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Concerned about something you heard or viewed? Would you like to file a complaint about an obscene radio program or place your phone number on the Do Not Call list? The FCC oversees each of these.
To maintain a license, stations are required to meet a number of criteria. The
equal-time rule , for instance, states that registered candidates running for office must be given equal opportunities for airtime and advertisements at non-cable television and radio stations beginning forty-five days before a primary election and sixty days before a general election. Should WBNS in Columbus, Ohio, agree to sell Senator Marco Rubio thirty seconds of airtime for a presidential campaign commercial, the station must also sell all other candidates in that race thirty seconds of airtime at the same price. This rate cannot be more than the station charges favored commercial advertisers that run ads of the same class and during the same time period.
“Statutes and Rules on Candidate Appearances&Advertising,” https://transition.fcc.gov/mb/policy/political/candrule.htm. Section 73.1942 [47 CFR §73.1942] Candidate rates. (November 21, 2015). More importantly, should Fox5 in Atlanta give Bernie Sanders five minutes of free airtime for an infomercial, the station must honor requests from all other candidates in the race for five minutes of free equal air time or a complaint may be filed with the FCC.
“Statutes and Rules,” Section 73.1941 [47 CFR §73.1941] Equal Opportunities. In 2015, Donald Trump, when he was running for the Republican presidential nomination, appeared on
Saturday Night Live . Other Republican candidates made equal time requests, and NBC agreed to give each candidate twelve minutes and five seconds of air time on a Friday and Saturday night, as well as during a later episode of
Saturday Night Live .
Eric Deggans, “It’s Not Hosting SNL, But NBC Will Give ‘Equal Time’ To 4 GOP Candidates,”
National Public Radio , 24 November 2015.
The FCC does waive the equal-time rule if the coverage is purely news. If a newscaster is covering a political rally and is able to secure a short interview with a candidate, equal time does not apply. Likewise, if a news programs creates a short documentary on the problem of immigration reform and chooses to include clips from only one or two candidates, the rule does not apply.
“47 U.S. Code § 315 - Candidates for public office,”
Legal Information Institute , https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/315. But the rule may include shows that are not news. For this reason, some stations will not show a movie or television program if a candidate appears in it. In 2003, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gary Coleman, both actors, became candidates in California’s gubernatorial recall election. Television stations did not run Coleman’s sitcom
Diff’rent Strokes or Schwarzenegger’s movies, because they would have been subject to the equal time provision. With 135 candidates on the official ballot, stations would have been hard-pressed to offer thirty-minute and two-hour time slots to all.
Joel Roberts, “Arnold’s Movies Face TV Blackout,”
CBS News , 13 August 2003; Gary Susman, “Arnold’s Movies Go off the Air until Election,”
Entertainment Weekly , 13 August 2003. Even the broadcasting of the president’s State of the Union speech can trigger the equal-time provisions. Opposing parties in Congress now use their time immediately following the State of the Union to offer an official rebuttal to the president’s proposals.
David Schultz and John R. Vile. 2015.
The Encyclopedia of Civil Liberties in America .
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