According to NLPC Counsel Paul Kamenar:
NBC‘s Saturday Night Live show featured an opening sketch with Vice President Kamala Harris. As a presidential candidate, her appearance on the eve of the presidential election violated the Federal Communications Commission‘s Equal Time Rule. That rule requires licensed broadcasters to offer equal time to appear to other candidates for the same office.
Indeed, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr issued a statement calling the SNL appearance a “clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC’s Equal Time rule.” Even SNL producer Lorne Michaels stated in an interview last month that neither candidate would be invited on the show because of the rule. So what changed? Perhaps NBC and the Harris campaign believed it needed the media exposure to get her elected and that if she should win, the FCC would not enforce its rule? After much pressure, NBC relented and offered Donald Trump equal airtime after the NASCAR rally.
This one-sided bias in favor of Harris by the major media is not new. When CBS’s “60 Minutes” altered Vice President Harris’s answer to a recent interview and former President Trump called upon the FCC to take enforcement action against the network, the Biden-appointed FCC Chairman Jessica Rosenworcel denounced his complaint.
NLPC is a shareholder in NBC’s parent company, Comcast Corporation.