a total of four ballot pamphlets -- two for me and two for my wife. That's probably why they ran out of voter handbooks for you.
If you Freep mail me with your address, and send me a PayPal payment to cover the postage, I'll ship you your copies. Just because I'm a nice guy...
The Austrian-born governor is scheduled to appear alongside another German-speaking celebrity, supermodel and television host Heidi Klum, who is not running for office.
Were they each in English? ;-)
He can demand all he wants but shows like The Tonight's Show are EXCEPTED from "equal time" rules.
Oh, I don't know about that. Mr. Charisma's latest ad showing us who he is is pretty entertaining.
Well, sad, actually. Here we are, less than four weeks before the election of the head of the 8th or 9th largest economy in the WORLD, and one of the "major" party candidates is just now introducing himself to the electorate?
I don't know who it would be worse to be, Phil "Mr. Charisma" Angelides, or Steve "I lost to Mr. Charisma" Westly!
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