this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2023
1167 points (96.6% liked)

politics

18863 readers
3899 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
  2. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  3. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  4. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive.
  5. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  6. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] PeleSpirit@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Edit: I just found out that that's not true for political broadcasts. https://www.fcc.gov/media/policy/statutes-and-rules-candidate-appearances-advertising

(a) The Commission may revoke any station license or construction permit –

(7) for willful or repeated failure to allow reasonable access to or to permit purchase of reasonable amounts of time for the use of a broadcasting station, other than a non-commercial educational broadcast station, by a legally qualified candidate for Federal elective office on behalf of his candidacy.

Huh, weird rules and what does "bona-fide" mean in this instance?:

Q: Does the FCC regulate the content of cable programming?

A: Cable television system operators generally make their own selection of channels and programs to be distributed to subscribers in response to consumer demands. The Commission does, however, have rules in some areas that are applicable to programming -- called "origination cablecasting" in the rules -- that are subject to the editorial control of the cable system operator. The rules generally do not apply to the content of broadcast channels or to access channels over which the cable system operator has no editorial control.

Q: What is the "equal opportunities" rule of political cablecasting?

A: Once a cable system allows a legally qualified candidate to use its facilities (by identifiable voice or picture), it must give "equal opportunities" to all other legally qualified candidates for that office to use its facilities. The cable system can not censor the content of the candidate's material in any way, and can not discriminate between candidates in practices, regulations, facilities or services rendered pursuant to the equal opportunities rules.

Candidates must submit requests for equal opportunities to the cable system within one week after a rival candidate's first use of the cable system. If the person was not a legally qualified candidate at the time of the rival's first use, he or she may submit a request within one week of the rival's next use of the cable system after he or she becomes a legally qualified candidate.

Q: Does a legally qualified candidate's appearance on a newscast trigger the equal opportunities rule?

A: No. Candidate appearances that are exempt from the rules include appearances on a bona fide newscast, bona fide news interview, bona fide news documentary, or on-the-spot coverage of a bona fide news event.

https://www.fcc.gov/media/program-content-regulations

[–] Overzeetop@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My guess is that there is no set standard in law. When you deny someone else “equal opportunity “ they can challenge the denial to the FCC and in court. Whoever loses the FCC appeal files a federal lawsuit. Then it would be based on case law for the definition of bona fide in similar cases and, barring that, similar usage of the term. You duke it out with $1000/hr lawyers in federal court for 2-3 rounds until the most recent loser appeals to the Supreme Court where they turn youdown or you argue if the FCC even has the power to compel such an “equal opportunity “ based on the law which allows the rule to be written.

At least that’s my layman’s understanding of the process.

[–] PeleSpirit@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Actually, I just looked it up from your guess because I wondered if it was stated. It seems to mean "authentic" under the law. Meaning, they can't make up news reports to report on trump or they have to give equal amounts to Biden. That's what it seems to say anyway. https://www.fcc.gov/media/policy/statutes-and-rules-candidate-appearances-advertising

[–] Overzeetop@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, but what’s “authentic”? If you make up a news story about a really really good campaign stop, is it just a bona fide news story or is it an advertisement? News about his history of financial or humanitarian success?

The devil, as always…

[–] PeleSpirit@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

True, it will probably end up with the results you mentioned, but it does seem to have some teeth in law. I'm sure there's precedence that they're citing but it's probably too expensive and who wants to go onto fox, oan or rt anyway.