SNL accused of violating FCC rule by inviting Harris and not Trump – Washington Examiner
The article discusses accusations against “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) for potentially violating FCC rules by inviting Vice President Kamala Harris to appear on the show while not extending the same invitation to former President Donald Trump. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr criticized NBC for allegedly circumventing the Equal Time rule, which mandates that broadcasters offer equal airtime to all candidates running for the same office. The piece notes that SNL did not invite Trump for the skit aired shortly before the election, despite the show’s original creator, Lorne Michaels, stating previously that inviting candidates would conflict with the Equal Time provisions. The skit featuring Harris included a humorous exchange with actress Maya Rudolph, who has portrayed her on the show. The controversy highlights the complexities of media involvement in elections and the regulations governing political broadcasting.
SNL accused of violating FCC rule by inviting Harris and not Trump
Saturday Night Live is being accused of violating federal rules by inviting Vice President Kamala Harris to the show but not former President Donald Trump.
Ahead of the skit that aired on Saturday evening, Federal Communications Commission Commissioner Brendan Carr accused NBC of sidestepping the FCC’s guidelines.
“This is a clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC’s Equal Time rule,” he said on X. “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,” he added.
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The Equal Time rule stipulates that anybody operating on public airwaves must offer the same amount of air time to candidates campaigning for the same office. In 1971, Congress amended the act to include a statute that would allow the FCC to revoke a broadcaster’s license “for willful or repeated failure.”
An official in the Trump campaign confirmed to the Washington Examiner that SNL never extended an invite for Trump to appear this weekend.
In the SNL sketch, which ran for just over two minutes, actress and comedian Maya Rudolph — who has portrayed Harris on the show — looks into a fictional mirror and has the real-life Harris staring back at her. Harris was met with lengthy applause from the TV audience.
“I’m just here to remind you, you got this, because you can do something your opponent can’t do — you can open doors,” Harris joked to Rudolph in an apparent callback to Trump getting into a garbage truck last week during a campaign event.
The move comes just weeks after SNL creator Lorne Michaels revealed that he had no intentions of inviting either candidate on the show ahead of the election because of the very rule that SNL is now being accused of running afoul.
“You can’t bring the actual people who are running on because of election laws and the equal time provisions,” he told the Hollywood Reporter. “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.”
Journalist Michael Shellenberger said that he will interview Carr live on X on Sunday.
This comes after Trump filed a lawsuit, suing CBS’s 60 Minutes for allegedly doctoring an interview with Harris. His attorney wrote in the filing: “CBS’ partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference through malicious, deceptive, and substantial news distortion calculated to confuse, deceive, and mislead the public.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to the Harris campaign and NBC for comment.
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