While LAist hasn't really made up our mind yet who we're voting for in the Governor's race, it looks like Jay Leno has.
In an bizarre move, the Tonight Show invited Governor Schwarzenegger on the air yesterday as a guest on the show -- in the middle of a close race. But for some reason they didn't invite the Democratic candidate Phil Angelides, which has prompted Angelides' team to begin an online protest, demanding equal time.
Not only does LAist agree that the late night NBC talk show, based in LA, owes it to Mr. Angelides, but we believe that the other candidates running for the top seat also deserve just as much time as Arnold got. And in the same fashion: alone with Jay during the same part of the show. It's only fair.
Peter Camejo, who was nominated by the California Green Party, Art Olivier of the California Libertarian Party, Janice Jordan from the Peace and Freedom Party, and Edward Noonan from the American Independent Party, all deserve equal treatment by Jay and equal time.
Not only that, but since the following Californians filed a statement of intent with the Secretary of State to be allowed as write-in candidates, we believe that they should also get the exact same treatment as the Governator got: Mary Carey (Independent), George Fellows (Independent), James Harris (Socialist Workers), Eric "Moose" Mahoney (Independent), Aaron Proctor (Independent), Daniel Sage (Independent), Elisha Shapiro (Nihilist Party).
If the "Tonight Show" does not allow all of these official candidates on the show in exactly the same manner that the incumbent was allowed on the air, aired to all California voters on free broadcast network television, LAist believes that Jay Leno, "The Tonight Show", and NBC have a bias towards Mr. Schwarzenegger, and are willing to give him, and only him, valuable and free tv time on the most popular late night show on television.
We also believe that if they don't give all of these candidates the same air time and equal treatment that NBC is in violation of the law. Equal treatment should include announcing that each of these candidates will appear on the show the same way that NBC announced Arnold's appearance -- through tv spots that occured nationwide during other NBC shows.
If NBC tries to group each of these candidates together in some stupid comedy bit, and doesn't allow each of them to have just as much time as the Governor got -- with each of them sitting alone in the prime seat right next to Jay -- we will believe that NBC and Jay Leno have an agenda against those other candidates, and we will also believe that NBC and Jay Leno don't believe in the basic American standard that each candidate is just as important as the next, and all deserve to be treated with the same respect.
As it stands right now, it appears that Jay Leno and NBC only believe that the Republican candidate deserves to be seen on tv. We look forward to seeing this corrected.
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Wrong.
The law states that if the show is not a political forum and is presenting topics not of a political nature, the "equal time" measure does not apply.
Way to research.
Your web site is full of lies. If you think that Shwarzenegger and Angelides are in a close race, you must be smoking a lot of dope or you got your head burried in sand as usual.
Candoo
If you remember, Leno had Arnold on his show in the midst of the recall election in 2003, so there's a history of Jay providing a forum for Arnie.
KneeJerk,
care to show us the part of the FCC law that you're referring to? because if you remember, when Arnold first ran for Gov. stations weren't even allowed to show his fine films unless they were willing to give the other candidates equal time.
so it appears that your ideas about political shows, political forums or whatever it is that youre yammering about is incorrect.
more info on the Equal Time Rule here
How do you have the governer, running for re-election on and not talk at least somewhat about politics? It doesn't matter if the show is entertainment in nature, they obviously discussed something to do with politics.
Ah-nold is going to win in a landslide anyway. Jay should've just interviewerd Arnold after the eleection.
This race is anything but close. Check out the end of this story, and you'll notice Schwarzenegger has a commanding 17 point lead. Angelides is making attacks that smack of desparation. Short of a DGLB (dead girl or live boy) found in the Governator's trunk, it's a done deal.
That said, the story cites a loophole for "bona fide" news interviews. I watched last night and while they avoided talking about this election, I'm not sure that's the legal defense NBC should be using. They didn't discus anything very newsworthy, and they gave him two segments in the middle of a show that was otherwise all entertainment. That's not cool, because equal time is crucial to ensure fair elections. The government owns the public airwaves and merely grants networks the privilege of using them on a temporary basis, so an imbalance in coverage amounts to government intervention in campaigns.
Of course, equal time has been a thorn in media's side for decades (restriction isn't appreciated from the FCC, much less the FEC). When there are many candidates and some of them are difficult to take seriously, no talk show wants to take the time to sit down with everybody. It's ratings suicide, and doesn't necessarily provide for entertaining or enlightening programming.
Unless NBC is looking to build a test-case during a campaign that isn't very contested (it would be riskier for them to try one if it were a close race), this was a very sloppy call by NBC and Schwarzenegger.
