Thursday, December 10, 2015

2.6 Trump on SNL

1. The NBC affiliates are required to offer rivals twelve minutes and five seconds of air time, the exact time that Trump received.
2. Trump's rivals can request an equal opportunity to appear on-air for free to deliver their message to voters.
3. NBC may not rerun the episode, because that doubles Trump's time. This gives the other candidates almost a half hour of free TV as well.
4. The equal time doctrine does not compel networks to cover candidates, but once one is covered others have the opportunity to be covered as well.
5. An unintended consequence of the equal time provision is that stations are hesitant to cover candidates because they do not want to waste time having to cover other candidates. These minor candidates could cause them to lose viewers.
6. Bona fide news events are debates and appearances on major night time television shows.
7. The FEC could handle the appearance like a campaign contribution or expenditure that would require contribution limits, disclosure requirements, and possible fines.

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