So when ‘Fox and Friends’ allows Donald Trump to call in regularly to chat with the hosts, what are the rules? Do they have to extend the same offer to the other candidates? Is the free airtime they five him an in-kind contribution to his campaign if he’s the only one they regularly talk to? I honestly don’t understand the rules here.
IIRC, the rules only apply to broadcast stations (since they’re using a public resource), not cable. So ‘Fox and Friends’ can be all Trump, all the time if they want.
Further, there is a loophole about news reporting that is big enough to fly Trump’s jet through.
An over-the-air broadcast network can devote as much (or as little) time as it sees fit to any particular campaign without incurring any obligation to provide equal coverage/access to other candidates. They just have to call it news reporting.
The principle is very limited. If you sell ad time to one candidate, you must offer ad time at the same rate to all candidates. That’s pretty much where any equal treatment requirement ends.
I agree with this.
There are not conspiracies under every rock. Sometimes the best explanation, is the simplest.