Fred Thompson

I have a question for anyone that wants to answer. If Fred Thompson gets into the Presidential race, will his opponents ask for equal air time? He has how many hours of screen time on Law & Order?

*update* The following was an answer from Bill Mick in email.

Great question...and yes, they are likely to ASK for equal time. I do not believe they will get it.

As far as radio goes, and I do believe TV's rules are the same, equal time means within the election period...for us that is: 45 days out of a primary election, 60 days from a general.

Not media's fault that the campaigns run much farther out than that.

Also, funny thing is that radio is REQUIRED to provide ad time at lowest rates for the period...there are some caveats, but in general, we get stuck losing money (we only have so much time in a day and unlike newspaper, we can not add minutes like they do pages) when a campaign is ongoing while newspapers have no such restriction. In the paper the candidates pay whatever the going INFLATED rate is.

I can interview a candidate that already holds office because he is a newsmaker and if we stick to news related issues, do not have to interview the opposition. If the candidacy is the topic, then equal time applies. Equal time really means equal opportunity. If a candidate has the same chance but declines, then too bad.

I issue one invitation and a date. Candidate can come on or not as he chooses. If they want to be elected in our area, they come on. If not, it is on them.

You may see USA or other networks reduce air play of Law and Order episodes that contain Thompson during the campaign period, but I doubt it. The candidate that starts screaming about that is simply directing attention at Thompson which is not wise politically.