FCC Commissioner Wrongly Claims Kamala Harris’ ‘SNL’ Appearance Violated Equal Time Rule

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As someone who has followed politics closely for decades, I must say that Commissioner Brendan Carr’s statements about Kamala Harris’ appearance on Saturday Night Live seem to be a bit of a stretch. The FCC’s equal time rule requires candidates to request equal opportunities, and it doesn’t require identical programs from the initiating candidate. In this case, SNL was simply using an impressionist, not the actual candidate.

On Saturday, a member of the Federal Communications Commission mistakenly stated that Kamala Harris’ hosting of Saturday Night Live breached the “equal time” regulation.

Commissioner Brendan Carr stated on his platform (previously known as Twitter), “This action appears to be a deliberate attempt to bypass the FCC’s Rule of Equal Time.

The FCC’s fair airtime rule demands that U.S. radio and TV broadcasters give equal broadcast time to competing political contenders. It is the responsibility of these candidates to ask for this equal time, and the FCC explains their policy on this rule as follows: “Equal opportunities typically means providing similar periods of broadcast and placement to opposing parties; it does not mandate that a station offer identical programs to both the initial and opposing candidates.

In a post on social media, Carr, who is a representative at the FCC, stated (although this doesn’t reflect the official stance of the agency), “The intention behind the rule is to prevent precisely such biased and politically-aligned behavior – a licensed broadcaster leveraging public airwaves to sway support for one candidate just before an election.” He further clarified, “This can be avoided only if the broadcaster grants Equal Time to other eligible campaigns as well.

In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) stated that they haven’t yet reached a decision on political programming rules and no one has submitted a complaint about this matter to their attention.

A. It’s noted that Carr was named to the FCC by Donald Trump in 2017. As reported by Forbes, he is also recognized as the writer of a specific part in Project 2025, which serves as an unofficial policy blueprint for the Republican party. In his recent post on Saturday, he highlighted that Lorne Michaels, executive producer of SNL, had told THR that neither Harris nor Trump would be contacted by the show due to the equal time rule.

Michaels explained to THR that due to election laws and equal time provisions, it’s not possible to bring the actual candidates who are running because having just the main contenders would require including all the candidates. There are numerous minor candidates who only appear on ballots in a few states, making the situation quite complex.

Saturday Night Live (SNL) often invites political figures, such as Donald Trump, who was a guest in 2015, while they are running for office.

Harris’ Saturday evening appearance included a scene where she conversed with an impersonation of herself, or more specifically, Maya Rudolph’s portrayal of her. This format resembled Donald Trump’s skit from 2015, where he interacted with Jimmy Fallon’s impression of him.

Now Kamala,” Rudy said to me, “take my hand-in-hand.” Then we started completing each other’s thoughts. “The American people yearn for an end to the turmoil and the soap opera-like scenes with a refreshing new influence-me. Why don’t we put on our pajamas and curl up for a romantic movie night, like ‘Legally Blonde’-ish. And let’s start decking the halls for Christmas, Fa-la-la-la-la. As we always say, keep moving forward with me-Kamala.

John Mulaney hosted the episode, with musical guest Chappell Roan.

Sunday, Nov. 3, 11:44 a.m. Updated with statement and information from FCC representative.

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2024-11-03 23:26