Obviously, NBC does have censorship and editing control over the material in "Law and Order." As such, this appears to exempt this kind of a program from Equal Time. This sounds to me that if NBC stops showing these episodes, they are committing censorship. How much free time has been given to Democrat candidates through interviews and Town Hall meetings by NBC and their affiliates?

Their own statement demonstrates their overt contempt for anything conservative or Republican. First off, their argument for not showing Fred is lame. Secondly, they basically say, using their own argument, that if they show Fred, they will then have to give all the other Republican candidates equal time, which they obviously do not want to do. By my interpretation of "fairness", Republicans should be given the same amount of free air time as the Democrats have been given. Forget about individual candidates from one party or the other. The focus should be on giving each party equal time first. Then worry about individual candidate fairness.

The Closed Mind Erects Strong Barriers

I predicted this to all my friends about 6 weeks ago. The only thing I was wrong about was that I predicted that they would do it right after he announced his candidacy.

I wonder if all the networks are going to cancel their scheduled rerun of the movie Pinochio because of Hillary's candidacy.

The MSM is so afraid of Fred Thompson that it's making me giddy.  It's getting to be like Ann Coulter.  All you have to do is mention his name, or show a picture of him, and they all quiver.  Kinda reminds me of Sienfeld, when Jerry starts going walletless...

George - "It's not right.  Important things go in a case.  You've got a skull for your brain, a sleeve for your comb, and a wallet, for your money."

Jerry - "You know the very fact that you oppose this makes me think that I'm onto something."

Everytime something happens that genuinely upsets the MSM, it needs to be repeated.  They're unraveling before our very eyes.

Oh for Pete's sake, he's in the show maybe 1.5 minutes total during a typical episode. 

Since government is coercion, politics is largely the exercise of deception regarding the intended use of coercion - George Orwell

He's playing a character on a television show for goodness sake, not campaigning.  This is just a lame attempt to eliminate any type of exposure to Thompson.  As was mentioned, they had no problem with owl gore.  

"If a man does his best, what else is there"?

General George S. Patton Jr.

Let them delete all references to Fred that they want, it won't help.

Run Fred run! 

The liberal MSM has become an enemy of the USA.

UPDATE - NBC executives, in an apparent concession to Thompson fans, have decided all NBC political reporters that have donated to current Democrat(ic) Presidential nominees will be prohibited from covering the ongoing Presidential campaign.  Therefore, NBC will not be reporting on the Presidential campaign this cycle.

However, NBC reporters will be allowed as much air time as they request to offer their traditional opinions on the Presidential campaign solely as interested observers.  NBC executives stated their decision will have no negative impact on the campaign and the audience should not notice any difference from the reporting done by NBC in previous elections. 

It seems when The Governator was running out in CA, his movies were showing up on TV left and right.  Granted, I don't know that they were on NBC, but I also don't know that they weren't shown on one of their affiliated cable stations.

Where was the concern there over "equal time?"  Heck, even now you can find at least one of his movies on somewhere practically every week!

The double standards are beyond tiresome.

Believer

Who watches anyway? Like Ford Motor and Hollowood, they simply have too muchh money to give  a wit.

For this statute to apply, and thereby prevent NBC from airing episodes without giving equal time to other candidates, wouldn’t the statute have to be applied retroactively in a sense - meaning it has to be applied to video of someone recorded long before he legally became a candidate for public office?  One would think logic would require that the "use" of broadcast station as contemplated by the statute requires the nature of the use to be contemporaneous with the person's legal status as a candidate.  

Nevertheless, how come this was never an issue when he was a senator? 

I seem to remember reading a rather lengthy article in a legal publication examining this very same sort of issue. They examined it with a comparison of what occurred when Reagan ran for President and all the cable stations stopped airing any movie with Reagan in it fearing FCC reprisals. Same with broadcast stations. The conclusions they reached included 1) the regulation as stated back then was questionable at best regarding movie roles as opposed to politically-related appearances and 2) the post-Reagan FCC regulations definitely does not apply to anyone appearing clearly as an actor in any movie or TV show.

Applying the conclusions reached by the attorneys who wrote this article, Thompson's appearances in "Law & Order" are exempt from the "Equal time" rule (which is greatly watered down from what it used to be) due to the fact that his air time was clearly nonpolitical and for entertainment purposes only. So for NBC to invoke this as their reason for removing "Law & Order" episodes featuring Fred Thompson if he chooses to run for President is disingenuous at best.

1. NBC doesn't own L&O.  The only shows they would show with Thompson either have aired already or have already been shown, right?  He is not in the new season, Sam Waterson is the DA.

2. What does this say for TNT & USA networks, which run L&O/CI/SVU ad nauseam all day every day.  Granted, NBC/Universal owns the USA network, I think.

3. Is that why the Democrat candidates get their time in during 'news' hours?  To get around any equal time mandates?

 4. This much I know:  Thompson benefits whether he is shown or not.  His absence/censorship probably speaks more loudly.

-gordy.

... to that horrible Gina Davis president swill. Gee I wonder who they were trying to model her character after?

"All generalizations are false, including this one.” Mark Twain

I smell fear.

Sam Waterson recently announced that he has started (and heads up) an official campaign to find a third party candidate to run for President.

Presumably, he too would fall foul of the same "law."

You've seen the spoof. Now see the spoof of the spoof on YouTube: The Clintpranos: Bada Bong

Regardless if this is legal or not, I see the update and have heard the same conclusion on television somewhere...

NBC would find some reason to exclude anyone like Thompson...after-all he is a big bad conservative with an 'R' after his name...and the msm and all leftists are afraid of him...

Ya' gotta' love it....

I do!