Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner Brendan Carr criticized broadcaster NBC for evading the FCC’s “Equal Time” rule established in 1934, which requires broadcast stations to provide the same amount of airtime for political candidates.
Vice President Kamala Harris made a guest appearance on NBC’s Saturday Night Live (SNL) on November 2, less than 72 hours before election day. Carr said that NBC’s actions blatantly evaded FCC rules, stating in a post on X:
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. Unless the broadcaster offered Equal Time to other qualifying campaigns.
Harris’ surprise guest appearance comes after SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels told The Hollywood Reporter last month he would not reach out to any political candidates, stating in an interview:
You can’t bring the actual people who are running on because of election laws and the equal time provisions…. 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.
