Legal Implications of Broadcasting Fairness in Election Contexts

In mid-September, NBC Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels told the Hollywood Reporter that neither Kamala Harris nor Donald Trump would be on the show because doing so would be illegal. “You can’t bring the actual people who are running on because of election laws and the equal time provisions,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “You can’t have the main candidates without having all the candidates, and there are lots of minor candidates that are only on the ballot in, like, three states and that becomes really complicated.”

But last night, Michaels broke his promise and put Harris on air in a cameo with actress Maya Rudolph. “This is a clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC's Equal Time rule,” said Federal Communications Commissioner Brenand Carr, “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.”

In a podcast interview with me this morning on X, (listen above) Carr added, “There's no question that NBC, SNL both know this law and know exactly what they did.”