Kamala Harris ‘SNL’ Appearance May Have Violated FCC ‘Equal Time’ Rule, Trump-Appointed Commissioner Claims

variety.com:

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Kamala Harris‘s surprise appearance on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” on Nov. 2 was “a clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC‘s Equal Time rule,” Republican commissioner Brendan Carr claimed in a social media post.

Harris appeared in the “SNL” cold-open sketch as herself, interacting on stage with Maya Rudolph, who has portrayed the Democratic VP and presidential candidate on the show.

In the skit, Harris poked fun at Donald Trump and said the election represents an opportunity to “end the drama-ala.” The FCC’s rules on political programming “seek to ensure that no legally qualified candidate for office is unfairly given less access to the airwaves — outside of bona fide news exemptions — than their opponent,” according to the agency. “Equal opportunities generally means providing comparable time and placement to opposing candidates” but “does not require a station to provide opposing candidates with programs identical to the initiating candidate.” In a post on X on Saturday evening before Harris’s “SNL” appearance, Carr, who is a Trump appointee, wrote, “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.” The FCC’s rule requires a broadcaster, in the event of an appearance by a “legally qualified candidate,” to “entertain requests for Equal Opportunities by opposing legally qualified candidates for the same office.