I don’t understand your analogy and/or sarcasm.
Now I'm not real sure that any of those appearance would actually trigger the Equal Time rule, but even if they didn't, there would be enough mewling about it in the press that whatever truth was there would be lost in the noise.
Once Fred Thompson declares, the Equal Time rules, whatever they are, begin to take effect. Many of us believe that he's finishing up his contracts so that when he does declare, it doesn't cause problems for his employer, and then he's free to do all of the campaigning stuff he can't do right now as part of his contract.