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FCC Commissioner Hints At Serious Consequences For Kamala Campaign After SNL Appearance

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2 months ago

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A senior member of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is calling for NBC News to face serious consequences after Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on “Saturday Night Live” in the final episode ahead of Election Day. Trump and other presidential candidates were not given the same chances to appear, violating longstanding “equal time” principles.

“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. That’s exactly why, for decades, we’ve had an equal time rule on the book, is to prevent that. Because remember, broadcasters are placed in a special position of trust. They’re not just like any other person with a soapbox on the corner,” FCC commissioner Brendan Carr said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday. “They have a license from the federal government that obligates them to operate in the public interest.”

On Saturday, Harris joked back and forth with SNL veteran Maya Rudolph, who was in character as the vice president. Harris opted to skip a campaign event in Michigan in order to make the appearance, which went over well with the New York City audience.

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Carr — who previously called for CBS News to face punishment for allegedly editing their primetime interview with the vice president — explained the issues with Harris’ SNL appearance in an X post. “This is a clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC’s Equal Time rule,” he 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 equal time rule, which was first introduced in 1934, requires radio and television broadcast stations to provide the same amount of time for competing political candidates. Exceptions to the rule exist for political debates, newscasts and documentaries.

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“NBC has structured this in a way that’s plainly designed to evade the FCC’s rules. We’re talking 50 hours before Election Day starts, without any notice to other candidates, as far as I can tell,” Carr told Fox News. “And after previously coming out and saying they weren’t going to do this precisely because they did not believe that they could do this consistent with election laws and the FCC’s equal time rule.”

“I think every member of the FCC needs to speak up immediately, given how close we are to an election and make clear that we will follow through, enforce our laws. And I think every single remedy needs to be on the table in these circumstances,” he said.

Carr is currently urging his fellow FCC commissioners to join him in calling for an investigation into NBC over the Harris appearance. “One commissioner standing alone, there’s no real consequence that I can impose at this point. You need the FCC chairperson or at least three commissioners on the FCC to agree to take action. We’ll see if we end up there with this commission or otherwise,” he said.”

“At the end of the day, the penalties range all the way up to potentially, in egregious situations, license revocations. And in my view, every single remedy needs to be on the table, at least as an initial matter. What we investigate more and find out – maybe they have some defense that I’m not aware of – but all remedies should be on the table because you obviously have to engage in some sort of response that if this proves to be an entire violation, there is a consequence sufficient enough that no broadcast station does this again. Whether it’s to benefit Republican or Democrat, that doesn’t matter to me. We have rules on the books, we have to uphold them.”

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