“You can’t bring the actual people who are running on because of election laws and the equal time provisions.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Texas Insider Report) — "Saturday Night Live " may have been crushing her for months through satire and jokes about her inability to answer questions from the press, but allowing Democrat Kamala Harris to appear on the last show before Tuesday's 2024 Election has many political experts questioning NBC Entertainment's scheduling of the special appearance.
NBC News is also facing a growing backlash, including from some within the industry.Harris’ cameo on the long-running late Saturday Night Show brought her to New York City – away from the battleground states she had been campaigning in during the final stretch of the campaign – where she appeared before a National TV audience to drum up enthusiasm ahead of Tuesday's election.
Earlier on Saturday, Harris held a late afternoon rally in Charlotte, North Carolina – left Charlotte and was scheduled to head to Detroit, but instead made an unannounced diversion to New York City to appear with just three days to go before the election.
NBC acknowledged giving Vice President Kamala Harris free air time on this weekend’s “Saturday Night Live” program.
“Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate for president in the 2024 national election, appeared without charge on NBC’s ’Saturday Night Live’ (SNL) for a total period of 1 minute and 30 seconds on November 2, 2024,” the NBC Network stated in its notice.
The “Equal Time” filing with the Federal Communications Commission, however, was made late Sunday Evening, probably too late for equal time to be given to Ms. Harris’ rivals.
Why It Matters
Said Federal Communications Ccommission Commissioner Brendan Carr of Harris' appearance on "SNL" alongside her on-screen doppelgänger, Maya Rudolph:
"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."
"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."
Usually that would impose on NBC an obligation to give the same amount of time – upon demand – to Donald Trump and any other presidential candidates.
However, because the "equal time" is to be done within a seven-day period, the obligation become largely a moot remedy since the election will be over in less than two days and any such appearance would take time and campaign consideration to figure out.“It would usually open up a seven-day period when all other qualified candidates can seek Equal Time from NBC – meaning comparable time on a comparable program,” Commissioner Carr told Fox News.
"Here, opposing candidates don’t have seven days."
"Here, opposing candidates don’t have seven days."
To Make Matters Worse
“You can’t bring the actual people who are running on because of election laws and the equal time provisions,” Saturday Night Live head Lorne Michaels told The Hollywood Reporter earlier this fall.
“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,” Michaels said.
“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,” Michaels said.
Nevertheless, Mr. Carr said the filing is an admission that NBC “views the Harris SNL appearance as a free use of their facilities and airwaves within the meaning of the federal Equal Time rule.”
The FCC's "Equal Time" rules were established by "The Communications Act of 1934" and require broadcasters to give rival political campaigns equal access to the airwaves ahead of an election.
They require broadcasters to provide “comparable time and placement to opposing candidates” ahead of an election. Coverage is not required to be identical, and news events are exempt from this guideline.
The FCC does not mandate that a network approach opposing campaigns to offer equal time – candidates must request it.
While there are exceptions to the rule – news events being the big one – with the FCC saying that “bona fide newscasts, interview programs, certain types of news documentaries, and during the-spot coverage of bona fide news events” are among the exceptions, they apply to campaign commercials as well as entertainment programming.
An NBC News story covering the Harris appearance initially said, "A spokesperson for 'Saturday Night Live' did not return a request for comment on whether it invited Trump to appear."
