(Congress Report) – Over the weekend, Saturday Night Live, a satirical comedy sketch program that’s been on the air for a very long time and used to be quite humorous, but has since sold out to being a propaganda maker for the left, aired a skit with Vice President Kamala Harris. However, NBC is being slammed for a potential violation of the Equal Time rule, which could come with some heavy penalties.
According to Yael Halon of Fox News, NBC News filed an Equal Time notice with the Federal Communications Commission on Sunday disclosing the appearance by Harris. Could it be too little, too late? We are only one day away, as of this writing, from the 2024 Election. How can time be made for former President Donald Trump at this point?
“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 notice goes on to say.
“Under normal circumstances, the filing would allow all other qualified candidates competing against Harris to seek equal airtime from NBC for up to a week. NBC would be required to grant it under federal law. The notice comes after commissioner Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the FCC, lambasted NBC’s decision to host Harris in the final episode of SNL ahead of Election Day, while not offering equal time to former President Trump or other candidates in the presidential cycle,” Halon wrote.
“This has all the appearances of, at least some leadership at NBC, at SNL, making clear that they wanted to weigh-in in favor of one candidate before the election. That’s exactly why, for decades, we’ve had an equal time rule on the book, is to prevent that. Because remember, broadcasters are placed in a special position of trust. They’re not just like any other person with a soapbox on the corner. They have a license from the federal government that obligates them to operate in the public interest,” FCC commissioner Carr said to Fox News Digital in a Zoom interview conducted Sunday morning.
Carr then informed Fox News Digital later on Sunday that the filing from NBC confirms the broadcast company “views the Harris SNL appearance as a free use of their facilities and airwaves within the meaning of the federal Equal Time rule.”
He explained that in the usual Equal Times case, “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. Here, opposing candidates don’t have seven days.”
The commissioner of the FCC posted on X over the weekend declaring that the network had violated the Equal Time rule by hosting Harris, the Democratic Party presidential nominee, but not having Trump or any other presidential candidate on the program as well. The rule itself came into being back in 1934. It states that all radio and television broadcast networks are required to provide the same amount of time to competing political candidates. A few exceptions to the rule do exist, such as newscasts, documentaries, and political debates.
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.… https://t.co/LliZF0po9t
— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) November 3, 2024
“Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller told the Fox News Channel earlier this weekend that SNL did not extend an invitation to Trump. Campaign spokesman Steven Cheung lambasted Harris’ appearance as a sign of desperation to appeal to voters as ‘her campaign spirals down the drain into obscurity,'” Fox reported.
Halon then stated in the article, “Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton’s running mate during her failed 2016 presidential run, also appeared in a skit on Saturday as a contestant on a game show who couldn’t remember who Kaine was. NBC also filed an Equal Time notice for Kaine’s appearance, Carr told Fox News Digital. Kaine is running for re-election in Virginia against Republican challenger Hung Cao.”
When Fox reached out to NBC News for a comment on the situation, they did not, as of this writing, issue a response.
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