Posted on 10/23/2015 10:58:27 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
While it may not sound like it, this story might wind up being good news for future campaigns. As you will recall, Saturday Night Live tossed Hillary Clinton a huge favor a few weeks ago when they had her appear on the show as a friendly bartender talking to her SNL doppelganger. Shortly after that we learned that Donald Trump had been invited to host the show, no doubt including multiple skits for him to star in. For both of these campaigns that’s potentially good news because it’s hits a young audience that probably doesn’t spend their entire day with their eyes glued to either C-SPAN or CNN. How they handle the opportunity is up to them, but if you can’t handle the heat you should stay out of the sketch comedy kitchen. (The folks who run that show hated Sarah Palin and yet she managed to turn an appearance on the show into a huge plus.)
But with Trump taking the stage, the FCC has been roused from their long slumber and will now enforce equal time rules for the campaigns. Or so they think. (National Journal)
The head of the Federal Communications Commission promised Thursday to enforce his agency’s regulations requiring television stations to give political candidates equal opportunities for airtime.
“The rules are pretty clear. Rules are rules,” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler told reporters Thursday. “I hope that we have developed a reputation as folks who enforce the rules.”
Hillary Clinton’s appearance earlier this month on Saturday Night Live could trigger the so-called “equal-time” rules, as could Donald Trump’s plan to host the long-running NBC comedy show next month. That doesn’t necessarily mean Lincoln Chafee will be the next host of SNL—but it could mean that local NBC affiliates across the country will have to give presidential candidates access to equal TV time.
The rule in question was passed in 1934 when there were approximately five televisions in the country and radio stations generally stuck to “news as news” and they didn’t invite political candidates to do guest appearances on The Shadow. I suppose the intention was a good one, but as the medium has expanded over the years the rules have struggled to keep up. They don’t apply to cable TV, but the network stations are, in theory, supposed to give equal time to “legally qualified” candidates. But even there the implementation of the rules is fuzzy at best. News programs are excluded (which make sense) but they lump late night talk shows in with them. Jimmy Kimmel has a news show? Who knew?
So how will they handle the situation with Trump hosting SNL? He may wind up having thirty or more minutes on screen. The FCC admits that they can’t turn around and force NBC to let the other two Democrats and the remaining 15 Republicans all host the show or even appear on it. So they will have to force “local NBC affiliates” around the country to provide an equal number of minutes to all the rest. Does that sound like a fair deal or anything remotely resembling equality? Trump gets thirty minutes on SNL which gets rebroadcast endlessly in clips on all the cable news shows for days on end and Ted Cruz gets fifteen minutes each on two different cooking shows in Albuquerque and Boise?
SNL is entertainment (depending on your tastes) and they cover political topics. You’re either going to have to ban “legally qualified” candidates from appearing on all such shows or give up the ghost. There’s too broad of a menu of television options today to ever attempt the level of control they’re trying for and all shows are not created equally. Rather than stepping in to enforce this rule, perhaps this is a good opportunity to take a fresh look at either repealing it entirely or at least scaling it back a bit.
Enough said.
Thank you for that bit of history concerning likely unconstitutional FCC regulations.
A faux news show hosted by Dennis Miller would work...the guys extremely funny and smart.
Look for more folks to get a little more “picky” when it comes to the laws in regards to this double standard.
Against us, maybe ineffective.
Reinforcing propaganda for liberals and the uninformed.
So what? It’s the broadcasters’ problem. NBC is going to have Trump host SNL but they’ll have to figure out how to comply with equal time rules. We don’t have to watch the others. Seeing Trump host will be the only time I’ll watch SNL in years. Who cares if everyone else gets time because of it? I’m not going to look at them. Trump is already a TV personality and will do great. The rest will be slightly better than Hillary was. Looking forward to SNL on 11/7.
The rest of the candidates could appear on “Criminal Minds” - they would fit right in with the criminal side.
Does “equal time” mean finally broadcasting the years of jokes about Obama they held back all these years?
That’s actually a pretty darn good idea. It come be an anti-Daily show type of thing with Dennis Miller. It could work. Red Eye should be called Dead eye.
Could be I meant
Tom Wheeler is a political hack and a joke.
The FCC doesn't "enforce" anything anymore. They sure as hell don't enforce the rules on Amateur Radio anymore. Any jerk can now buy an amateur radio, throw a wire up in a tree and interfere with other LICENSED hams as much as they want, the FCC doesn't enforce jack sh*t.
BTW: since when did "equal time" be an FCC enforcement action? Isn't that supposed to be the FEC?
Thanks.
So they will probably vote for liberals and Trump anyway.
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