Amid accusations that NBC was violating federal law by giving Vice President Kamala Harris a spot on “Saturday Night Live,” the network allowed former President Donald Trump to run an ad Sunday night.
Coming in a campaign filled with what the New York Post’s Michael Goodwin called “rampant media misconduct,” the Trump ad released during a NASCAR race, which one source said was also aired during an NFL postgame show, appeared to be an attempt to show NBC was not violating the Equal Time rule, according to The Hill.
Citing a source it did not name, the Hill said it was not clear if NBC offered the ad to Trump or if his campaign requested it.
Federal Communications Commission member Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the panel, had earlier criticized NBC, according to Fox News.
“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,” he said.
“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. They have a license from the federal government that obligates them to operate in the public interest,” Carr said.
NBC has filed a notice with the FCC, disclosing that Kamala Harris appeared on SNL for under two minutes without charge.
Under federal law, if Donald Trump requests equal time, NBC would be required to provide it before the election. pic.twitter.com/aMvHJjpwC2
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) November 4, 2024
Carr noted that even when NBC filed a notice under the Equal Time rule, this was a highly unusual case, according to Fox News.
Normally, 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,” Carr said, according to Fox News.
Will Trump win?
Trump struck a somber note in the pre-recorded ad.
Here is the Trump video that ran during NASCAR and also during NBC’s Sunday Night Football postgame show as part of the equal time provision, given that Kamala Harris appeared on SNL. pic.twitter.com/7I1eRs1hr0
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) November 4, 2024
“We’re losing everything, including viability,” Trump said in the ad, which was posted on X.
“We’re going to end up in a depression based on what’s been happening,” the former president continued. “We’ve never seen anything like it, at least in the last 40 years.”
As the incident marked the end of the campaign, Goodwin observed that the media has indulged in “a whole new level of flagrant misconduct.”
“I have never seen anything like it — nor has anyone else. History is being made in a terrible way,” he wrote.
“Fearing that Harris could lose Tuesday’s vote, most major outlets are trashing even the pretense of professionalism and fairness to serve up distorted and sometimes fabricated ‘gotcha’ moments against Trump,” Goodman said.
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