November 4, 2024

"NBC is giving former President Donald Trump’s campaign free commercial time in response to Vice President Kamala Harris' appearance on Saturday Night Live..."

"... including an unusual ad during Sunday’s NASCAR coverage, a source familiar with the matter says. Harris appeared on Saturday’s SNL for one minute and 30 seconds.... [T]he sketch drew a rebuke from FCC commissioner Brendan Carr, who is seen as a potential FCC chair if President Trump is re-elected. Carr wrote that the sketch was 'a clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC’s Equal Time rule,' because it came just two days before election day, within the seven-day window the FCC gives campaigns to request equal time...."

Hollywood Reporter reports... without embedding the ad. I'll embed the ad here if I find it. 

53 comments:

rehajm said...

In the ‘don’t listen to what they say but watch what they do’ sprit of election predictions, this sure looks like NBC is picking Trump as the winner…

RMc said...

Because there just aren't enough political ads on the air these days...

rehajm said...

…as the commentariat was correctly noting Lorne publicly declared candidates would not appear on SNL at inappropriate times because he/the network wanted to avoid this very thing…

Leland said...

This law seems anachronistic these days.

tim maguire said...

NASCAR is probably a good choice--Harris was preaching to the choir on SNL, Trump would be doing the same at NASCAR. But his audience will be much larger.

tolkein said...

What'll they do? If Harris wins, what will happen? If Trump wins, what will happen. There need to be consequences. Heavy fines. Personal liability. This was signed off by people, and if they paid a price, it wouldn't happen again.

Peachy said...

NASCAR? Trump's voting block anyway. Lame.

Wince said...

Harris didn't receive just free air time, she received an in-person cultural endorsement directly from SNL and the network.

Peachy said...

exactly. NBC - like all the other major networks - openly act as an arm of the democrat party.

Dixcus said...

As head of the Federal Communications Commission under next President Donald Trump, I pledge to cancel the broadcast licenses of ABCNews (which aired a fake debate and slandered Donald Trump by claiming falsely that he has been convicted of rape), CBS News (which created a fake interview with Kamala Harris) and NBC News (which illegally gave Kamala Harris prime-time airtime to boost her campaign, while only at the last second giving Trump some advertising slots they couldn't otherwise sell during a race nobody watches.)

I will yank their broadcast licenses.

It's up to Trump to hire me as head of the FCC and I will deliver him the heads of these networks.

Dixcus said...

The laws are as clear as they've ever been. Some people are just ABOVE the law.

How many Epstein pedophiles has the FBI arrested yet? ZERO

How many are they currently investigating? ZERO

How many are on the Most Wanted List? ZERO

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Interesting. Rules of fairness rarely are applied to Republicans, especially Trump.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Trump talks a lot about broadcasters responsibility to serve the public interest in order to be licensed by the FCC. This rule is explicit, but perhaps NBC doesn't want to fight what might happen if Trump wins, in regards to how FCC treats the broadcast spectrum.

Eva Marie said...

Here’s a link to the Trump ad:
https://x.com/yashar/status/1853300503003972064?s=46

Quayle said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
RideSpaceMountain said...

$1 of compensatory in-kind advertising time down, trillions of $$ of in-kind compensation more to go.

Aggie said...

But.... will it? Not that I care, just munching the popcorn.

Leland said...

I'm not sure how "equal time" compares to "pedophilia". I think "equal time" comes from a period where government wanted more control of speech during elections. I think the law is silly compared to how many don't follow broadcast television these days. But go ahead, Dixcus, explain why you think "equal time" and "pedophilia" are the same, as you brought it up.

Big Mike said...

Yesterday’s race was at Martinsville, a track in southern Virginia just north of the North Carolina border. Could the ad help Trump in those two states? Easier question to ask than to answer.

Achilles said...

No mercy for these fascists. ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and CNN all need to lose their broadcast licenses and be forced to reapply for them in line with everyone else.

Cable needs to be eliminated.

rehajm said...

I’d be a big fan of pulling their White House press credentials…

tim maguire said...

Will it what?

gilbar said...

oh oh! let me! let me!
'equal time' and "pedophilia" are are EXACTLY the same, in that:
NEITHER law applies to democrats..
ALL Laws are EXACTLY the same.. NONE on them apply to the ruling class

gilbar said...

does ANYONE watch NASCAR anymore? i sure don't. Didn't even know it was still on the air

Peachy said...

Your daily reminder of how awesome Islam is. But don't you dare complain.

Peachy said...

NBC(D) SNL also pimped Tim Kaine(D).

Dixcus said...

Very good Gilbar. You get a cookie.

Dixcus said...

And they are able to do that ONLY because Republicans keep funding Democrats year after year after year.

Aggie said...

Yes, sorry, that's what I was asking - 'will the audience be much larger'? I honestly don't know, but I also see from Eva Marie's post that the ad was shown on a Sunday Night Football post-game show. So I think they might have tried to match audience sizes.

NKP said...

BAAAMM!!! The guy from Iowa with the fishing fetish nails it!!!!

Levi Starks said...

So, they’re giving Trump equal time during programming in which 99+% of the viewers are already likely to vote for him…
I suppose this is fair since the identical thing applies to SNL and Kamala

Freder Frederson said...

