Fred Thompson still being rerun?

[R.P.McMurphy]

So I’m channel surfing tonight and hit TNT. They are showing a “Law & Order” rerun episode and Fred Thompson was clearly a part of it.

I thought that once he became a declared Presidential candidate that those programs couldn’t be aired. What gives?

[yabob]

Whether or not “equal time” applies to cable network programming is fuzzy. It appears that TNT may be in a mood to test the issue:

http://www.broadcastlawblog.com/archives/political-broadcasting-barack-obama-and-the-daily-show-hillary-clinton-and-david-letterman-fred-thompson-and-law-and-order-what-about-equal-time.html

…
But the law, when it was amended to cover cable 30 years ago, covered only “local origination cablecasting.” That has been taken to mean that cable network programming is not covered, though there has been no explicit FCC ruling on that issue, and in the past most cable networks have been careful to remove possible offending programs from their line-up when actor-candidates were running so as to not provoke an FCC ruling.

…

But TNT seems to have decided to take the law at its word, and decided that it does not apply to networks, and will continue to run Law and Order during the campaign.

[Loach]

Does that mean by law Rudy has to be the new DA on Law and Order? Will he have to rotate with Romney and the rest until the convention?

[yabob]

Rudy actually appeared on Law and Order before Thompson did (a cameo as himself in one episode). Presumably, that episode would also be affected. Giuliani actually has a pretty fair filmography for a politician:

Rudy Giuliani - IMDb

[Captain_Carrot]

@yabob

Giuliani actually has a pretty fair filmography for a politician:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0321320/

And what a stellar qualification to be President that is. (Joke not aimed at you)

[yabob]

It’s probably the case that Thompson’s opponents aren’t exactly thrilled with him dispensing folksy wisdom as Arthur Branch practically every night. It will be interesting to see if anybody tries to stop TNT if they persist. OTOH, I imagine that in 1980, the Carter campaign would have happily waived the rule if they could have, and allowed stations to air “Bedtime for Bonzo” all they wanted.