LAist: NBC's Jay Leno Seen Breaking the Law with the Governor?

Stephanie

Fri, 13 Oct 2006 12:12:57 -0800

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

KneeJerk

Fri, 13 Oct 2006 08:43:44 -0800

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?

tony

Fri, 13 Oct 2006 07:32:25 -0800

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.

Steve

Fri, 13 Oct 2006 05:24:21 -0800

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.

green la girl

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 21:43:13 -0800

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 --

Adam Rose

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 21:21:29 -0800

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.

darleene

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 16:21:00 -0800

Pshhhh. I thought they were funny.

m

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 14:05:56 -0800

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.

Marine

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 13:31:52 -0800

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

John Q. Public

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 12:40:27 -0800

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.

jim

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 11:15:38 -0800

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.

Moderation

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 11:13:24 -0800

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

Adam Rose

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 10:44:53 -0800

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.

Ted

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 09:55:42 -0800

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.

tony

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 09:50:28 -0800

more info on the Equal Time Rule here

tony

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 09:49:19 -0800

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.

nb

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 09:39:36 -0800

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.

Andy Candoo

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 08:42:44 -0800

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

KneeJerk

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 08:35:10 -0800

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.