According to the rule, after the filing, all other qualified candidates competing against Harris would be able to request equal airtime from NBC for up to a week and the network would be required to grant it under federal law.
On Sunday during an NBC broadcast of a NASCAR playoff race, Trump appeared in an ad, speaking directly to the camera. A similar ad ran during Sunday Night Football. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the spots were connected to NBC giving the Trump campaign equal time.
The ad started with the text: "A special message from Donald J. Trump,” appearing on screen.
"We're losing everything, including viability," Trump told the audience. "We're going to end up in a depression based on what's been happening. We've never seen anything like it, at least in the last 40 years.”
According to the Equal Time notice filed by NBC obtained by Fox News, "Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate for president in the 2024 national election, appeared without charge on NBC's ‘Saturday Night Live’ (SNL) for a total period of 1 minute and 30 seconds on November 2, 2024."
This comes after FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said of the appearance from Harris that it was a “clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC's Equal Time rule.”
According to the FCC’s Equal Time rule, candidates for public office must get comparable airtime on networks that use public broadcasting resources. After NBC filed the notice, all other qualified candidates competing against Harris were able to request equal airtime from NBC for up to a week and the network would be required to grant it under federal law. Jason Miller, a Trump campaign senior adviser told Fox News that SNL didn’t invite the former president on the show.
Carr told Fox News Sunday morning, "This has all the appearances of, at least some leadership at NBC, at SNL, making clear that they wanted to weigh-in in favor of one candidate before the election.”
Following the filing, Carr told Fox News that the NBC filing confirms that the network "views the Harris SNL appearance as a free use of their facilities and airwaves within the meaning of the federal Equal Time rule."
Carr noted that though under normal circumstances the filing “would usually open up a seven-day period when all other qualified candidates can seek Equal Time from NBC-meaning comparable time on a comparable program. Here, opposing candidates don’t have seven days."
Harris' SNL segment was also slammed on social media for its similarity to a 2015 skit featuring Trump on Jimmy Fallon's show.
Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, who ran with Hillary Clinton in 2016, also appeared on SNL Saturday night and NBC also filed an Equal Time notice for his appearance.
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