that's an interesting line of inquiry we have seen, pushed by mediamatters, a left-wing watchdog who have raised concerns about fundraising, pac's maintained by fox contributors like newt gingrich or sarah palin who have contracts with fox to provide commentary, but who are active still in politics, raising money. the most cynical of us might say to position themselves for their own races. there's really nothing in federal election or communications law that would prohibit this. also, a lot of people like to assert more airtime for one side than the other, but rules that would prohibit that, ostensibly, this equal time doctrine, only apply to broadcast television, not cable, the idea being the public owns the public airwaves that the networks borrow, and therefore they are prohibited from backing a particular candidate. we saw this with fred thompson's run in 2008. folks said he was on "law and order" so nbc should be prohibited from running reruns or live shows. there were concerns raised that nbnc should not air reruns of "law and order" because that would violate the equal time do

that's an interesting line of inquiry we have seen, pushed by mediamatters, a left-wing watchdog who have raised concerns about fundraising, pac's maintained by fox contributors like newt gingrich or sarah palin who have contracts with fox to provide commentary, but who are active still in politics, raising money. the most cynical of us might say to position themselves for their own races. there's really nothing in federal election or communications law that would prohibit this. also, a lot of people like to assert more airtime for one side than the other, but rules that would prohibit that, ostensibly, this equal time doctrine, only apply to broadcast television, not cable, the idea being the public owns the public airwaves that the networks borrow, and therefore they are prohibited from backing a particular candidate. we saw this with fred thompson's run in 2008. folks said he was on "law and order" so nbc should be prohibited from running reruns or live shows. there were concerns raised that nbnc should not air reruns of "law and order" because that would violate the equal time do