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.
I believe “The Omen” aired on network TV in the weeks leading up to the 2012 election, and Romney didn’t get equal time...
Al Sharpton hosted SNL when he was a presidential candidate in 2003. I don’t recall any push to get everyone else running that year into the mix.
SNL is a permanent 90 minute ad for liberals, every week.
And since only liberals watch it, ineffective.
What are they crying about? Hillary was on TV all day yesterday.
I always thought O’Malley was a formidable Dem candidate. Guess few agreed with me. Looks like either Hillary the Communist or Sanders the communist.
Comedy central has a show on every night that’s dedicated to doing nothing but bashing republicans and conservatism. The Daily show with what’s his name has that theme as their mission.
Our side will never get fairness no matter what.
211 listed NBC Affiliates. Have fun doing that paperwork guys.
Comedy Central is a cable channel and hence beyond the reach of the FCC and this rule. The solution is for our side to come up with an entertaining cable show.
Fox tried to do a Conservative “Half-Hour Comedy Hour” but it bombed.
Fox’s Red Eye is completely unwatchable too.
>> Individual stations that broadcast on the public airwaves are
Thus it was that in 1980 Boston’s Ch 56 couldn’t show a Ronald Reagan movie without worrying about having to grant equal time to other candidates (who would have 7 days or so to request it). But when the polls closed, they had a marathon of his films, entitled Ron Till Dawn
I remember that. Stations were actually pulling “Bedtime for Bonzo” out of the late movie rotation.
Patriots, please bear the following in mind concerning the FCC’s rules. The FCC is likely front-ending the Washington cartel which is internally fighting for control of DC like dogs fighting over a stick. The bottom line is that the cartel probably has no intention of surrendering back to the states the 10th Amendment-protected state powers that the feds have been stealing from the states for many generations.
Regarding the FCC’s rules, while equal time is arguably a good idea, there are major constitutional concerns about the FCC’s rules.
More specifically, the Founding States made the first numbered clauses in the Constitution, Sections 1-3 of Article I, evidently a good place to hide these clauses from Congress, to clarify that all federal legislative powers are vested in the elected members of Congress, not in the executive or judicial branches, or in non-elected federal government bureaucrats such as those running the FCC, EPA, etc.
The bottom line is that Congress has a constitutional “monopoly” on federal legislative powers whether it wants it or not imo. But by unconstitutionally delegating federal legislative powers to non-elected bureaucrats, Congress is blatantly ignoring Sections 1-3 above, wrongly protecting such powers from wrath of the voters by doing so.
So while the idea of equal time is arguably a good idea, if non-elected FCC bureaucrats came up with these rules then they are unconstitutional imo.
Only problem is the FCC does serve at least one purpose: stations (which admittedly pay license fees to be on the limited spectrum) might get a pirate station on or near that frequency, interfering with them, and the FCC shuts them down (or at least shuts down some of them). This affects radio more than TV. In one recent case in Boston, a pirate called Datz Hitz did Haitian music
one spot on the dial away from a legit classical station, causing them interference.
It also caused interference to Logan Airport aircraft radio.
They were shut down rather quick.
Boy, isn't that the truth! Proof that a show can morph into a showcase for equal time voluntarily
I believe there are several other important matters for them to oversee as well.
The question is, does there need to be an agency that does this, or could it be absorbed by another agency.
The next question is, can we severely restrict their power so that they don’t meddle in things they shouldn’t?
I don’t know what Fox thinks that Tom Shalue guy is but he’s definitely NOT funny. They should cancel Red eye and just put re-runs on.
History on FCC rules:
They were originally dreamed up by FDR when he feared that Father Coughlin, the Radio Priest, was going to raise a mob even more Socialist than his own supporters, then march on Washington and depose him. So he stomped all over Coughlin’s First Amendment rights to get him off the air and the FCC was his weapon of choice.
(Why did a 16-year old disc jockey spinning records have to get an FCC license in 1970? Answer: FCC rules meant to stop Father Coughlin. Only repealed by Jimmy Carter because not enough minorities were passing the test.)
Further refined by LBJ when radio preachers in Texas were causing him too much political grief.
Bottom line: Never trust a POTUS who goes by three initials.
Trump is getting more MSM coverage than all other candidates combined.
That is insane.
He isn;t worth it
Maybe all should host SNL? Wasn’t Hillary on that of late?
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