Perhaps if you'd looked beyond the first result in google, you'd have found this explanation of why equal-time doesn't apply to shows like Leno's:
http://tinyurl.com/uxkth
howard stern's radio program was ruled a news interview show (and thus not subject to the equal-time provisions) over the exact same issue.
but yeah, if leno has angelides on, he should also have the minor-party candidates. they have about the same chance of winning. they'd probably even pick up some votes by being seen.
A trained Mexican chimpanzee interviews a brain-dead Austrian gorilla on late night TV.
Who cares?
I haven't watched the Tonight Show since Johnny Carson retired. No one I know watches it, either.
Even the Mexicans I know can't stand Jay Leno. He's about as funny as Montezuma's Revenge. He should go back to selling Doritos and stop stinking up the Tonight Show. Arnie should go back to pumping steroids and ugly skank whores.
California wildfires are the #1 source of "greenhouse-gas" emissions on the West Coast. If Arnie really wants to make a difference, he needs to get a chainsaw, cut down all those trees and send those spotted-owls straight to hell.
Mel Gibson speaks more coherently when he's drunk than Arnie can speak when he's sober.
Bananas to all you fruits and nuts on the Left Coast reading the LA-Commune-ist.
Signed,
John Q. Public, the real Voice of America.
John Q. Public
Can you possibly be any more idiotic? You do know that out of 16000 shows on TV in the US Leno ranks as the 361 most watched show right? You do know he was nominated for an Emmy in every year since 93 but 97 right? That's 13 years straight if you can't count. Also he won the Peoples Choice Award for 2006...For being the TOP Talk Show Host on TV.
You MUST be retarded
Signed,
A US Marine...I fight for those rights misguided fool
I love it when people say "who cares" because "i don't watch/do/see/eat it" as if they're speaking on behalf of the whole world. Because really, everyone does the same thing that you do.
Pshhhh. I thought they were funny.
Weak stuff, Johnny Q. I know LAist has a section for Leno bashing, but he is the top ranked late night show. And greenhouse gases are caused by cow farts and fossil fuel use. Seriously, look up the cow fart thing. No joke.
Granted, I never watch Leno -- I'm a Letterman girl. That said, I totally agree with Tony's assertion that equal time means equal time. Angelides should get equal time.
I think it's also important to point out that TAXPAYERS FOOTED THE BILL FOR ARNOLD'S VISIT TO LENO -- a fact that Arnold's peeps confirmed. If I'm forced to pay for idiot Arnold to show his face on Leno, then I have a right to demand that Phil get to show his face to. After all, it's my dollar --
Get a life. Stop Whinning. It's Jay's show, he can invite whomever he pleases.
Also, I imagine the ratings would plumet if it was turned into a "meet the boring candidate" forum. I know I'd not care less about these other-rans. And advertisiers would raise hell too.
youre right Steve, Jay can invite whomever he wants, and yes it would be a ratings loser to invite the rest of the candidates. which is why it was stupid of Jay to invite Arnold, because to stay legal he's going to have to invite the others.
however, how the hell would you know if the others were "boring"? i bet you didn't even know the names of the other candidates until i listed them. sure they dont have fascinating names like "Steve" nor do they belong to excitingas parties like the GOP, but one of them is a porn star and one of then is a Nihlist. i dont know what kickass people you hang out with, but something tells me that both the Nihlist and the porn star have enough stories to tell to fill the 10 minutes that the Tonight Show now owes them.
Glad to see you stick to your point, however wrong it is, Tony. Several people backed up with facts and citations above my comment before I had time to do so. They don't BY LAW have to invite Angelides. End of story. And if you think it's a close race, then you are equally delusional. Jesus dude, get a grip. If you are shown to be wrong, can't you at least admit it?
Everyone agrees that the one and only debate was boring and didn't address important issues such as why we are paying $8 billion a year for prisons. The candidates such as Peter Camejo represent those who are turned off by the corporate dummies whose strings are pulled by law enforcement labor unions. Advertisers of the Jay Leno show could be bombarded with phone calls and boycott if he participates in this block on information. Both Angelides and Schwarzenegger want to build five more prisons at a cost of $300 million each instead of focusing on education. Without the candidates for the people, the issues will never surface. Go to a barrio post office and register 20 people who aren't voting at all to get out the vote for Camejo. This is a way to protest him being excluded from the one and only debate. The media access bill to prisons was also vetoed by Schwarzen-Nazi. His dad was a Nazi cop, you can verify this at Wikipedia.com. Blocking public information is what Nazis did well