Trump Campaign Demands 'Equal Airtime' in Response to Biden Oval Office Address

Leah Barkoukis | July 25, 2024 12:15 PM

The Trump campaign is demanding equal airtime in response to President Biden’s primetime address from the Oval Office on Wednesday.

Prior to the speech, the Trump campaign’s general counsel, David Warrington, argued in a letter to ABC, NBC, and CBS that the speech would likely touch on the president’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris, making the speech “a prime-time campaign commercial,” rather than “a bona fide news event.”

Citing the Federal Communications Commission’s “equal time” rule, Mr. Warrington insisted that Mr. Trump be given similar time on air, arguing that Mr. Biden’s address was a “campaign speech,” even as Mr. Biden is no longer technically a candidate for the presidency.
None of the broadcast networks responded to a request for comment on Tuesday night. A Trump campaign spokesman did not immediately respond to request for comment.
The Trump campaign’s letter was a throwback to an earlier, pre-cable era in television, when the broadcast networks were held to strict “public interest” standards to ensure that their local stations aired all sides of the issues and gave candidates equal access to the airwaves.
Until the 1970s, they were duty bound to give candidates who were challenging sitting presidents equal time to respond to televised presidential addresses and news conferences.
That changed under President Gerald Ford in 1975, when the F.C.C. — then packed with Nixon appointees — created an exemption for “bona fide news events” like presidential speeches and news conferences, which Democrats viewed as a way to give Ford undue advantage.
Whatever the case, the exemption has remained, and the equal-time rules now generally come up in relation to appearances by federal candidates in entertainment programming. (The New York Times)