The candidacy of Arnold Schwarzengger for Governor of California is demonstrating the absurdity of equal time provisions. These would really only apply to broadcast stations, especially those in California, but a number of cable outlets have decided to pull Schwarzenegger’s films until the end of the election as well (thankfully TNT seems to be showing nothing but Schwarzenegger films lately — they’ve shown Predator two or three times in the last week).
Like I said, I think equal time provisions are pointless and a violation of the First Amendment, but if they’re going to be there anyway, the requirement out to be that if a candidate wants equal time the broadcaster only has to provide it if the candidate can provide content comparable to what the broadcaster originally aired.
For example, suppose a local California station shows “Predator” and Gary Coleman wants equal time. Fine, but Coleman has to submit an 80 minute movie showing him kicking alien ass.
If Bill Simon has a fit because a network broadcast “True Lies,” that’s his right, but if he wants to respond he has to deliver his campaign message in the context of saving the country from nondescript terrorists trying to detontate a nuclear bomb while simultaneously making us believe he’d even have a shot with Jamie Lee Curtis.
Or suppose Gray Davis wants to get in on the act after an airing of “Total Recall.” So Davis would have to submit a drama full of plot holes featuring him constantly shifting identities (or, in this case, the judges would likely rule that tapes of Simon’s campaign speeches about the size of the California deficit from the last election would also meet this criteria).