I’m genuinely curious as to how a major television network can provide one Presidential candidate 90 minutes of airtime, but not have to do the same for all of the other candidates? If memory serves, aren’t there rules in place against this sort of thing?
I know that there have been previous elections in which stations would suspend even airing reruns of sitcoms if they featured a political candidate running for office.
Maybe I’m missing something - but have the rules changed, or do the rules not apply during the primary season? Or were they never truly rules to begin with?
It would seem that Trump’s opponents may be able to invoke equal time after all!
“Candidates who may want to invoke the equal time rule after Trump’s appearance can request it only in states where Trump has a “substantial showing” of campaigning – likely Iowa and New Hampshire at this point in the campaign. Trump’s opponents will have up to seven days following his November 7 appearance to request the time. Any request would likely lead to stations and candidates negotiating for a comparable amount of late night air time – which could be free ad time on the station.”
It will certainly be fascinating to see how many of them jump at the chance to get up to 90 minutes of free air time in those markets!
It’s not clear what will be done here. They won’t get 90 minutes, they’ll get exactly the same amount of air time as Trump, if they get anything at all. And that time will be on a Saturday night, and NBC doesn’t have to put them on SNL so they’ll get some time on an off week when no one is watching. The Equal Time rule has been ignored at the national level for a long time now, and that’s a good thing.
NBC can also offer them fewer minutes in prime time. If Trump had a total of 30 minutes of air time on SNL, a candidate might get ten minutes of prime time ads for free. It doesn’t have to be one block of time.
I’m voting for the Clintons, but the fact is Trump is amongst the leading candidates for one of the two major parties in our country. I disagree with his views, particularly on immigration, but denying him would be wrong, especially if they’re even open to letting Socialist Sanders (who hasn’t called out Trotsky or the USSR, in which he honeymooned) get time, which I’d bet he will.
My guess is that Trump won’t appear on screen for more than 15 minutes of the 90 minute show. With the number of ads shown at that time of night, I don’t think the show itself gets more than an hour. He’ll get the opening monologue and maybe two sketches, none of which will last for more than 5 minutes. (He may also introduce the musical act, twice, for 3 seconds each.) Basically, I don’t think the equal time burden will be that great.
Hillary already appeared this season, in a single sketch, playing Val the Bartender opposite Kate McKinnon playing Hillary. She did a decent job of poking light fun at herself–she seems well aware of her own foibles. If Trump has any level of self-awareness to go with his apparent self-regard, he might be fun to watch, too.
That will be the closest thing he gets to a formal job title, but his actual role will likely be even larger in his wife’s administration than her role was in his, which was already historically considerable.
I’m more interested in NBC having solemnly, publicly cut all ties with Trump, including firing him from “The Apprentice”, over his race-baiting - but that didn’t last long, did it?
I expect no formal role for Bill in the Hillary administration. He’ll have her ear, the influence will be great, but she’s not going to open up the can of worms by making an actual appointment.
You still haven’t mentioned any evidence. Just because Hillary Clinton showed a high level of engagement with the office, that doesn’t mean Bill Clinton has similar plans. It doesn’t mean that he doesn’t, either, but you haven’t demonstrated your assertion either way.
What, specifically, it is about Bill Clinton’s presidency that suggests he is interested in a large role in his wife’s administration? Furthermore, what is it about her behavior that suggests she is interested in letting him? She will be in charge, and while she might welcome the advice and the diplomatic benefits, it’s not like she needs his help.
Yes, I was alive and conscious. I’m just not convinced by an assertion that boils down to “because I said so!”
So: I think your prediction is wrong. I think he will keep a low public profile except on those specific occasions where his stature is a political asset, primarily international diplomacy. I am basing that partly on his age (not old, but not where he was 20 years ago, either), but primarily on her own ambition. As the first female president, she will be aware of the sexism that assumes she is somehow inferior or subservient to her husband. She will allow nothing that suggests to contemporaries or to posterity that she needed Bill Clinton for any aspect of the job.
This sounds right to me. I think for any woman who becomes the first female president in the US wouldn’t want her husband to have too big of a role, because of the sexism she would face, but especially for Hillary Clinton, with Bill already having been president. I would think that he’ll do various charity related things, or go to events where he needs to be charming, but not too much actual policy related things.