You do realize that the legacy networks control very few actual broadcast licenses (the three legacy networks combined hold about 80 broadcast licenses in total, Fox I don't know about and can't be bothered to look it up)? CNN isn't even a broadcast network, so there are no broadcast licenses you can take from them. Or are you as ignorant as Donald Trump?

For someone who supposedly a "free speech absolutist", you sure are willing to suppress speech of those you don't like (up to and including hanging people from lampposts).

James K said...

They aired the Trump ads after the sporting events were over, so many of the viewers would have stopped watching by then.

My name goes here. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
jj121957 said...

Fox News has been showing SNL Come-Allah clips every hour for the last day and a half. Haven't seen hide nor hair of any "equal time" Trump ads. Fair and Balanced.

My name goes here. said...

Freder, the networks often own the most lucrative licenses, like the broadcast license for New York City. Take it away and the network would feel it pretty significantly.

Second, all I want is Trump to govern the same way Barack Obama did. I want him to have an attorney general who is his wing man and is immune from all contempt charges from congress. I want all of the heads of his agencies to interpret existing laws with the same flexibility that the Obama administration did - so that a "dear colleague" letter is enough to rewrite the constitution. And in that world, I suspect at some point CNN signal goes over the electromagnetic spectrum and bounces off a satellite and in the Obama style flexible regulatory environment, I am certain that CNN could be found to infringe on spectrum somewhere.

If you do not like it then after Trump's next term engage with the political powers to establish parity, and I don't know perhaps following the law as well. Tit for Tat with forgiveness is the only way forward.

Leland said...

Some of you guys make debating interesting topics impossible with your silly partisanship. First, this law is being applied to Democrats, and NBC gave equal time to the Republican (don’t know what they did for the Green Party). Second, my point is that the “equal time” law comes from an era when the majority of media communication came from broadcast licensing. It is a bit pointless when most people probably saw the SNL skit via an internet broadcast rather than radio television.
I guess some of you just want bigger government, so long as you can use it against your political foes.

Ralph L said...

Our own Yancey Ward's comment here was quoted on Mark Steyn's latest.
Yancey Ward said...
The squirrel was seen at the Capitol on January 6th.
11/2/24, 3:55 PM

Paddy O said...

Nascar peaked in the 70s. It's been downhill since then. Definitely less funny now. I never stay up to watch it anymore.

Leland said...

NASCAR had a revival in the early 2000s when Fox started broadcasting the beginning of the season. But then Jimmy Johnson started winning the championship too often, and NASCAR decided to start changing the rules for the championship every year, which severed the sport from it roots. Now it is just another race car event with almost no heritage to its past.

Sydney said...

He should have run that free speech ad.

Joe Bar said...

Tim Kaine is one pol that I've actually met. When he was mayor of Richmond, he did something very effective. He prosecuted crimes involving firearms with federal charges. This meant a lot of bad guys got sent out of state to federal prison. This was real punishment for these guys, not country club life in the state institutions. Of course, this was seen as racist, and was repealed immediately. Crime went back up.

Drago said...

"It's up to Trump to hire me as head of the FCC and I will deliver him the heads of these networks."

Completely unnecessary. Simply put the public airwaves up to bid and the shareholders of those media companies will do the rest.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Here you go Prof Althouse, both ads:
https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2024/11/04/nbc-forced-to-give-trump-equal-airtime-after-kamalas-snl-spotand-he-delivers-epic-response-n4933943

IOW, the SNL appearance was so cringe it probably cost her votes, but what do I know about the kind of people who would vote for that moron dictator?

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Here's a link where Ace shows the SNL skit Trump did in 2015, where he did a mirror image skit

http://ace.mu.nu/archives/412211.php

Because the Harris people are all too stupid to come up with anything new

walter said...

That explains it. It's supposed to be a level oval.

walter said...

Maybe it's about equal enforcement of the laws as they are.

Readering said...

When Trump sues CBS for $100B over the editing for 60 Minutes Harris interview, it gets the attention of NBC law department. "The guy is nuts. Humor him."

Freder Frederson said...

Second, all I want is Trump to govern the same way Barack Obama did.

And here I was thinking that you all detested the way Barack Obama governed, and that is why Trump is so wonderful, he isn't just another politician.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Whatever works

My name goes here. said...

Yes, Barack Obama governed horribly. And I have a contempt for many of the things the Bush did as well. But since you did not make a comment on it I will here explicitly what I said "Tit for Tat with forgiveness is the only way forward."

If the Obama style is bad (it is) and Trump plays by the rules then there is no incentive for the next Democrat to do anything different that Obama.

If Trump does everything the Obama way and you yell and scream MAYBE congress will do it's job and put in appropriate barriers and legal pathways. I am even willing to work with you to make that be the case. I will, however, not help you one iota until Trump plays by Obama rules long enough to "make it even", conveniently enough I bet when that time shows up your desire to put a check on it will be maximized.

Leland said...

Fine Walter, then start your own comment about that aspect of the story. It doesn’t add anything over Althouse original post, but some people like repeating the same thing and they are accommodated.

With my topic, we can entertain the notion if Elon Musk’s government efficiency program can include cutting some FCC regulations that have been outdated the entirety of the 21st Century. I’m all for enforcing laws equally, but I am even more supportive of getting rid of bad laws. After all, if a law can be applied unequally, then that brings into question whether the law is necessary, because apparently it isn’t necessary all the time.

Drago said...

The NBC law department.

The law department that knew about the rape office Matt Lauer had set up right at 30 Rock?